Caroline “Carrie” Gilroy is a Senior Counsel with Paragon Legal, a premier legal services firm providing interim in-house counsel to businesses with growing legal teams as well as Fortune 500 corporate legal departments. Prior to joining Paragon, Carrie was the Senior Associate General Counsel/Head Counsel, Global at Franchise World Headquarters, LLC (Subway); General Counsel – Chief Legal Officer at Edible Arrangements International, LLC; and General Counsel – Chief Legal Officer at AAA Southern New England.
Carrie, a valued member of the Paragon team since 2021, has earned praise from clients for her ability to quickly add value and for her collaborative approach.
In the latest Paragon Attorney Spotlight, Carrie discusses her personal growth opportunities, what it’s like to work at Paragon, and tips for making the first day of a Paragon engagement go smoothly.
Q: What do you wish more people understood about being a Paragon attorney?
Paragon offers its attorneys the opportunity to do both meaningful and challenging legal work at market compensation, benefit levels, and work-life balance. Paragon negotiates with the client the number of hours the attorney will guarantee weekly availability. Attorneys want this because it provides them certainty that there will be time for outside activities and uninterrupted family time.
My Paragon engagements have been personal growth opportunities with cutting-edge legal work within sophisticated legal departments at two premier West Coast companies.
Paragon genuinely cares about each attorney’s work satisfaction, development, and well-being/work-life balance. In addition to regular check-ins and surveys by the Paragon corporate team, Paragon provides CLE subscriptions and other CLE opportunities, bar dues reimbursement, PTO and sick leave, 401k, and other benefits.
Q: What qualities do you think it takes to succeed in the Paragon work model?
Many Paragon attorneys have significant in-house law department management experience and large law firm training, so they typically have broad experience and expertise to seamlessly provide coverage to Paragon clients for a project or leave or to become an embedded lawyer on a long-term assignment.
My skill sets from prior general counsel and in-house experience for several regulated companies and from private law firm practice as a transaction and regulatory compliance lawyer has enabled me to quickly and successfully become embedded in the legal departments for businesses that were new to me: the plant-based food industry (two short-term assignments) and the AR/VR contract manufacturing operations of a technology company (my current long-term assignment).
So, at least for me, significant in-house management experience and broad expertise are at least two requirements for success
Q: You are perpetually arriving as the new kid in school. Any tips for making the first days go smoothly?
At the start of the engagement, set up brief meetings with the legal professionals and clients you will work with to learn how you can best support them. Become familiar with the client’s contract and other systems you will need to use, as well as the processes you will need to follow. Identify the areas/issues on which other legal department or business team SMEs that will need to be consulted. Review sample templates and become familiar with the typically negotiated and/or negotiable issues. Set your calendar to the client’s time zone and be available during that time zone. Also, IT onboarding typically takes longer than anticipated, so get set up as early as possible so you will be ready for work.
Q: How has the interim attorney model grown or expanded since you’ve started working at Paragon?
I started my first Paragon engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic when many legal professionals worked from home. Before the pandemic, remote work was not the norm, and, as a result, companies generally were not comfortable with it. And before this time of remote work, long-term work opportunities with West Coast-based companies would only be realistic for me if I relocated. During the pandemic, companies became more comfortable with remote work arrangements, and there are many success stories.
My current long-term assignment is remote. Even though the company now has a hybrid work policy, I have remained fully remote. Remote and hybrid work models are here to stay.
The remote interim attorney model continues to enable clients of firms like Paragon to leverage cost-effective expertise and experience regardless of attorney location, and without relocation expense.
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