Interview with Tanisha James

Most people from Cooley probably remember me as a deal lawyer in the M&A and antitrust groups. I started in the DC office, then moved to New York before I made partner. I left in 2022 after about five years as a partner, because I’d always wanted to go more directly into business; I just wasn’t totally sure what that would look like.

Today, I wear a few hats, but my two primary roles are at The Players Company, where I’m in the process of transitioning from general counsel to chief operating officer and chief legal officer (I also created and run our nonprofit foundation, Impact by The Players Company), and at an AI company I co-founded and recently launched called Ai Universal, where I’m also the COO and CLO. In a lot of ways, my “superpower” is combining a strategic operator brain with my legal background, and I’m grateful that my roles are converging around that.

The Players Company is a sports tech platform at the intersection of sports technology, community, finance, access to investments and financial education. It’s an athlete-founded company started by Richard Sherman and Sheldon Day when they were on the San Francisco 49ers together. A big focus for me recently has been bolstering our media and entertainment arm, so we’ve signed a key partnership with a media company to grow our in-house content, as well as offering co-development and production opportunities. This is alongside the existing offerings we make available to our collective of current and former professional athletes, investors and founders. Another big focus has been launching and branding the charitable foundation arm of the company – Impact by The Players Company – which advances the community and impact-focused initiatives of The Players Company. Our goal is to not just write checks but also to open doors, enable possibilities and help to secure financial futures.

Ai Universal focuses on building AI-enabled tools, education and community so individuals and organizations can optimize organizational effectiveness and navigate their AI literacy journey at all levels, including at the corporate leadership level and in the social impact space. One of our marquee products in late-stage development is a grant bot engine that automates the process of discovering, writing, submitting and monitoring grants. We are perfecting the product now and plan to roll it out soon to nonprofits and fiscal sponsors. Stay tuned! We also offer micro-certifications and facilitate corporate AI training and transformation focused on helping leaders think through how their leadership skills and commitment to AI literacy are critical to successfully driving and executing organizational AI implementation and adoption.

Cooley played a huge role. From a young age, I always wanted to be in business, and as I became a business attorney doing transactional work, I still envisioned my future as being an executive – it was just a question of whether I had the skillset. Being a CEO or COO was honestly my dream job growing up, and I always saw being a lawyer as a pathway to get there.

Once I started practicing corporate and business law, it clicked for me that I didn’t need an MBA – I could learn business by doing the work. I’d characterize Cooley as a key part of my personal MBA bootcamp because law school doesn’t teach the business fundamentals or management pieces. At Cooley, I was simultaneously learning my craft as a lawyer and learning business – working on 10, 15, 20 deals at a time across industries, and getting a front row seat to how companies are built and scaled. Cooley’s model of supporting companies at every stage of their growth journey let me see what works operationally, what kinds of cultures and organizational setups succeed, and what type of leader you need to be to effectively shepherd a commercially successful organization, especially in tech.

The other huge unlock was management opportunities. Even as a junior partner, I sat on a number of firm committees early on, and those experiences helped me exercise the “management muscle” and understand the organizational challenges that company leaders have to navigate. I also had mentors who invested in me. Cooley’s CEO at the time, Joe Conroy, was an early mentor, and other partners like Ryan Naftulin and Cooley’s current CEO Rachel Proffitt – as well as so many people across offices – took an interest in my career. I participated in the management development program pilot, and that experience really showed me that I had the skills to be in management. Since then, I’ve “scope creeped” my way from general counsel into COO/CEO roles in different companies. That foundation started at Cooley.

There are a few. At Cooley, I’m proud of the historic nature of making partner, especially being one of the few Black women to make it through the ranks in Big Law. I’m also incredibly proud of leading the Black Attorney Affinity Group – particularly during the pandemic and in the aftermath of George Floyd – where I worked closely with leadership to strengthen support for the group and address the challenges that attorneys of color face. I took a data-driven approach to diversity initiatives and helped frame them as a business priority. I also had the opportunity to present to the board, pairing data with personal stories, to emphasize the human impact behind these discussions on career advancement.

Mentorship is another area of great pride. I’ve worked hard to be intentional about it throughout my career because having great mentors and sponsors played a huge role in how I’ve gotten to where I am. I care deeply about giving that knowledge back in ways that are honest, practical and accessible.

That’s also where my more personal, creative side comes in. Folks at Cooley knew me as multifaceted. I sing. I write. I mean, I even did a spoken word piece for my new partner introduction. I recently launched a blog on Substack called “The Sharper Edge.” People kept asking me, “When are you going to write a book?” Given everything else on my plate, I realized I could start by sharing my experiences in bite-sized pieces – stories from business, the mindset shifts behind big milestones (like making partner) and the “playbooks” I wish more people had. For me, that’s an accomplishment too, because it’s another way to mentor, to share and to open doors for other people beyond the four corners of a job description.

After I left Cooley, one of my portfolio companies encouraged me to start my own investment and advisory firm where I write checks and consult with primarily underrepresented founders as they build and scale. I’m hugely proud of that work as well.

Most recently, I was excited to be named to The LegalTech Fund Advisory Board, where I have a front-row seat to the landscape of legal tech tools and trends shaping the industry and help drive conversations about how to properly architect Big Law’s AI transformation, especially as it relates to how to become an “intelligent law firm” when you are a legacy organization. In those conversations and beyond, it of course helps to be co-founding and launching Ai Universal. Building in the AI space right now feels both timely, meaningful and helpful in that I can bring a unique perspective as an AI entrepreneur and a former law firm partner.

A lot of it comes back to being authentic and building a life and legacy I’m proud of – one that, hopefully, opens doors for other people. That shows up through mentoring and guiding people on their journeys, sharing information, and investing in and advising companies on how to operate better so everyone benefits. My mantra is “inspire and empower.”

I also think of my work as a form of service and, honestly, as wealth building. I’ve seen firsthand how money makes things happen, facilitates access and creates freedom in many forms. Being a deal lawyer gave me an education I didn’t have growing up – understanding how money moves and knowing how and why investments are made. I’m constantly asking myself, “How do I share that knowledge with people who are like me, who didn’t come from a financially abundant background, but who could benefit from knowing how to navigate those spaces, what to focus on and how best to build their own personal portfolio for generations to come?”

Don’t have tunnel vision. Yes, you’re there to learn your craft and hone your skill set, but I would not be where I am today if I didn’t pick my head up, get curious about context and learn things that had nothing to do with what I was focused on, yet everything to do with the kind of life and career I wanted in business.

I always knew my career interests extended beyond solely practicing law, so I treated my time as a different kind of education. I wasn’t just learning how to be a great lawyer, I was also learning business – how to understand financial documents, speak the language and operate like a businessperson. Be a sponge. Follow your interests, even when they don’t seem to align perfectly. The things that can feel like “bunny trails” in the moment often come back in incredibly useful ways later.

And finally, be excellent and give 100%. I don’t know how to do anything halfway – much to some folks’ chagrin. You’re either getting zero or 110% of my time and talent. That level of commitment has opened doors I didn’t even know existed, and it’s made career transitions feel much easier because opportunities come to me through reputation and because of how I show up. I think it’s really special that people are willing to authentically see me and can typically quickly figure out how I can best contribute to what they’re building or advance the impact they are hoping to have. It’s a great place to be, and Cooley helped shape that mindset and feedback loop.