SPECIAL FOCUS:
IN-HOUSE COUNSEL A company’s in-house counsel typically reports to a senior leader, such as the chief legal officer, chief financial officer or directly to the owner or CEO. Their duties generally involve overseeing and identifying the legal issues for all departments as well as corporate governance and business policy. The responsibilities may also encompass crisis management, compliance reporting management and public policy advocacy. They are by definition involved with delicate and confidential matters, and as such are considered top-level trusted advisers in addition to their role as senior executives. Lawyers find themselves arriving at in-house counsel positions via a wide variety of avenues, and the individual job descriptions are as distinct as the individual companies they represent, but they all share a common reality: Being the in-house counsel for a company or corporation is a demanding position that requires a multitude of talents. Rick Roda, Madelyn Reilly, Mike Cetra, John McElroy and Lauren Wylie are living examples of how, to borrow from the poet Robert Frost, taking the road less traveled can make all the difference. We will periodically feature other in-house alumni in future issues.
Phil Rice, Contributing Writer
Rick Roda, L’01: A Foundation of Integrity In-house counsel helps make MSA a 2015 World’s Most Ethical Company In 2015, the ninth year of the Ethisphere Institute’s annual list of the World’s Most Ethical Companies, 132 honorees representing 21 countries, five continents and over 50 industries were named. Among those on the list is MSA Safety Incorporated (NYSE: MSA), a global manufacturing company based in Pittsburgh. A key figure in that organization is in-house counsel Rick Roda, L’01, whose full title is associate general counsel, assistant secretary and chief compliance officer. Although he would resist such an accolade, Roda played a leading role in his company’s making the Ethisphere Institute’s prestigious list. “Being recognized as a 2015 World’s Most Ethical Company is a great honor for the company, and more importantly, for the 4,500-plus MSA associates across the world who personify integrity in their work each day. It’s nice for MSA to be recognized,” Roda affirms. “But we are not driven by the award. We have the same goals and expectations as always.” Dedicated to defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices as demonstrated by corporate character, marketplace trust and business success, Ethisphere Magazine first entered circulation in November 2006. The following May, the first edition of the World’s Most Ethical Companies (WME) list was published. The standards used in the process for determining the WME list are designed to be an objective measurement of business protocol and stakeholder interaction. For the experts involved in the vetting process, integrity and transparency are the bottom line. The WME assessment is based on the Ethisphere Institute’s Ethics Quotient, which is a thoroughly researched framework for providing a means for objectively assessing an organization’s performance. The scores are generated in five key categories of core competencies: ethics and compliance program; corporate citizenship and responsibility; culture of ethics; governance and leadership; innovation and reputation. The WME designation recognizes companies that consistently put these ideals into action while exceeding legal compliance minimums and introducing best practices along the way. These are the companies who use ethical leadership as a profit driver, and these are the companies that successfully demonstrate the essence of Ethisphere’s credo, “Good. Smart. Business. Profit.” 12
THE DUQUESNE LAWYER
Not surprisingly, the criteria for the WME list matches up closely with the content of the MSA Global Code of Business Conduct, the company’s foundational policy governing its core value of integrity. The unifying bond for the WME list and the MSA code can be narrowed down to one primary focus: integrity, which is the company’s longstanding foundational value. In the words of MSA chairman, president and CEO William M. Lambert, “We run our business first and foremost with a clear understanding of integrity— doing what is right. It is critical to our relationships with our end-user customers, our business partners, our communities, our shareholders and each other that we act with nothing less than full integrity.” “The award signifies what we already know about ourselves,” Roda says. “We deal with lifesaving equipment, and consequently, our key stakeholders place a great deal of trust in us. Our customers have to trust that the company’s products will work as intended. Our shareholders place a great deal of trust in us when investing in MSA. And our 4,500-plus associates trust that the company will conduct its affairs in an honorable and ethical manner. Integrity is the foundation upon which that trust—and our reputation—are built.” After a slight pause for pondering, he adds, “We have been at it for 100 years, and that trust has not been earned easily. In fact, we are still building it every day.” MSA, the worldwide leader in worker protection and safety product innovation, was born in the wake of a horrific explosion that occurred at the Jed Mine in West Virginia on the morning of March 26, 1912. More than 80 miners were killed in the ghastly accident. The tragedy had a profound impact on mine engineer John T. Ryan Sr., who subsequently vowed, “If I could spend my life doing what I can to lessen the likelihood of the occurrence of such terrible disasters, I shall feel in the end that my life had been well spent.” Ryan and colleague George H. Deike joined forces to initiate Ryan’s vision for a new company dedicated to safety. With dependable, safe mining equipment as their starting point, they enlisted the help of master inventor and American icon Thomas Edison. The collaboration resulted in the electric cap lamp, an invention that reduced mine explosions by an extraordinary