Priori talks to Nellina Alarcón of Anchorage Digital about her experience with Marketplace
Nellina Alarcón is a Legal Operations Manager for Anchorage Digital, a global digital asset platform for institutions with the first federally chartered digital asset bank. Among the myriad responsibilities she has in her role is managing the many legal projects that Anchorage Digital is working on at any given time. As part of a lean team led by Anchorage Digital General Counsel Georgia Quinn, Alarcón needs an efficient way to find and manage attorneys for times when Anchorage Digital’s in-house team needs extra help.
To fill those gaps, Alarcón, Quinn and the team at Anchorage Digital use Priori Marketplace. We talked to Alarcón about how she uses our legal marketplace, her experience with attorneys on the network, how Marketplace helped Anchorage Digital fill a role after a team member went on parental leave and much more.
Priori: What is your main use case for Priori Marketplace?
Nellina Alarcón: We use Priori Marketplace for general bandwidth or staffing projects. When we realize that we're going to need extra help during a specific time period or a team member will be out on leave for a specific reason, that usually prompts us to begin our search or proposal on the Priori platform. We aim to be proactive with our resourcing needs. We usually try to allot a specific amount of time to fill a role and be prepared so that we're not running something at the last second, however we do have cases where we have to do something very quickly and, thankfully, Priori is successful in helping us get that help.
Priori: What are the benefits you’ve experienced from using our legal marketplace?
Alarcón: I think the biggest benefit for me is efficiency—the time saved. After beginning the request, getting that ball rolling and saying, ‘We have limited bandwidth and need some help here,’ we then immediately go into the Priori platform and create a proposal to request a lawyer. From there, we get a list of possible lawyers that we can connect with and the whole process is very quick. It's much nicer than having to do it the old fashioned way where you're engaging a recruiter and then doing interviews. I find Priori to be really fast.
For example, there was one attorney we engaged and she had to come on very quickly because our team member had to go on early parental leave. We managed to get someone to join the team quickly through the platform. The attorney was very open to starting sooner than we thought and the entire process played out within a week. It was maybe less than a week from getting the engagement letter to the attorney and then having her on board. I feel like that saved us so much time and rescued us after our team member left earlier than anticipated. It was extremely helpful.
Priori: How has your experience been with attorneys on the platform?
Alarcón: Our experience has been very positive. The caliber of options that we’re receiving are very high quality. I usually find it’s not difficult to engage and build a relationship with Priori attorneys. We also like Priori’s billing process because you make it very easy.
Priori: What do you like about using the Priori platform?
Alarcón: From my perspective, one of the reasons I like the platform is the self-serve aspect. Being able to go in and maneuver through the platform is something I feel comfortable with. In the beginning, we were communicating with a Priori team member and they helped us submit a proposal. After the second RFP, we’ve done the rest of our proposals ourselves. I also like that we can alert the Priori team that we're going to be requesting a proposal because it provides visibility from the team.
The self-serve aspect is probably my favorite because I know it's a task I can cross off without having to wait for a call back or wonder, “When are they going to email me back?” I can get that ball rolling myself, put in the information and start that search immediately. I really like that part of the platform.
It’s also nice to be able to narrow down what you want or if you're looking for a specific type of experience, especially in the crypto space.
Priori: How does Priori Marketplace fit into your usual workflow?
Alarcón: The platform fits well into our workflow because we can review resumes, communicate and manage invoices within the platform. Everything is very easy to navigate and extremely intuitive. I really like that there's an archive of the project history on the platform. If I need to view invoices, check on a project or something else, everything is accessible online. Even though we are connected to a billing platform, it does help to have the ability to view it directly in Priori.
I also really like the fact that—because of the way our team is broken up by subject matter experts—I’m able to add specific team members for any given proposal. As opposed to only one person being able to be added to the project or only being able to add our general counsel, I can add the people who need to be involved. For example, when I was looking for a lending attorney for a project, I could add our internal lending attorney to the project for visibility and they only have access to the projects they are invited to. This is a unique and useful feature because they can explore the options themselves in the platform and I do not need to download and send them the PDFs and the resumes, etc.
Learn more about how Anchorage Digital uses Priori Marketplace for flexible resourcing and niche expertise in our case study with Anchorage Digital GC Georgia Quinn. To see how Priori can help your legal department achieve your goals, start a free RFP today.
About Anchorage Digital
Anchorage Digital is a regulated crypto platform that provides institutions with integrated financial services and infrastructure solutions. With the first federally chartered crypto bank in the US, Anchorage Digital offers institutions an unparalleled combination of secure custody, regulatory compliance, product breadth, and client service. Founded in 2017, Anchorage Digital is valued at over $3 billion with funding from leading institutions including Andreessen Horowitz, GIC—Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, Goldman Sachs, KKR, and Visa. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Anchorage Digital is remote-friendly with offices in New York, New York; Porto, Portugal; Singapore; and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Learn more at anchorage.com, on Twitter @Anchorage, and on LinkedIn.
