Robert Ambrogi Blog
Dean Sonderegger is returning to the legal market in a new leadership role at Wolters Kluwer, the company announced today.
Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory has appointed Sonderegger as senior vice president and general manager of its ELM Solutions business, marking his return to the legal sector after a three-year stint leading other divisions within the company.
Sonderegger most recently served as head of Wolters Kluwer’s Financial & Regulatory Reporting (FRR) business, and as senior vice president and general manager of the Canada and Research & Learning businesses in the Tax and Accounting division.
His appointment comes nearly three years after he departed as head of Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. (LRUS) in early 2022 to take on those tax and accounting roles. At the time of that move, Sonderegger told me he was “anxious to get back to tax,” given his earlier career background in that sector.
Leading ELM Solutions
In his new role, Sonderegger will oversee ELM Solutions, which provides enterprise legal management tools for corporate legal operations departments and insurance claims departments. The division offers a comprehensive suite of tools designed to help clients increase operational efficiency, reduce costs, and gain deeper insights into their legal matters.
“I’m thrilled to join the talented team here at ELM Solutions,” Sonderegger said in a statement. “We’re in an exciting time in the corporate legal market, with AI and other innovative technologies continuing to drive rapid transformation, and we are uniquely positioned to help our clients drive greater efficiency, gain deeper insight into their legal matters, and deliver measurable impact to their organizations.”
Martin O’Malley, CEO of Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory, praised Sonderegger’s appointment: “Dean possesses a deep understanding of the legal market and a proven ability to drive customer-focused innovation through exceptional leadership. His vision and expertise will be instrumental as we continue to advance our capabilities in legal operations and enterprise legal management.”
Track Record in Legal Technology
Sonderegger brings more than 25 years of experience in the legal software, tax and services industries to the role. He originally joined Wolters Kluwer in 2015 as vice president, Legal Markets Group & Innovation, where he was responsible for driving the group’s vision and strategy, particularly in developing advanced digital products and services.
He was promoted to lead LRUS in May 2019, a position he held until early 2022. During his tenure leading the U.S. legal business, Sonderegger spearheaded the launch and evolution of several key products, including the Cheetah legal research platform (later rebranded as VitalLaw), IPO Vital Signs, M&A Deals, Next Generation Corporate Counsel Profiler, Bankruptcy Essentials, and Defined Benefit Compliance.
“One of the things I’ve tried to do very hard has been to get Wolters Kluwer in the conversation a lot more in the legal market — much more in the tech space, much more customer focused and customer centric, and really moving forward with some momentum,” Sonderegger told me when he departed his LRUS role in 2022.
Prior to joining Wolters Kluwer, Sonderegger spent nearly 13 years at Bloomberg BNA, where he led project management and marketing for a portfolio of software products primarily relating to tax, accounting and finance. Even earlier in his career, as an engineer, he wrote software for tax products.
The appointment positions Sonderegger to leverage his extensive legal market expertise as ELM Solutions continues to evolve its offerings in an era of rapid AI-driven transformation in corporate legal departments.