Legal Operations Certified Professional (LOCP) credential establishes the first rigorous, independently validated standard of competency for the legal operations profession
SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- CLOC (Corporate Legal Operations Consortium), the leading global membership organization dedicated to transforming the business and practice of law, today announced the CLOC Legal Operations Certified Professional (LOCP) credential, the industry's first independently validated certification designed to measure the real-world judgment and analytical ability of experienced legal operations practitioners.
Founded in 2015 as the organization that built the legal operations profession and defined its foundational framework, the CLOC Core 12, CLOC is uniquely positioned to set the industry standard. Practitioners today enter legal operations from multiple disciplines, including finance, law, paralegal and administrative work, or project management. As legal organizations face unprecedented complexity and technological shifts, CLOC's industry certification gives general counsel, chief legal officers, and hiring managers a consistent way to benchmark that talent for the first time.
"Legal operations has grown into a critical, strategic function inside every legal department, but the profession has never had a credible, independent way to say what mastery of the multi-tiered discipline looks like," said Oyango Snell, President and CEO of CLOC. "CLOC built this profession, and members have repeatedly requested that we take the bold step to develop strong industry standards. This certification is a rigorous credential that gives our industry a real benchmark and experienced practitioners the recognition they've earned."
CLOC's LOCP credential is built around scenario-based assessment: Candidates must demonstrate the ability to issue-spot operational gaps, apply the CLOC Core 12 in practice, work within ethical and regulatory frameworks including the Model Rules of Professional Responsibility, and account for the impact of AI transformation across the legal department.
The credential is aimed at established professionals, typically those with three or more years of experience, who hold functional ownership and lead cross-functional strategy. The first cohort of legal operations professionals will complete the CLOC LOCP credential and be recognized at the CLOC Global Institute in May 2027 at the Aria in Las Vegas.
"This certification reflects the kind of disciplined, consistent governance our Board is committed to," said Laura Dieudonné, Chair of the CLOC Board of Directors and Legal Operations and Administration Director at Delta Air Lines, Inc. "It is being built with the same rigor and accountability we expect of the profession itself, and that's what gives it, and the practitioners who earn it, real staying power."
Over time, governance of the credential will transition to an independent Certification Board that operates autonomously from the CLOC Board of Directors, ensuring the certification remains non-biased and industry-recognized.
CLOC has engaged a certification and assessment consulting firm alongside a psychometric partner to guide a multi-phase job task analysis and validation survey, standard-setting, and item-development process designed to meet the standard set by established professional credentials and empirically grounded in what legal operations professionals do.
"A credential is only as strong as the evidence behind it," said Carl Morrison, CLOC Board Member and Advisory Committee Board Liaison for the certification initiative and Senior Manager, Legal Operations at Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. "That's why we paired CLOC's practitioner expertise with our partner's psychometric science, so the job task analysis, the peer review, and the statistical validation would hold up to real scrutiny."
CLOC has formed a Certification Advisory Committee of legal operations leaders and subject matter experts to define the initial minimum competency standards and guide exam content. The Committee includes:
- Carl Morrison, CLOC Board Member, Advisory Committee Board Liaison, and Senior Manager Legal Operations, Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc.
- Catherine Alman MacDonagh, J.D., CEO and Founder, Legal Lean Sigma Institute
- Nitin Batra, COO, Americas, Clifford Chance
- Thomas Pokladowski, Associate Manager of Legal Process, Progressive
- Wendy Rubas, Chief Legal & Compliance Officer, Innovaccer
- Jack Thompson, Senior Director Innovation & Enablement, Takeda
- Akshay Verma, Chief Operating Officer, Spotdraft
- Daniel Yi, Senior Research Associate, Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession, and former CLOC Board Member
Nicole Zafian, Vice President of Learning and Engagement, and Amy Thomsen, Ed.D., Director of Content and Curriculum, oversee the Committee's work on the staff side. "CPAs. PMPs. Six Sigma black belts. Nobody questions what those letters mean because the people behind them had to prove it," said Zafian. "That's the bar this credential is setting."
About CLOC
With more than 6,500 members internationally, CLOC (Corporate Legal Operations Consortium) is the leading global membership organization dedicated to transforming the business and practice of law. Established in 2015, CLOC provides a global platform for legal operations professionals to connect, share best practices, and drive innovation across the legal ecosystem. For more information, visit cloc.org.
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