Joining Enfusion in 2020, Matt Campobasso was the third attorney to join the growing company’s legal department. Since that time, Matt, who assumed the role of general counsel and corporate secretary in November 2022, and his team have evolved the legal function from one that was overwhelmingly reactive to one that approaches risk in a proactive and “upstream” manner in order to prevent problems before they arise. Along the way, Matt has helped Enfusion transition from a private company to one that was listed on the New York Stock Exchange through its October 2021 IPO. Matt’s values and guidance drive the legal team’s work, urging them to “be brief, brilliant, and indispensable”.

Enfusion’s legal is committed to finding solutions and not saying no unless there is no other way. The team strives to build solid relationships with every part of the organization. As Matt points out, “Knowing the law is not enough, Enfusion’s lawyers must know our company, our products, and our market.” For companies with a profile like Enfusion’s, which do not have a legal department with unlimited resources, Matt’s focus is “keeping the trains running on time, but also finding the time to look forward and lay the train tracks that will allow the business to scale and grow efficiently and, in a risk-aware manner”.

GC Magazine: How do you anticipate your role as general counsel evolving to meet Enfusion’s growing demands? 

Matt Campobasso (MC): As Enfusion continues to grow, my role as general counsel focuses increasingly on scalability and strategic risk management. I am a member of Enfusion’s executive committee, risk management committee, and co-chair of its global operating committee. In those capacities, I benefit from front line visibility into all key aspects of our business, which helps me and my team to remain proactive in managing legal risk and planning for future resourcing and initiatives. We are a lean team relative to Enfusion’s overall size, but I am proud of the way that we employ concepts like range (not overspecializing, but rather bringing a broad perspective and interdisciplinary approach to our day to day) and upstream thinking (being proactive rather than reactive to emphasize preventing problems rather than cleaning up after them).

GC Magazine: Legal departments are viewed differently by different companies. Can you share how you maintain value in Enfusion’s legal department and control legal costs?

Matt Campobasso (MC): We maintain value in our legal department by aligning our objectives closely with the overall goals of the company. This includes employing a proactive legal strategy of thinking upstream, which anticipates potential legal issues and business risks before they arise. We control costs through a mix of in-house capabilities and strategic outsourcing, ensuring that we use external counsel judiciously and focus on building expertise in areas most critical to our business. Additionally, we invest in training and technology to streamline operations and enhance the efficiency of our legal processes. When you are supporting a business like Enfusion with operations in various counties and with more than 1,000 employees, efficiency is as important as effectiveness.

GC Magazine: Do you have a method to building a legal team with the right skills to support the business?

Matt Campobasso (MC): Building the right legal team starts with understanding the core needs of the business and the specific challenges we face in the fintech industry. I focus on recruiting diverse talent with a mix of traditional legal skills and sector-specific knowledge, but the one thing that I emphasize more than anything else when we hire, is a growth mindset. There are a lot of smart lawyers out there in the world and I have been fortunate to bring many of them to Enfusion to build out our team. But intelligence is only half the battle – you need people on your team that prioritize extreme ownership and a desire to drive every situation to the best outcome even if that means going outside your job description. You cannot teach that and that does not show up on a resume. We also emphasize continuous learning and development, encouraging our team to stay current with industry trends and legal technology. This approach ensures our team is not only proficient in the law, but that it is also equipped to handle the unique challenges of a rapidly evolving fintech landscape.

GC Magazine:Are there any philosophies or ideas which underpin your ‘lawyering’ style?

Matt Campobasso (MC): One of my core philosophies is the belief in proactive, rather than reactive, legal guidance. I also believe in the power of clear communication and collaboration, ensuring that legal advice is accessible and actionable for non-legal colleagues, thus fostering a culture of compliance and informed decision-making across the company.

I look at my legal experience as a differentiating characteristic rather than a defining one. I am a businessperson first and a lawyer second. Don’t get me wrong, I am a lawyer and I know what I am here to do on behalf of Enfusion and its shareholders, but the primary lens that I view every situation through is to ask, “how can I help us accomplish our business and strategic objectives?” That allows me to search for the right path forward rather than to list the reasons we cannot or should not do something. Another of our guiding principles is for each member of the team to “be someone who finds solutions; not someone who says ‘no’.”

GC Magazine: What are some of your proudest recent achievements as a legal team?

Matt Campobasso (MC): I have been with Enfusion since September 2020, and I could write a book on the things that the legal team has accomplished during that time. As I look back to the start of my time, I am most proud of the evolution of our legal function during the last three plus years. When I joined Enfusion, we were a private company, and I was the third lawyer to join the company. Today, we are publicly traded, and I lead a team of nine lawyers. In 2020, the team was very reactive (as a byproduct of where the company was in its growth journey) and focused on putting out fires. In 2024, we are more proactive than ever and hyper focused on fire prevention.

Another thing that I am very proud of the team for is the way that we leave every situation we are brought into better than we found it. Sometimes that is from a legal perspective, but often, it is more than that and the situation is better from a legal and business perspective due to the commitment and degree of ownership that my team brings. To say that I am proud of each member of my team is an understatement. I learn from my team every day and leading this team has been the honor of my career.

GC Magazine: Which current trends are you anticipating will impact general counsels and their teams in the fintech space?

Matt Campobasso (MC): As the general counsel of a publicly traded international company, the only constant in my days seems to be change. The changing of the law. The changing of the global economy. The changing of our industry and what our clients need from us in order to be successful. And the changing of what our business needs and expects from us.

The trends that I spend a lot of my time thinking about include data privacy and security; emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning; anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) compliance; and safeguarding intellectual property. The world is changing rapidly, and businesses have to adapt or die. It is the job of my team and I to ensure that when Enfusion rapidly adapts, it does so in a way that protects the business, our clients, and our shareholders. When you stand out in front of our business as I am required to do as General Counsel, you have no choice but to keep your eyes on the horizon and to see around corners.

Editorial:
Melissa Yebisi, Editor GC Portfolio (USA)