Definely, an AI-powered legaltech company, has appointed John Connolly as its new Chief Product Officer (CPO), effective immediately, the company announced Monday.
Connolly joins Definely from Meta, where he served as Director of Product Management, leading the account integrity (Trust & Safety) team for Facebook, Instagram, and Advertiser accounts globally until March 2025, according to the company and web search results. He will support Definely’s executive team with product development and align the company’s product roadmap with its overall business strategy.
The appointment comes as competition intensifies among vendors offering AI-powered contract review tools, with both specialized firms and larger AI companies like Anthropic vying for market share, according to industry publication Artificial Lawyer. Despite increased competition, demand for AI tools in the legal sector is growing, creating a potentially expanding market.
Prior to Meta, Connolly held CPO positions at multiple venture capital and private equity-backed scale-ups, raising over $100 million in funding, and also served as VP of Strategy and Business Development at Expedia and CPO of SpringerNature, a global information services business.
“Definely is addressing one of the biggest challenges facing businesses today – the successful use of AI to deliver real business value,” Connolly said in a statement. “As the legal industry reaches a critical inflexion point, Definely is well-positioned to facilitate law firms and in-house teams as they face rising workloads and growing complexity. The primary challenge for AI isn’t just efficiency. it must also help to preserve human understanding and professional integrity, values at the core of Definely’s strategy.”
Bruce Elliott, who previously held the CPO role at Definely since 2020, has transitioned to the position of Principal Product Manager, Artificial Lawyer reported.
Nnamdi Emelifeonwu, Co-Founder & CEO of Definely, stated that Connolly’s experience in both large technology companies and high-growth scale-ups, combined with his technical depth and commercial strategy expertise, will be instrumental in driving the company’s international expansion and delivering innovative solutions to the legal sector.
