Lauren Hakala

Lauren Hakala currently serves as Senior Director of Global Learning & Development at Reed Smith LLP, where she oversees the firm’s learning and coaching programs for lawyers and business services professionals. She began her career as a transactional lawyer, practicing in New York and London with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, advising investment banks, private equity funds and their portfolio companies, and insurance companies. Since then, she has held senior knowledge and talent management roles at Practical Law Thomson Reuters, Paul, Weiss, White & Case, and Milbank LLP. In each of these roles, she has advised legal industry leaders as they navigated profound transformations to the legal practice and talent management landscape. Lauren is an International Coaching Federation accredited executive coach, with a particular interest in self-management, neurodiverse leaders, cross-cultural working and productivity. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, a lawyer originally from Helsinki, Finland, and her two sons.