Modern Counsel #22

McDonald's legal leaders elevate an industry-defining culture that embraces employees’ whole selves P58

For nearly 80 years, Ray Quinney & Nebeker has provided sophisticated and comprehensive legal services both nationally and across the Intermountain West. Our collective expertise and collaborative approach assure our capacity to grow with changing legal markets. We solve problems the right way – with expertise, responsiveness, and integrity. In the end, we not only solve our clients’ problems, we build relationships to help prevent problems in the future.

The Impact of Inclusion

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Guest editor Michelle Fang offers an insider’s perspective on D&I initiatives in corporate America

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Cass Davis (Invesco), Reecy Korrine Photography (Veeva)

Lead Evaluate

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For Craig Proctor, VP and associate general counsel of Altria, trial work is both his greatest strength and greatest passion

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April Snyder of RJ Lee Group recognizes adversity as an opportunity for strength, not a setback

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Nicole Brunson worked her way up to associate general counsel of litigation at Ingersoll Rand by betting on herself and her career

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Gerald Meyer uses his storytelling chops at MoloLamken to win cases while making sure clients’ stories are heard

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Nathan Brown of the Kroger Company tackled legal roles at major general retailers in the US, always focusing on the big picture and honing his knack for selecting the right outside counsel for the right job at the right price

the bar of established practices by delivering approachable innovation—and today he’s doing so as cofounder and president of SubroSmart

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With the right platform for customer engagement boosting the reputation of Merrill Corporation, Gretchen Dahlberg believes the future is limitless

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Monique Floyd Photography (Ingersoll Rand), Andrew Collings Photography (MoloLamken)

No one has ever compared me

to a duck, “calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath,” to quote actor Sir Michael Caine. Most days, a more accurate comparison for me would be to a pacing, toe-tapping, featherplucking cockatoo.

Over the years, I have often lived in a prison of my own making: agonizing, haunted by setbacks, terrified to fail, giving up rather than risk failing again. Battered by the Great Recession, internalizing societal messages that you can “have it all” if you “lean in” and “follow your bliss,” and blaming myself for continually coming up short, I had spent the bulk of my career certain that the only way to prove my worth was to keep my head down and be a devoted workhorse. I had consigned myself to a life of quiet resignation.

Something shifted when I became the managing editor of Modern Counsel . Day in and day out, I edit and absorb the stories and lessons learned of an astonishing variety of leaders. These stories have influenced and inspired me beyond measure. In this issue, I was particularly moved by the words of our guest editor, Michelle Fang of Turo. In her introduction to our Empowered feature section, which showcases twenty women leaders in law, Fang writes that “being empowered means having the freedom to make my professional opinions be taken seriously and my personal and professional needs known. That doesn’t mean I’ll always get my way, but I’ll be heard and given a fair shake.”

By that definition, I am empowered at Modern Counsel , where the members of the creative team have emboldened me with their invaluable guidance and support. They have played coach and cheerleader in one, listened to and advocated for me, taken a thoughtful and personalized approach to helping me fulfill my potential, and let me take the reins of a passion project: our quarterly editorial internship program. Working with college students Joseph Charney, Caroline Pejcinovic, and Brianna Wright has brought me joy and a sense of paying it forward. (As an undergraduate intern for the University of Chicago Magazine , I was mentioned in an editor’s letter. Full circle!)

My conviction has grown that I belong, that I should speak up when I have something to say, and that I am a capable individual contributor who can lead from my seat. I can accept feedback graciously, embrace a growth mind-set, and summon the strength to forge ahead. I strive to be “brave, not perfect,” to borrow author and entrepreneur Reshma Saujani’s rallying cry, and do everything in my power to empower others.

It isn’t easy, but it is worth fighting for.

Editor’s Letter

Hana Yoo Managing Editor

Implement

Celebrating legal leaders and their latest departmental and corporate efforts and achievements, including transactions, expansions, negotiations, inclusion initiatives, and more

Courage Drives Transformation

Associate GC Rod Smith of Anadarko explains how his willingness to speak out and be a contrarian has enabled a landmark piece of legislation in Mozambique

By Zayvelle Williamson

TO ROD SMITH, ASSOCIATE GENERAL counsel at Texas-based exploration and production company Anadarko Petroleum, simply knowing the law or the right answer isn’t enough to be a good in-house attorney. You also have to be willing to be courageous.

“[Courage is] one of the most important things needed for an in-house counsel role in corporate America, and something that’s often lacking,” Smith declares. “It takes a lot of courage to be a good in-house lawyer because there are so many times when

you have to stand up and question what everyone else in the room is saying. The in-house lawyer in the room is the only one with a fiduciary duty to the shareholders, so lawyers not only should say something; we have an ethical responsibility to say something.”

And since 2011, when Smith joined Anadarko Petroleum as one of its first experts with a liquid natural gas (LNG) background, he has striven to speak out, to say yes when others say no, and to do what others thought impossible. In fact, Smith believes that his willing-

ness to question the status quo has been central to his success as an international negotiator.

Most lawyers in the US are trained in common law, Smith explains, and because of that training, their perspectives are often more oriented to business outcomes when trying to overcome legal obstacles and challenges. For example, American business and law schools often teach students that when they are brainstorming a solution to a dispute between two parties, a win-win solution is always ideal. But for a company like Anadarko Petroleum, which manages projects in many countries and regions in civil law jurisdictions, win-win proposals often only cause further delay.

“If you’re doing business in China or Russia or some countries in the Middle East, you might find yourself in a deadlock if you try to solve a problem with a Western-style win-win solution,” Smith says. “The other side doesn’t necessarily think about concessions and wins in the same way you do, so you have to think outside the box.”

For Smith, however, courageousness doesn’t end at questioning the applicability of your training. It also means making courageous legal decisions. “‘No’ cannot be the end of the story,” Smith asserts. “You have to take the next step and ask yourself what you can do, the legal constraints or regulatory framework notwithstanding.”

And if there isn’t a solution available within the existing legal framework? “You get the law changed,” Smith says simply.

And that is exactly what Anadarko did in Mozambique. For the past eight years at Anadarko, Smith has been managing the legal challenges associated with an ambitious $20 billion LNG project based in a remote northern region of Mozambique. In 2013 and 2014, Smith says that he and his team expended significant time, money, and effort negotiating a law to underpin and support the scope of the investment that Anadarko and other oil companies plan to make.

Rod Smith Associate General Counsel Anadarko Petroleum

Diandra Chebul

But even from the beginning of this effort, Smith had to continually speak up against the dissent he kept hearing from people at his own company.

“Some of our management and even some members of my own team told me early on when we proposed this strategy that we’d never get that kind of project- or industry-specific legislation passed through Mozambique’s National Assembly, simply because no other law of this kind had been passed before,” Smith notes. “But after two years of intense negotiations, we got the law passed. And now, over the next ten to twenty years, you will see Mozambique enter the LNG space. It could eventually become the third-largest LNG producer in the world.”

While the LNG projects are of course a critical business opportunity for Anadarko Petroleum, Smith says that it is also a game changer for Mozambique. “The amount of natural gas offshore of Mozambique has

the potential to double the country’s GDP,” Smith says. “These projects are transformational for the country.”

Now, the Anadarko-led Mozambique LNG project is moving to the next phase—construction of the facilities to liquify and export the natural gas. But the legal and contractual framework underlying that construction is, according to Smith, one of the proudest accomplishments of his entire career. “It’s a landmark piece of legislation. It will give our shareholders a good return on their investment while unlocking unbelievable opportunities for Mozambique,” says Smith. “And that is a win-win I can get behind.”

King & Spalding LLP:

“Rod’s strategic thinking, business acumen, and legal experience globally truly made a difference in making key decisions for the successful development of the Moz LNG project. This is the largest greenfield LNG onshore project in Africa, and it is an honor to work with Rod on it.”

–Vera de Gyarfas, Partner

Diandra Chebul

Trusted to Operate

in the Gray

Adler Bernard of JPMorgan Chase has followed his interests to the forefront of technology, building a reputation as a trusted advisor to his clients as he navigates ambiguous legal landscapes

By Chip Hooper

YOU NEVER KNOW WHERE YOUR PATH

might le ad. Adler Bernard’s path to his current position as vice president and assistant general counsel at JPMorgan Chase has been a winding one, marked by an openness to new possibilities, a willingness to let his interests guide him, and a high level of comfort with ambiguity.

Growing up in Yonkers, New York, a New York City suburb, as the youngest of three sons, Bernard thought he would become a clinician like his parents, both Haitian immigrants.

But during his undergraduate years at NYU, he discovered a deep love for the music industry. Through an internship at Sony/ATV Music Publishing and his friends in the music scene, he learned that many music industry decision-makers had law degrees. He changed his trajectory from medicine to law and entered the George Washington University Law School.

In law school, Bernard focused on technology-related classes and internships. He later returned to Sony as a law clerk and worked for the Federal

Communications Commission as a legal intern. His path changed yet again, however, when he developed a passion for criminal justice.

After graduating from law school, Bernard pursued this newfound passion, pivoting away from the entertainment industry and toward litigation. He took a job at the New York County District Attorney’s Office and spent the early part of his career in the trial division, where he prosecuted misdemeanor and felony cases. After a few years, he joined the Special Pros-

ecutions Bureau, investigating whitecollar crimes and schemes to defraud the public. Subsequently, he became a defense attorney at Dornbush Schaeffer Strongin & Venaglia, where he represented individuals and corporations in government investigations as well as commercial and criminal litigations.

In 2014, Bernard was hired by JPMorgan Chase as an assistant general counsel and litigation attorney. True to form, at Chase, he has followed what interests him. “I had a desire to dabble in and learn as much as I can about Chase’s various technology initiatives,” he says.

This aspiration became more practically applicable as JPMorgan Chase implemented new technology and became something of a tech company in its own right, developing apps and programs for customers and bankers alike. When Bernard approached the bank’s big data and payments attorneys and offered to assist them with their matters from a litigation perspective, the company asked him to join the digital legal team as a regulatory advisory attorney.

“Definitely a change of pace,” Bernard says, but his background as a litigator made the transition into “uncharted territory” an easier one. His well-honed abilities to spot issues quickly, be flexible, and learn on the fly have helped. So has his experience

with navigating uncertainty and operating in a space where there is often no clear legal guidance because the law itself evolves alongside the technology. He posits, “Where can we take that technology to make customers’ lives easier? A lot of that is in the gray, and many attorneys are not comfortable lawyering in such an environment.”

Today, Bernard is involved in some of JPMorgan Chase’s most advanced, customer-facing tech efforts, including digital account opening, identity authentication, and digital wallets. He notes that many hours are spent behind the scenes making sure products meet all quality, legal, and safety expectations. For instance, recalling his

work on Chase Quick Deposit, Bernard states, “That wasn’t something that happened overnight. That took months and months of negotiations and work by the attorneys, our compliance partners, our risk partners, and our business partners in rolling something like that out. It has great utility for a number of customers, not just Chase customers.”

In a legal career that has spanned multiple specialties, one of Bernard’s key takeaways is the importance of knowing your client: who your client is, what their motivation is or what drives them, what they are working on, and where they are going. He makes a point to meet clients in person, visiting their establishments and sitting down with them. “You’ve got to be

Adler Bernard VP and Assistant General Counsel JPMorgan Chase

Passionate about Pro Bono JPMorgan Chase encourages its attorneys to make themselves available for pro bono work. Adler Bernard has leveraged his expertise outside the office to lead a financial literacy training session at a local middle school, participate in an immigration clinic, and assist veterans with benefits applications. “It’s very rewarding,” he says. Of the financial literacy workshop, he remarks that dealing with eighth graders is not a typical task for him, “but just at the end of the day to have one of the kids tell me, ‘Yeah, that was really informative, I learned a lot today,’ that made a big difference.”

LEG UP.

When faced with the complex, multi-jurisdictional legal challenges that can arise today, it’s helpful to know you have an edge. Clients who work with a law firm of our scale can tap into extensive global resources and connections – not to mention lawyers in more than 40 countries who practice in hundreds of areas of local and international business law.

a trusted advisor,” he says, “and to be a trusted advisor, you need to understand your client at a deeper level. This understanding will help determine the best way to communicate with your client and ultimately how to earn their trust.”

He adds, “You have to think beyond the words on the page. If you are somebody who’s historically worked by seeing the final product and then lawyering on that, it’s difficult to work in an agile product development environment,” which is standard in the technology sector. Projects iterate, requiring a great deal of legal work in various states of production with multiple stakeholders.

Each new project may present a complex set of novel legal challenges, but Bernard has the confidence and tools to navigate unknown terrains. “Ambiguity is a really constant thing in this space,” he says. “Sometimes, you’re operating at the cutting edge,” dealing with novel technology initiatives, “a patchwork of regulations, and various stages of product reviews and approval,” and no clear roadmap for how different liabilities will play out in the future. “You’ve got to read up, stay current, and lawyer the best you can with the information you have today.”

Fluent in Leadership

Paul Cho specializes in cross-cultural communication at SK hynix, developing policies and protocols that translate across borders

By Chip Hooper

MISCOMMUNICATION CAN COST COMPANIES

serious money, especially in the legal realm. Therefore, for a global business, it is essential to find legal counsel who can operate in multiple languages. Translation is not as simple as converting words between languages; there is tone to consider as well as localization of terms and the ability to convey what is meant over what is said. That is one of the reasons South Korean semiconductor manufacturer SK hynix turned to Paul Cho to join its team as general counsel and corporate secretary. The $28 billion company relies on Cho to translate the nuances of law and the company’s culture across borders as the planet’s second-largest producer of semiconductors for the global technology market, including components in desktops and laptops, tablets, cellular phones, personal digital assistants, networking equipment, and hard disk drives, among other items.

Cho is a Korean American lawyer who had mostly forgotten how to speak or write in Korean when he was hired by LG Electronics in 2012. He grew up Pennsylvania and later began his career at the Law Offices of Carey S. Rosemarin in Northbrook, Illinois, as an associate attorney in 2008 after graduating from the University of Minnesota Law School. Following stints at Cantwell & Cantwell and Quantum Legal, two prominent Chicagoland legal firms, he was recruited by LG Electronics, a subsidiary of multinational conglomerate LG Corporation. He wound up spending the next four years in Korea. At that time, he had not returned to Korea since the 1980s. Since he was living in Korea and working for a prominent Korean company, however, he put effort into learning how to speak and type in Korean.

Initially, “it was painful,” he recalls, but eventually, his language skills improved. After LG, he took a job at Samsung SDI as senior legal counsel. The high stakes of

working for these massive companies is part of the reason for his mastering the language. Subsequently, Cho took a role at SK hynix as a senior legal counsel.

After putting up a strong record of success in the legal department for his first two years at SK hynix in Korea, he was promoted to general counsel and transferred to the San Francisco Bay Area to be the liaison between the Korean headquarters and the US office. Cho has proven himself well suited to operate at the center of communications between the two countries due to his experience in navigating both the Korean and American legal systems as well as familiarizing himself with the nations’ respective mores. That has given him a distinct advantage when preparing for legal issues that span both countries and bridging any gaps in communication.

Cho has been a part of several major projects during his tenure at SK hynix, developing multiple key policies and shepherding them to completion. For instance, he created the company’s customer communication policy, which defines how to handle customer relations across cultures. Similarly, he devised the company-wide purchase order training protocols to ensure smooth and sound order processing. He has also taken advantage of his multicultural experience to create internal policy guidelines for short-term expatriate employees. Finally, he leads the company in annual HR training on California state laws, since California is the home base of the US branch of SK Hynix. This is only a small sample of the wide and far-reaching range of tasks that Cho performs.

Cho remains in constant contact with his parent company in South Korea. SK hynix may have hired him for his legal expertise and time working for some of the largest companies in Korea. But they trust him because of his communication and project management skills. Cho has amply demonstrated his fluent command of English, Korean, law, and leadership.

Where Creativity Goes to Thrive

Director of Legal Affairs Michele Totonis on the sense of wonder, excitement, and pride that has guided her work at the LEGO Group for the past twelve years

By Sara Deeter

“THERE’S THIS IDEA THAT LEGAL departments are where creativity goes to die,” says Michele Totonis, director of legal affairs at the LEGO Group. “And that may be true of some corporate environments. But here, our legal department is where new ideas come to life.”

Totonis has been fascinated by intellectual property (IP) almost as long as she’s been working in law. Destined for the law (at least according to her family), Totonis earned two bachelor’s degrees before completing her JD at the Quinnipiac University School of Law. When working on an estate case while in law school, the entire trajectory of her career changed. One of the executors of the estate happened to be a principal partner at a well-regarded boutique IP firm, and he soon persuaded Totonis to join him there.

“To this day, I still consider him to be the most important mentor of my legal career,” Totonis says. “He taught me so much about IP law but also about client relations, negotiations,

and business savvy. He had this magical way of making every person he spoke to feel like the most important person in the world, no matter who they were or what their job was.”

Inspired by her mentor, Totonis specialized in IP law. “The idea that you can protect the concepts that are born from people’s own minds is incredible,” she enthuses. “I’m able to help people in such a unique way.”

At the LEGO Group—where Totonis has a hand in everything from the LEGO movies and various television series, to the company’s agreements with Disney and all other major license and IP partners, to the product design for on-the-shelf retail merchandise—“unique” is probably the best way to describe

Michele Totonis Director of Legal Affairs The LEGO Group

the wide-ranging scope of her responsibilities. “I was joking with a colleague of mine the other day that what I do to oversee IP and PMD means that I have a kind of unicorn role,” Totonis says, chuckling. “But it’s like that saying, ‘Love what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life.’ What I get to do every day doesn’t really feel like work to me because I love what I do. It’s incredibly rewarding to help bring one of the most iconic products in the world—and the thrilling stories surrounding those products—to our fans across the globe.”

LEGO fans may be scattered worldwide, but because of the LEGO Group’s flexible policies, Totonis and her colleagues get a visual reminder of those fans every single day. “We take children very seriously here. Obviously, we put them first in terms of product development, but that’s also true of our lives here at the company,” Totonis notes. “Kids are always welcome at our corporate offices, so it’s not unusual to walk into the office and see a big group of kids running around and playing. Putting family first isn’t a catchphrase for us. It’s something we live and breathe.”

Totonis’s own children have been a major inspiration for her as she has endeavored to manage and engage with her teams in Billund, Denmark, and beyond. “I took my oldest son to the premiere of the first LEGO movie,” Totonis says. In the months

leading up to the film release, she had been talking with the IP lawyers, the screenwriters, and the various partners involved in the making of the movie, and she often took those phone calls when her son was nearby.

“During the movie, he heard a line that was verbatim something I had said on the phone,” Totonis remembers. “After the film ended, he turned to me and exclaimed, ‘You wrote that, Mommy!’ That is one of my proudest moments as a parent.”

Totonis herself has been a LEGO fan ever since she was a child. “I’ve gotten a huge kick out of being able to share my original LEGO sets with both of my sons,” the director says. “That’s what’s so intriguing about the brand. It has permeated the culture around the

globe. It spans generations. And it just continues to grow, expand, and evolve with each new wave of kids that comes to love it and experience it in a completely new and different way.”

And it’s not just children who delight in the world of LEGO toys. While attending children’s birthday parties, networking events, and myriad other social engagements, Totonis has discovered something she calls the “cocktail party factor.”

At any such social event, she says, you can introduce yourself one of two ways. You can simply say, “I’m a lawyer,” which will most often get you a fairly lukewarm reaction. Or you can say, “I’m a lawyer, and I work for the LEGO toy company,” and just sit there as the people around you share story

“That’s what’s so intriguing about the brand. It has permeated the culture around the globe. It spans generations. And it just continues to grow, expand, and evolve.”

Not Playing Around

LEGO is one of the best-known brands in the entire world, but some of the company’s most meaningful work often goes unnoticed, Totonis says. The LEGO Foundation donates millions annually to support a variety of humanitarian causes, and LEGO Education focuses on the development and deployment of a whole host of educational products designed to help children of all ages learn programming, coding, and other STEM-based skills.

“We want to help children all around the world,” Totonis says, “whether that means investing in wind farms to bring sustainable energy to communities, building playgrounds, or donating billions of LEGO bricks to emerging communities.”

after story about their kids and grandkids and

their own favorite LEGO products as children.

“I’ve never seen any other company or brand that elicits that same reaction when you’re in those circumstances,” Totonis laughs. “It’s such a beloved brand, and the excitement is almost universal. I’m proud beyond words to get to be a part of it. And I get a huge kick out of the cocktail party factor.”

Wang Law Corporation:

“It is a treat working with Michele and her team. Michele has great instincts and she is an inspired leader with a capable and steady hand in continuously changing environments. Congratulations to her for this well-deserved recognition.”

–Annie S. Wang, Founder & Principal

Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu, P.C.: “Michele’s passion and creativity in protection of the iconic LEGO brand are inspirational. We treasure our longstanding relationship with Michele, and it’s a pleasure to see her recognized by Modern Counsel for her contributions to the legal community.”

–Laura Popp-Rosenberg, Partner

Improving Your Position

Union Pacific’s John Menicucci on the value of collaboration and moving forward, together

By Will Grant

JOHN A. MENICUCCI JR.’S CONSISTENT focus on teamwork at Union Pacific may seem unusual for a senior counsel. The in-house legal role traditionally operates outside of the business functions and is at risk for being seen as an inhibitor of business. But Menicucci’s emphasis on partnering with the business side of UP has helped involve legal both early and often in valuable discussions as well as in helping determine the future of the 157-year-old company.

Menicucci’s promotion of teamwork comes with an especially high pedigree. The lawyer is an army veteran who served as a tank and mortar platoon leader as well as a personnel company

commander from 1998 to 2002. He says that without multiple disparate parts of that organization coming together, the mission simply wouldn’t have been successful. “One of the biggest lessons that I still try to apply today—you need to be focused on what the next steps are and how to get there,” Menicucci says. “I try to get everyone to really work collectively and promote a teamdriven atmosphere.”

That can be a difficult challenge, given that Menicucci is tasked with partnering with UP’s in-house clients to provide advice not only on corporate, securities, finance, and corporate governance but on jointly and wholly

owned subsidiaries as well. “We’re there to help those board members make the best decisions possible,” Menicucci says. “There are regular board meetings, so a lot of that means following up on those meetings and advising the business so those boards have the right compositions in terms of experience, diversity, and otherwise.”

Ego, the lawyer says, has to be left at the door to make sure everyone is working on behalf of—not in spite of—its internal clients. “It’s a lesson I learned in the military a long time ago. I always talk a lot about improving your position,” Menicucci says. “That’s looking to where we are now, not just

myself, and making sure we’re giving advice to our colleagues and business partners so they’re improving the overall position of the company and making sure that we’re following through on what comes next.”

Moving together requires a degree of relationship building that the lawyer says many people can easily miss out on. “I want business teams in other parts of the organization to feel comfortable picking up the phone and calling me day, night, or weekends,” Menicucci says. “I want them to trust that I’m giving them the best advice and that we’re on the same page, working together.”

Menicucci believes if he’s doing his job correctly, he’s helping the business perform and operate even better.

Speaking of furthering UP’s business strategies, he says there is a company-wide focus on precision scheduled railroading (PSR) under Union Pacific’s Unified Plan 2020, an innovative strategy that is largely credited for turning around other US Class I railroads and is now being given its own test in the States. “We are all looking at our legal department and how we operate to make sure we maximize use of all of our assets,”

Menicucci says. “We’re really taking a new look at how we work with our business partners and how we can operate more efficiently.”

As big a company as Union Pacific may be and with as storied a past as it has, Menicucci says that changing how the company works may help keep his legal team responsible, agile, and always ready to move. “We’ve geared up for that transformation, and our partnership with our business partners is a big piece of how that works,” Menicucci says. The organizational transformation helps lay additional track for future success and growth, and keeping legal involved in those conversations from the onset, the senior counsel says, will help move business forward with the power of a locomotive.

and Cutler salutes John Menicucci for his extraordinary leadership and innovation.

We are proud to partner with John and Union Pacific.

“I want business teams in other parts of the organization . . . to trust that I’m giving them the best advice and that we’re on the same page, working together.”

Investing

with

A self-described “ETF geek,” Anna Paglia provides insight into the models of creativity, collaboration, and innovation that drive her work as head of legal, US ETFs at Invesco

By Sara Deeter

Portraits by Cass Davis

Passion

“LIKE SO MANY OF US IN THE FINANCIAL SERVICES industry, I got to where I am today by accident,” says Anna Paglia, head of legal at Invesco, an independent investment management company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Always a “very opinionated little girl,” Paglia says that becoming a lawyer was “meant to be.” After graduating from Luiss Guido Carli University, the top-ranking private university in Italy, Paglia continued to cultivate her expertise in financial law, working as an associate counsel at Barclays Global Investors, earning a Master of Laws (LLM) from the Northwestern University School of Law, and working her way up to partner at K&L Gates. But today, Paglia is known for more than just a general knowledge of financial law—she has specialized in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and now supervises all US-based ETFs for Invesco.

“More than twenty years ago, my first boss came to me to talk about ETFs, at a time when the ‘ETF acronym’ was unknown to many. The novelty of it really drove my curiosity,” Paglia remembers of her introduction to ETF work. “It felt right at the time, to use the skill set I had developed to challenge the status quo, find new solutions, and not stop at the letter of the law but rather work with leadership and regulators to find different goals and solutions for everyone.

“And now, I am an ETF geek,” Paglia continues, laughing. “This is something you cannot navigate without passion or emotion. It’s an area of the law that you either love or hate. If you don’t like it, you often don’t become very successful—but if

Anna Paglia Head of Legal, US ETFs Invesco

you do like it, it becomes so satisfying and intriguing.”

“Anna is an acknowledged leader in the ETF industry who brings to bear her considerable legal expertise daily,” says Alan P. Goldberg, partner in charge at Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young. “She is highly focused on providing practical advice to Invesco’s ETF business in a thoughtful and measured manner.”

Innovative Investments

As Paglia explains, ETFs have democratized the investment process for shareholders. It doesn’t matter how big or small a shareholder is; anyone can buy a share of an ETF, just as they would buy stocks on their phone.

For Paglia, a large part of what makes ETFs so interesting is the creative thinking demanded by that area of work. “The one word that you hear over and over when you speak to people who work in the ETF industry is ‘innovation,’” Paglia says. “You can do things that weren’t heard of twenty years ago, and everything—all of this progress—was achieved because people started thinking creatively about the investment process.”

Innovation is what drives the entire ETF industry, Paglia says, and “good” innovation implies that somebody out there is navigating in a gray area and getting creative to find the answers to looming questions. Lawyers like Paglia

The Future of Financial

While Anna Paglia has found her passion in the financial services industry, she believes that academic institutions can and should be doing more to help educate young lawyers about the industry.

“Financial services should really be introduced to lawyers when they are in law school,” Paglia asserts. “It’s such an intriguing and dynamic area of the law, and law school is designed for exploring the field. I studied law in in Italy, England, and the US, but with the exception of a few law schools, financial services and mutual funds are not really a part of many law school curriculums.”

Not only that, Paglia says, but students should be introduced to the industry as early as possible so that they have a background in it when faced with the industry’s complexity and constantly shifting regulations. “It’s not at the front and center of the academic process, but it needs to be,” Paglia states.

are supposed to help drive that innovation, which means becoming an integral player in the product development process as well as the business process. “No innovative ideas can come to market without the knowledge, the expertise, and the interaction of the legal team with the business team,” Paglia says. “Invesco has succeeded, and I have succeeded along with Invesco, in marking a history of many ‘firsts’— first to obtain a release to manage active exchange traded funds, first to launch a senior loan ETF. But every time we’re first in something, it’s not because we’re the smartest out there, but because we found a creative way to make something work.”

The Invesco Village Paglia herself has played a critical role in “making things work” at Invesco. She has played a critical role in integrating newly acquired ETF businesses within the Invesco governance ecosystem. She has also served as a key partner in the company’s creation of an internal self-indexing business that leverages the “active” and “passive” sides of Invesco to bring new and inventive investment solutions to market.

Expertise Spotlight

For more than ninety years, Stradley Ronon’s investment management practice has helped shape the investment management industry by assisting with the creation of innovative investment products and services. From obtaining industry-first exemptive and no-action relief to assisting in the development of novel products, we have helped our clients become or remain industry leaders. As the investment management industry and our clients have evolved, so have we, adding attorneys with experience in emerging areas, such as next-generation exchange-traded products, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulation, and swaps and other derivatives trading.

Today, Stradley Ronon’s leading investment management practice advises investment advisers, public and private funds and fund sponsors, fund boards and trustees, service providers, insurance companies, and other industry participants in matters ranging from the routine to the most sophisticated. Whether you are a large financial institution with global operations or a boutique firm seeking to remain competitive, Stradley Ronon’s team of investment management practitioners can help you achieve success.

Stradley Ronon maintains one of the largest practices in the United States representing registered investment companies. Our clients include more than fifteen hundred separate funds/series, including several of the top twenty investment company complexes in the country by assets under management.

On top of partnering with internal business leaders, Paglia has been given responsibility of Invesco’s governance affairs by coordinating with independent trustees. The entire framework at Invesco is designed to strike the right balance between risks and opportunities, Paglia says, and that framework is based on the close-knit relationship between business needs, disclosure, and oversight. Paglia is responsible for ensuring that trustees receive the information they need to discharge their fiduciary responsibilities.

In short, Paglia notes, “you do not have the luxury of being an island” in the financial services industry. “You need to have a good relationship with your colleagues and remember that you are always, at the same time, a client and a service provider,” she emphasizes. “Our internal partners at Invesco include everybody—we work very closely with the marketing team, with the portfolio management team, the product development team, and our business leaders. It takes a village, and you have to be open to other people’s views because that only makes you stronger and a better professional in the end.”

Great Change and Great Power

The industry has seen a great deal of change even in the relatively short period that Paglia has been involved in it, she says, and those changes aren’t slowing down anytime soon.

“Our clients trust us to make a real difference in their lives. Can that person retire? Can they send their kids to school? Can they afford the lifestyle they’re aiming for?”

“The industry today is incredibly competitive and incredibly crowded,” Paglia describes. “The last few years, we have witnessed an increased number of mergers and acquisitions, and that is going to continue. The big and the strong will become bigger and stronger, and technology and innovation are only going to play a bigger and bigger role.”

Lawyers will have to be at the front and center of that revolution, Paglia says, but she urges her peers in the asset management industry to remember that their jobs are “not just a job.” “Working in financial services or asset management—that is a privilege,” Paglia remarks. “Our clients trust us to make a real difference in their lives. Can that person retire? Can they send their kids to school? Can they afford the lifestyle they’re aiming for?

“It’s like Spider-Man,” Paglia laughs. “We have great power over people’s lives, and that’s a huge responsibility. Working in financial services is a privilege, and we need to take it very seriously every single time.”

Head of Legal – US ETFs

Stradley is privileged to work with Anna and is grateful for our long partnership with her and Invesco.

Stradley Ronon is proud to recognize the achievements of Anna Paglia

Invesco Ltd.

Director of Global Litigation and Investigations

Lindsay White uses all that she’s learned in her career to help Applied Materials protect and enable its leading-edge engineering solutions

By Sara Deeter

Engineering Success

CHANGE CAN BE HARD, ESPECIALLY if you’re a rule follower like Lindsay White. From her first day as an undergrad at California Polytechnic State University, White had mapped out a path for her future. That path changed many times—and changed quickly— but White’s persistence has led her to a better place than she ever envisioned for herself: director of global litigation and investigations at Applied Materials, an international leader in engineering solutions.

“I’ve had to learn to understand my priorities,” White says of her many career transitions. “Change can be OK. In fact, it can be better than just sticking to the original path.”

Growing up loving math and science, with many engineers in the family, White originally intended to pursue a career centered on materials engineering. So when she decided to transition to the law after taking a sports law class during her senior year in college, her choice came as a shock to those who knew her. “My uncle in particular was pretty astonished,” White remembers. “But I was convinced that by combining my engineering background with law school, I could litigate some amazing cases.”

White proved that belief true during her internship in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California with Chief Judge Vaughn

Lindsay White Director of Global Litigation & Investigations Applied Materials

Walker in 2006. “I learned so much from working with his clerks and ended up gravitating toward patent litigation,” White recalls. “I thought it was so interesting that I could work with cutting-edge technology as well as really old technologies.”

After graduating from law school in 2008, White spent a year working as an associate for Day Casebeer Madrid & Batchelder. “But lo and behold, I came on right as the recession was hitting,” White says. “Shortly after I was hired, Day Casebeer was acquired by a global IP firm called Howrey, and I was thrown into a global setting with hundreds of other lawyers.”

When Howrey dissolved less than two years later, White followed a practice group to Dewey & Leboeuf in Silicon Valley. “Dewey tanked about a year later,” White says ruefully. “My career path was the opposite of what I had intended. Starting out in law, I had this idea that I would join one law firm and stay there until I retired. That obviously didn’t happen.”

“But I learned from all of those transitions,” White continues. “I realized that as long as you’re doing patent litigation, you’re still following the same rules. All of the law firms I was at were doing the same thing, just with a different client base and a slightly different perspective.” What mattered most was the people— the people she was working with and working for.

Those insights—as well as the hand-in-hand client experience White gained as a senior associate at Paul Hastings—made her a valuable commodity in the IP litigation space. “I’m told that I was one of the fastest hires ever in Applied’s legal department,” White says. “My now manager called me on Tuesday to set up a coffee meeting, and I had an offer by the following Monday.” White was excited by the opportunity, the team, and Applied, which brought her full circle to her undergraduate materials engineering roots.

White’s work in litigation and investigations is the “bread and butter” of the Applied team, but she does “everything from run-of-the-mill investigations to law firm security assessments to pushing forward strategic initiatives for the company. Anything that touches IP,” White says. “If someone at Applied sees something

suspicious at a trade show or has an issue with a third party, they come to us. If an employee is sending confidential information or if we see that our products are being sold on third-party websites, we step in.”

To succeed in those efforts, White explains, she and her team rely on having the trust of Applied employees that “we will get the job done. People have to be able to come to us and say, ‘We think that this may be an issue.’” She has worked to build that trust by applying a hands-on approach to her investigations, ensuring that

“If my team is there until two in the morning, I’m there right alongside them. I don’t think you can lead without doing that, without being a part of the team.”

she scrutinizes every aspect of a situation before deciding whether and how to push the issue.

White prides herself on being right there with the team as they dig into their cases. “If my team is there until two in the morning, I’m there right alongside them,” she says. “I don’t think you can lead without doing that, without being a part of the team.”

White’s “part of the team” mentality was instilled in her from a young age, she says. “My family owned a sports bar in the Bay Area when I was young,”

Director, Global Litigation and Investigations

Applied Materials

A trusted and collaborative colleague A true asset to her field

We are honored to work with Lindsay White, and recognize her achievements and excellence at Applied Materials

Patterson + Sheridan has been Protecting Intellectual Property Around the World with Unparalleled Expertise, Experience, and Value since 1996.

Attorneys at Patterson + Sheridan have successfully secured patents, trademarks, copyrights, and helped clients manage other critical assets for exceptional technology innovators, ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies.

White offers. “I grew up there. I bused tables and waitressed and did everything in between. So early on, I learned how to work with a variety of personalities, adapting to help everyone get to a common goal, whether that’s faster food service or making a client feel at ease or winning a case.”

Hilgers Graben PLLC:

“Lindsay is an outstanding lawyer and an innovative thinker who gets things done. Lindsay’s consistent execution, strategic and practical guidance, and energetic approach will no doubt have a positive and transformative impact for Applied Materials for years to come.”

–Mike

Hilgers, Partner

Hogen Lovells LLP:

“It’s a real pleasure to work with Lindsay. She is the consummate professional: smart and pragmatic. Lindsay understands what matters. She masters difficult technologies and complex legal issues but always keep the big picture in mind.”

–Christopher Cox, Partner

White & Case LLP:

“Lindsay’s astute understanding of business practices, drivers, and goals allows Lindsay to add tremendous value in working with outside counsel by bringing to bear both her exceptional legal skills and her practical business sense.”

–Eric Lancaster, Partner

A brilliant legal mind

Clearing the Way

AGC Lisa Schroeder has taken Francis Collins’s advice to heart and now strives to move the business forward at BASF

By Sara Deeter

SCENTISTS NEED LAWYERS. THEY need someone to act as a legal strong arm, someone to clear the way for them to make real progress. That was the advice from Francis Collins, the then director of the Human Genome Project, that set the tone for Lisa Schroeder’s career.

Growing up in Arkansas with a father who emphasized the value of curiosity, Schroeder had always been passionate about science. A psychology professor, Schroeder’s father had unusual methods of encouraging her to learn. “He brought home a human brain one time,” Schroeder laughs. “It was swimming in formaldehyde, and he just said, ‘You’re going to put on these gloves and examine this!’”

Schroeder earned a bachelor’s in biology from the University of Kansas and even worked in a genetics lab on an undergraduate honors project, but she was never quite satisfied with the work. “After a year and a half of working to characterize a particular fruit fly muscle gene and getting no conclusive results, I realized that I maybe wasn’t patient enough for that kind of work,” Schroeder chuckles. “I needed something a little more immediately gratifying.”

When Schroeder attended Collins’s lecture during her senior year of college, a light bulb turned on. “It was very conservative where I grew up. I can

Lisa Schroeder Associate General Counsel of Intellectual Property BASF Corporation

still remember the outcry from high school classmates when Dolly the sheep was cloned and even about evolution being taught in our school,” Schroeder says. “So when Collins highlighted how conservative thinking was infiltrating various laws and policies and creating obstacles for scientific progress, that really spoke to me. Before that moment,

“Lisa has the keen ability to focus in on the important issues and is decisive in formulating creative solutions,” says Robert J. Paradiso, partner at Lowenstein Sandler. “I have experienced firsthand the appreciation and respect that her colleagues at BASF have for her.”

Established more than one hundred and fifty years ago, BASF is stable and

and society. BASF’s new corporate strategy, which includes a renewed focus on customers and innovative sustainability measures, is a major result of those ongoing assessments. BASF strives to create chemistry for a sustainable future by sourcing and producing responsibly, acting as a fair and reliable partner, and connecting creative minds to find the best solutions for market needs.

“Obviously, that takes a lot of work, but sustainability is something we take very seriously. I’ve seen projects killed because they don’t meet our standards,” Schroeder remarks.

To be a conscious driver of that corporate strategy, Schroeder works every day to not be a bottleneck for the workstreams she touches. In her experience, attorneys can hold up corporate efficiency because of their unwillingness to give timely, clear, and effective advice.

I had not fully appreciated the extent to which innovators need lawyers.”

After attending the Boston University School of Law and honing her skills in private practice at Lowenstein Sandler and in-house at Mindray North America, Schroeder found her perfect fit as an intellectual property attorney at BASF Corporation, the largest affiliate of the world’s biggest chemical producer. “I think I like working in the field of intellectual property so much because it’s like a combination of my parents’ passions,” Schroeder says. “It requires extreme attention to detail, which is what my mom was known for as a CPA, as well as my father’s enthusiasm for science and innovation.”

established but has had time to diversify, Schroeder says of the Germany-based chemical giant. “That’s one of the things that really appealed to me initially, the fact that the company touches on so many different industries,” the AGC offers. “I also appreciate how they approach everything with such intention—they’ve had a long time to figure out exactly what works, so the company is very calculated and deliberate in how they structure things.”

Just because the company’s been around for such a long time, Schroeder notes, doesn’t mean it isn’t willing to change. BASF “constantly” assesses how it can change for the better to keep up with the evolving needs of both industry

“Some attorneys really have made advice giving a sort of art form,” Schroeder says. “They technically do give advice, but with so many disclaimers that they don’t deliver any real conclusion or meaningful guidance. But we are the experts in our fields, and we should counsel accordingly. We should be able to give clients the practical, on-the-ground advice they need to navigate difficult business decisions.”

At the end of the day, giving constructive advice isn’t just what’s best for the company; it’s also the best option for attorneys themselves. “That’s when you get a seat at the table, when you get the business to trust you and see that you are empowering them to move forward,” Schroeder says. “And if you’re not at that table, you’ll find yourself cleaning up messes instead of preventing them.”

“Sustainability is something we take very seriously. I’ve seen projects killed because they don’t meet our standards.”

Never a Dull Moment at Dell

Seamus McDonnell has flourished in Dell’s dynamic environment, and now he’s sharing his strategies for adapting to that environment with his team

By Sara Deeter

SEAMUS MCDONNELL DOESN’T LIKE to get too comfortable. The senior vice president of legal at Dell thrives in unpredictable, unfamiliar, high-octane environments. Fortunately, twenty-two years at Dell have offered enough change to satisfy his desire for dynamism.

“We Irish do have a tradition of emigrating and expanding our horizons in other countries, and I am no exception,” notes McDonnell. “Most of the work I’ve done during my career has had some kind of international dimension to it.”

Soon after qualifying as a solicitor, McDonnell moved to Brussels to work as an associate for the Law Offices of SG Archibald. “The firm specialized in EU law, and in the early 1990s, the EU member states were working on the completion of the internal market, which generated a lot of legal work,” McDonnell remarks. “So it was a really exciting time, and our clients

were all international—primarily from the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Belgium.”

When McDonnell left the firm in 1993 and moved back to Ireland, he continued to push his professional boundaries by taking on an in-house counsel role for the De Beers Industrial Diamond Division. “As sole legal counsel, I worked on a really broad range of issues and coordinated with a number of different countries where De Beers had operations,” McDonnell says. “I have always been pretty comfortable handling legal matters across jurisdictions, dealing with local clients

Seamus McDonnell SVP of Legal—Commercial Sales, Services, IT & Security Dell

and local lawyers, and understanding how to get things done. You just have to always be prepared to embrace some level of risk and operate outside your comfort zone.”

That affinity for risk and novelty is largely what drew McDonnell to Dell in 1997. “They were making headlines as a disruptor back then,” McDonnell remembers. “There was a lot of noise about their business model, which intrigued me.

When I was approached to see whether I would be interested in becoming the company’s first Ireland-based legal counsel, I was so impressed with what I saw and excited to support a company

that was on fire and undergoing phenomenal growth.”

When McDonnell first joined the team, Dell was a $12 billion company focused on selling PC servers and workstations. Today, it’s a $90 billion technology giant, with a comprehensive portfolio of IT hardware, software, and service solutions spanning both traditional infrastructure and emerging, multicloud technologies.

“It’s a different beast compared to the company I joined all those years ago, but it’s still very exciting and challenging,” McDonnell says. “When I look back over my twenty-two years here, I

Sarah Rusnak

Antitrust Intellectual Property Litigation

feel as if I’ve worked in four or five different companies. Take the past six years alone. The company went private in 2013, acquired EMC Corp in 2016—a $67 billion merger, the largest in IT history—and then went public again at the end of 2018. That generates a lot of interesting legal work for our team.”

McDonnell coled the company’s integration effort with EMC on the legal side. “The whole experience was a monumental learning exercise,” McDonnell says. “There’s no manual that tells you how to integrate two large, complex companies.”

Axinn congratulates Seamus McDonnell on his accomplishments and recognition by Modern Counsel.

But McDonnell didn’t just oversee the merger integration without a clear legal framework or guide. He did it without a deep specialization in M&A or corporate law. “I am very much a generalist,” he says, “so the merger was a tremendous experience, a chance to really expand my skill set across a wide range of legal and nonlegal disciplines, pulling in the subject matter experts as required.”

That is one of the things that McDonnell values most about Dell. Regardless of your functional or business expertise, it’s a “fabulous learning environment.” However, some find it harder than others to adapt and take advantage of those learning opportunities. “It can be a bit of a shock to the system if you come to the company from, say, a law firm because you discover that your strong legal know-how is only half the battle,” McDonnell explains.

The other half, McDonnell says, are “soft skills”: communication, collaboration, adaptability, and problem-solving. “I believe in giving people stretch opportunities, pushing them to try new things, and giving them exposure to senior management,” McDonnell offers. “But that means you have to be able to communicate effectively, collaborate cross-functionally across various teams, and use your influencing skills to drive the best outcomes.” Each team member is encouraged to have an individual development plan, articulating career goals and aspirations as well as identifying skills gaps and areas to work on.

The importance of developing a high-functioning, success-driven team is one of the greatest insights afforded by his two decades at Dell, McDonnell says, and it’s a goal he will continue to work toward for the rest of his career.

“Your legacy is your people,” McDonnell says. “And to me, that is more impactful in the long run than any great legal work you’ve done.”

Ted Tywang Makes His Mark on Ohio Sports

Haslam Sports Group VP and General Counsel Ted Tywang has helped solidify the future of Ohio sports

By Joseph Charney

OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS, THE Cleveland sports world has crept into uncharted territory: success. In basketball, Lebron James brought the Cleveland Cavaliers their first title; in baseball, Francisco Lindor carried the Cleveland Indians to a World Series; and in football, Baker Mayfield is winning games for the Cleveland Browns, ending the franchise’s previous winless streak. In the blink of an eye, Cleveland became Believeland .

Haslam Sports Group

Vice President and General Counsel Ted Tywang plays a key role in the region’s continued resurgence by helping ensure an era of sustained success, economic prosperity, and social impact through the HSG sports holdings. HSG is the umbrella group that owns the Cleveland Browns and, as of a recent acquisition, operates the Columbus Crew.

Matt Starkey/Courtesy of the Cleveland Browns

Ted Tywang

VP and General Counsel

Haslam Sports Group

(HSG)

“I was lucky to land in a city like Cleveland,” Tywang says. He and his wife, Bridget, moved to the city in 2016, sight unseen, when the Browns offered Tywang a legal director position. Now with two Ohio-born daughters, Tywang reflects that 2016 not only marked a new era for Ohio sports but also for his family.

For Tywang to be lured away from Proskauer Rose—a top international law firm headquartered in New York with a high-profile, niche sports practice—ownership was critical. At the core of Tywang’s desire to accept a role with the Browns was a lifelong itch to work in sports, but the Haslam family’s sound operation and upstanding values sealed the deal. “I can’t imagine, ultimately, having better people to work for,” Tywang says. “Passionate, caring, involved, and empowering are a few words that pop into my head.”

Noting the Haslam family’s determination to do right by Ohio’s sports fans, Tywang credits them with an unrelenting will to win paired with an unyielding passion for making the greater Ohio community a better place. With heavy investment in education, youth sports, and social justice, HSG lends its ongoing support to local initiatives that are reshaping the region.

Tywang’s role with HSG, a group that didn’t exist when the Browns originally hired him, is both exciting and challenging for the same reason: scope. He is responsible for all legal aspects of the business for both clubs, including, but not limited to, stadium deals, sponsorship and vendor agreements, employment, intellectual property, league and corporate governance issues, and government affairs. Tywang credits the Browns’ Manager of Legal Affairs, Marikka Pretz-Anderson, who predated him by two seasons at the Browns, as critical to their department’s success: “Marikka is a tremendous asset to the organization and has a wealth of institutional knowledge. She makes me look good.”

Coming from Proskauer, which counts Major League Soccer (MLS) among its many sports industry clients, Tywang was well suited to spearhead the acquisition of the Columbus Crew by the Haslam

Ted Tywang, our Cleveland team is pleased to work with your Cleveland team.

family and their minority partner, the Columbus-based Edwards family. The first of MLS’s ten inaugural teams, the Crew formed in 1996 on the heels of the 1994 United States World Cup and the founding of MLS.

In 2018, the Crew was set to be shipped off to Austin, Texas, prompting a Save The Crew movement that captivated not only the state of Ohio but also soccer communities around the country. Relocation is a sensitive subject among Ohioans, who vividly recall when the Browns temporarily disbanded and moved to Baltimore in 1995.

“Those wounds, while they heal, never go away,” Tywang says. “Even though they weren’t the owners at the time, the Haslams know how important a sports team is to a community and how much it hurt to lose one.” The Haslams—motivated by this civic component as well as MLS trends, the Columbus market, and the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will return to North America and be jointly hosted by the US, Mexico, and Canada—decided to step in to keep the Crew in Columbus. Tywang helped execute the transaction.

“It was a few different deals in one because it was such a complex project with so many moving pieces,” Tywang says, emphasizing the difficulty of putting together a public-private stadium, training facility, and community sports park deal along with a real estate acquisition and agreements with both MLS and the outgoing investor in the Crew. On the public stakeholders’ remarkable creativity and enthusiasm, Tywang says “working with the city, county, and the state on the stadium deal was an unbelievable experience.”

In connection with their acquisition of the Crew and expansion of their sports portfolio, the Haslams officially formed HSG. As a VP, Tywang serves on the executive team in a wide-ranging legal and business advisory role. With a mixeduse project in Columbus adjacent to the new Crew stadium, the recent extension of the Browns’ training facility lease, and the 2021 NFL draft in Cleveland, HSG and Tywang’s future is filled with invigorating new ventures. None, perhaps, more so than the young and talented roster that the Browns now boast.

www.FisherPhillips.com

“I still pinch myself when I go on the field before game day,” says Tywang. “For better or worse, people care so much about how we are doing, and it’s special to be a part of the community unity that the Browns provide.”

Smaller Company, Bigger Job

Nicolas Jafarieh volunteered to help Sallie Mae spin off more than 50 percent of its business in 2014. It was a smart move—and today, as SVP and GC, his heart is in helping more students get their degrees.

By Russ Klettke

NICOLAS JAFARIEH HAS A LONGstanding connection with student loan juggernaut Sallie Mae. Today, Jafarieh serves as the company’s senior vice president and general counsel. But back in 1998, he was a law student, the son of immigrant parents, who financed his education through the lender that now employs him.

He’s long since repaid the loan and given more than a decade of his legal career to the banking firm. In 2014, Jafarieh played an important role in spinning off a majority of the firm’s business—the loa n servicing and asset recovery portions—to a new company, Navient.

“When the split was announced, our then general counsel asked for volunteers among the lawyers to work on it,” he says, “so I raised my hand. But I had no prior experience with corporate governance issues, corporate structuring, and disclosure work related to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).”

The spin-off was particularly unusual because Navient was bigger than what remained at Sallie Mae, sometimes referred to as a “reverse spin-off.” For Jafarieh, who until that time had focused on litigation matters, it was similarly unorthodox that he

Nicolas Jafarieh SVP and General Counsel Sallie Mae

Courtesy of Sallie Mae

stayed with the smaller enterprise. That decision turned out to be fortuitous, however, as it broadened his role and expertise at the midcareer stage. In the years that followed, he took on many other areas of law that play a significant role in Sallie Mae’s business, including SEC matters, board governance and corporate secretary matters, executive compensation, and employment law, among others.

“It’s rare to reinvent oneself later in a career,” he says. “But going from being a specialist to a generalist set me up to ultimately become the GC.”

Sallie Mae is subject to significant legal and regulatory oversight. A publicly traded corporation, known as SLM Corporation on Wall Street, Sallie Mae was created by the federal government in 1972. It is now the nation’s largest originator of private student loans. In addition to helping more than 370,000 students and families finance college and graduate studies each year, Sallie Mae connects students to scholarships and conducts research on how higher education can be more accessible. The company not only has to meet the stringent requirements of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation but also the demands of investors, as monitored and enforced by the SEC.

Jafarieh says that after the spin-off, the company had to establish anew the processes for such matters as filing proxy disclosures, asset-backed securitizations, and achieving compliance with a broad range of federal and state regulations. Part of the strategy was to bring on lawyers who had this specific kind of experience in banking or other companies in similar situations. Along the way, Jafarieh also developed a proactive culture in the legal department that detected and mitigated risk before it became a problem.

Which gets to the heart of how he is succeeding in this demanding position: he hires the kind of people who are attentive to Sallie Mae’s broader strategy.

“There are two ways to work as an in-house lawyer,” Jafarieh says. “One is to understand the law and to guide our company in what is legal. The other is to understand the mission of the company, to engage with our people and products, to focus on customer needs and outcomes, to look to create value for shareholders, and to make a contribution to the business overall and beyond the legal function.”

The difference is noticeable, he says, pointing to the example of his lawyers joining company initiatives such as employee committees and multidisciplinary task forces across the enterprise as well as promoting community engagement. This helps them develop a network within the company and become aware, for example, of new products in development and to begin thinking about where legal can guide those developments early on. This is particularly meaningful given how the company is diversifying its product offerings beyond undergraduate student loans to provide more narrowly tailored graduate school loans, credit

“It’s rare to reinvent oneself later in a career. But going from being a specialist to a generalist set me up to ultimately become the GC.”

www.sullcrom.com

cards, retail deposit accounts, personal loans, and its Upromise Rewards subsidiary, which enables families to save for college through a brand-loyalty purchasing program.

Such teamwork matters to the GC. Jafarieh traces his ancestry to Iran and spent part of his childhood in France, so he naturally likens his job to being a football (American soccer) coach. “You have to have more than just one star player on your team,” he says. “You have to provide appropriate training across your entire organization, make sure your players are happy and in the right position, and you need a deep bench.”

Student loans and accumulated debt are topics of national discussion, sometimes putting lenders in the spotlight. Sallie Mae lends approximately $5.3 billion annually in private student loans—last-dollar financing typically taken out after federal financial aid—to undergraduate and graduate students. It achieves a 98 percent loan repayment rate. Sallie Mae loans are family loans that promote responsible borrowing and incentivize customers to make choices that help them graduate with less debt. That philosophy supports its customers’ success: 91 percent complete their

programs, 91 percent of those who graduate are employed, 88 percent say their work gives them a feeling of personal accomplishment, and 86 percent feel their college education opened opportunities they wouldn’t have had without it.

“Our mission is to build prosperous futures,” Jafarieh says. “We produce teachers, doctors, engineers, and lawyers. Student loans enable access to education, and postsecondary education enables higher earnings. There’s a segment of the population that really benefits from it. There’s great value in what we do, and given my own experience, I feel particularly connected to our mission.”

We congratulate Nicolas Jafarieh of Sallie Mae for his

Feature

Taking a microscope to unique niches, specialties, regions, and regulations in the legal field and the high-profile lawyers who confidently and expertly navigate them

Disrupting AN INDUSTRY

By Sara Deeter

Michelle Fang has plenty of accolades to her name: Corporate Counsel ’s 2019 General Counsel of the Year, the 2019 Chambers Gender Diversity Lawyer of the Year, one of the National Diversity Council’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology in 2019, and many more. Much of the recognition Fang has received over the course of her career has related to her strategic-minded legal work at prominent companies such as eBay and Turo, a peer-to-peer car-sharing marketplace. But ever since Fang penned an open letter outlining the legal industry’s shortcomings regarding diversity and inclusion, she has also become a go-to expert on the advancement of women and other underrepresented groups in the legal industry.

In recognition of her outstanding contributions to the legal community, Fang has been chosen as the

guest editor for Modern Counsel’s Empowered issue. She offers an insider’s perspective on corporate D&I initiatives as well as the individual efforts of successful women around the country who are lifting each other up.

You have made your career while working at the intersection of two very male-dominated industries: technology and law. How have you worked to break past the barriers facing women in those industries?

If there have been professional obstacles in my way based on my gender, they generally haven’t been apparent to me. I have always tried to do my best work, to make myself valuable to my managers, and to support my colleagues and my teams. I have also made my professional aspirations known to people around me who possessed the agency to help me achieve

Known for her ability to navigate legal challenges and revitalize staid industries, Michelle Fang works to transform the legal industry and its outdated approach to diversity and inclusion

Michelle Fang VP and Chief Legal Officer Turo

them. I am grateful that, as a result, opportunities have presented themselves to me time and again. I’m not so naive as to think the barriers haven’t been there, but by choice or happenstance, I have not seen them.

In January 2019, you wrote an open letter, eventually signed by more than 240 general counsel and corporate legal officers, urging law firms around the nation to take action on diversity in the workplace. What were some of your primary aims in publishing that letter? What meaningful changes have occurred since then?

The letter was born out of the frustration a number of lawyers in the Women’s General Counsel Network were feeling in response to the lack of diversity in some of the partnership announcements made at the end of 2018. Our goal in drafting the letter was to express to law firm partners that we collectively have legal budgets in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars and that we are demanding accountability and change.

“Our goal in drafting the letter was to express to law firm partners that we collectively have legal budgets in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars and that we are demanding accountability and change.”

William

J. Simpson Photography

Members of the legal and government relations team at Turo (from left): Lou Bertuca, Pablo Benavente, Michelle Peacock, Michelle Fang, Samantha Erickson, Charles Melton, and John Heath

The letter has certainly jump-started a lot of conversations about the topic. It is still too soon to say whether or not the letter will have a lasting or material impact on partnership numbers specifically or diversity in the legal profession as a whole. In the short term, many attorneys and diversity and inclusion professionals have used the letter as ammunition in their efforts to drive change and obtain resources for the important work they are doing within their firms. I have heard from a number of professionals that the letter is having an impact on how their firms are approaching diversity and inclusion. Personally, I certainly have been more intentional in hiring diverse attorneys as lead partners, and attorneys from minority- and women-owned firms, since diving into this issue.

Exemplified by that letter, discussions on what we can do to improve diversity in the legal industry typically center on the leaders (e.g., partners) within that industry. This makes sense since those individuals are usually the ones making decisions about hiring and promoting. But is there something that lawyers at more junior levels can be doing to help create more diverse and inclusive workplaces?

Absolutely. A great place to start for lawyers of any level, practicing in-house or at firms, is the document that I created in partnership with Diversity Lab. There are many tactics lawyers can use to help create more diverse and inclusive workplaces. A few of my favorites are:

1. Attend minority ABA-affiliated, MCCA, NAWL, and other diversity-focused events to network with diverse outside counsel. You will have a broader roster for future engagements and in-house hiring.

2. Offer to mentor diverse in-house colleagues, outside counsel, or law students.

3. Help your organization create a paid internship program for diverse law students.

Finally, regardless of your level, anyone can be an ally, whether that’s pointing out when a female colleague is interrupted and asking to have her repeat her interesting point or attending/starting a resource or affinity group for diverse colleagues and their allies.

What are some of the next steps for you in terms of addressing the legal industry’s “largely male, largely white” problem?

I plan to survey the signatories of the letter and see which of the strategies and tactics they are using from the document referenced above. I hope to gauge what, if any, impact those strategies have over time. I will continue to hire diverse outside counsel and measure how law firms are performing in terms of their own diversity efforts. My team is quite diverse, and that is something I have been very intentional about. Beyond that, I will try to deploy as many of those tactics as I can while speaking out on the importance of this issue.

What does being an “empowered” woman mean to you? Who or what empowers you?

That is an excellent question. I think for me, being empowered means having the freedom to make my professional opinions be taken seriously and my personal and professional needs known. That doesn’t mean I’ll always get my way, but I’ll be heard and given a fair shake. I believe we are the only ones who can empower ourselves. If I am not feeling empowered, I need to either make a change in myself or change my environment. The few times in my career when I’ve contemplated making a professional change, outside of a great opportunity falling in my lap, occurred precisely because I did not feel I was in an environment where my needs were being met.

What advice would you give to women looking to advance their careers, both in the legal space specifically and in general?

When I mentor people, whether they are men or women, legal professionals or not, I usually offer this advice:

• Crush your deliverables. You can’t ask for new opportunities if you aren’t doing a great job in your current role.

• Be really clear about what you want to do next. It is unfair to ask a manager or sponsor to help you achieve your goals if you don’t know what your goals are.

Focus on your strengths—but be honest with yourself about your development opportunities.

You can ask a peer you trust to give you candid feedback about how you are doing in your development areas.

For example, if you want to improve your brevity in group meetings, tell a trusted colleague before a

meeting that you are working on brevity and request that she give you feedback at the end of the meeting. That said, you will always get more leverage by focusing on your strengths than by trying to change who you are in order to satisfy the expectations of your manager du jour.

Climbing the corporate ladder can look like traversing a lattice. Sometimes, lateral moves can help you ultimately ascend higher. Don’t be too stubborn about “promotion or nothing,” but don’t be a fool, either. There is a difference between being taken advantage of and consciously making a lateral move that will give you an opportunity to expand upon your skill set.

Believe in yourself and take sensible risks.

The Legal Code, Rewritten

Michelle Fang is a founder of the 2019 Law in Technology Diversity Collaborative (LiTDC), a first-of-its-kind summer associate program aimed at diversifying both tech and legal fields. Created through a partnership with eBay, Facebook, LendingClub, Turo, Symantec, Uber, and Hewlett Packard Enterprse, LiTDC provides law students with experience at both tech companies and law firms, offers extensive training and mentoring, and encourages prospective employers to interview exceptional students at schools with high diversity indexes in addition to the top-ranked law schools. Modern Counsel spoke with four students involved with LiTDC to get their thoughts on the impact and meaning of this groundbreaking program.

“To me, LiTDC means opening doors traditionally designed to remain closed for law students from different backgrounds. It means exposing students like me, who grew up in poverty, to some of the best legal training one could have at the outset of my career. Most importantly, the collaborative means pushing students to let go of the never-ending imposter syndrome—empowering them to provide employers with new perspectives in the law.”

—Britteny Leyva American University Washington College of Law ’20

“The Law in Technology Diversity Collaborative showed me the ways that technology companies utilize the skills and resources of law firms and allowed me to apply that knowledge at a firm, all in one summer.

“One of my projects at my company sparked my interest in patent work, prompting me to take a course this semes-

ter that explores the role of intellectual property in social justice. The fact that the collaborative recruited from schools that are underrepresented in big law demonstrated a meaningful commitment on the part of the firms and companies involved to broadening the pipeline of law students who can access tech and big law. Through my participation in the program, I hope to widen the door so that more HBCU law students and black women law students can establish lasting careers in law and tech.”

—Khala James Howard University School of Law ’21

“To me, LiTDC is first and foremost about access. Without the skeleton key of privilege, diverse students are often not privy to the unspoken rules of the field, to the most desirable educational opportunities, or to spaces of power and professional growth. LiTDC addresses all these issues in one fell swoop by forcing firms and companies to be explicit about

their needs and practices, provide diverse candidates with additional training and a wider view of the industry, and create a lasting pipeline and dialogue.”

—Gia

Jung

UC Berkeley School of Law ’21

“As an African American woman and first-generation college student, it is necessary for me to plant seeds of opportunity for those who follow. LiTDC provided me with those seeds.

“A wise attorney informed me that I should understand where I want to be in the long term so that I can work backward. I realized that this is impossible when you are uncertain of where you’d like to end up because you are not informed. Coming from my background did not provide me with the access of knowing; I have had to dig and search. The LiTDC offered me the access I needed and answered questions I didn’t know I had.”

—Emma

Bradley

UC Davis School of Law ’21

Five of the most senior legal women at McDonald’s talk about building an inclusive, growth-oriented culture, which allows employees to bring their whole selves to work

By Billy Yost

Portraits by Cass Davis

EMPOWERING GROWTH AT Mc

Donald’s

In conversation with five of the most senior women in McDonald’s legal department, there’s a phrase that comes up repeatedly. In fact, at one time or another, every one of the lawyers expresses a variation on the theme: “I’d like to echo what my colleague said.” Before responding to a question with their own perspective, each lawyer naturally takes the time to affirm their team member’s response. In doing so, they not only validate each other’s positions but show both public and personal support for their shared experiences.

This isn’t a coincidence. Senior Director of Global Legal Operations Mary Burrelle, Vice President and US General Counsel Mahrukh Hussain, Vice President of Global Labor and Employment Sharon Lepping-Pool, Vice President of Corporate Legal Denise Horne, and Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer Amy Kovalan have risen at McDonald’s not only for their strength in leadership and undeniable legal expertise but for their commitment to building and continuing the culture of respect, support, and inclusion that preceded them.

As the team continues to push boundaries in its public-facing commitment to matters of diversity and inclusion, they also work to build a culture centered on the power of personal and professional growth.

Dedication to Diversity

In March 2019, McDonald’s announced a company-wide push for gender balance and diversity. The Better Together strategy aims to improve the representation of women at all levels of McDonald’s by 2023 and included the signing of the United Nations’ Women Empowerment Principles to emphasize company commitment.

“McDonald’s is one of the biggest employers of women in the world, and we have a large system we can work in to create a positive global impact,” says McDonald’s Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary Jerry Krulewitch. “Our focus with the gender balance and diversity initiative is to support and empower women at every level and to improve diversity and inclusion across the globe. Our system comprises our employees as well as franchisees, suppliers, and business partners across the globe, which means we won’t find success overnight— we’ll have to stay committed to creating meaningful change over time.”

A commitment to diversity and inclusion has been a part of the McDonald’s legal department’s operating model for many years. “More than half of our legal leadership team comprises women and minorities, and it’s similar for our broader function,” says Vice President and US General Counsel Mahrukh Hussain. “This is a direct result of working to ensure that diverse candidates are part of our pipeline in hiring and promotions and continuing to build and sustain an inclusive culture.”

“Our culture work is really about empowering and supporting our people, which naturally has a positive impact on our business.”

Mahrukh Hussain VP and US General Counsel

“The leadership team made a conscious decision that flexibility is a part of working at McDonald’s. . . . We have to support our people in their lives outside of this place if we want to be truly inclusive.”

Sharon Lepping-Pool

VP of Global Labor & Employment Law

The legal department also maintains an external focus on diversity in its outside legal spending and relationships with organizations such as the Leadership Counsel on Legal Diversity, the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms, the National Association of Women Lawyers, and various minority bar associations.

Vice President of Global Labor and Employment Law Sharon Lepping-Pool and Head of Legal Operations Mary Burrelle are active members and sponsors of the department’s long-standing diversity and inclusion committee. The committee formed during the tenure of Gloria Santona, McDonald’s former general counsel and corporate secretary and a strong supporter of women and minorities. Composed of a cross section of legal employees, the committee is driven by a specific mission, vision, and strategy.

“The vision of the committee is to ensure that we have a global legal department where everyone embraces differences as strengths and feels valued and respected, and its mission is to advance diversity and inclusion in both the McDonald’s global legal department and the larger legal community,” Burrelle says. The group recently sponsored leadership and employee training on recognizing and mitigating implicit bias and is hosting a series of Small Group, Big Talk discussions to dig deeper into topics such as presence, imposter syndrome, and discovering implicit bias via Harvard’s implicit association test.

Finding Flexibility

In working to maintain a diverse and more widely representative staff, McDonald’s elected to move its Illinois headquarters from suburban Oak Brook to the

West Loop area in Chicago. To Lepping-Pool, it’s a move, along with a wider departmental focus on flexibility for its employees, that is consistent with an organization that has increasingly recognized how important it is to evolve culturally in order to keep top talent engaged and motivated.

“It’s just part of who we are as a legal department,” Lepping-Pool says. “The leadership team made a conscious decision that flexibility is a part of working at McDonald’s. We work very hard here, at the speed of the business. On top of that, our work is global, complex, and sophisticated, which means people are frequently working during nontraditional hours. Getting more progressive about flexibility is simply an acknowledgement of where we are as a company and a department, and it has really mattered to our people. We have to support our people in their lives outside of this place if we want to be truly inclusive.”

Traditionally, the desire for flexibility was relegated to a “leaving early to pick up the kids” mentality, Chief Compliance Officer Amy Kovalan says. “The issue is much bigger. It’s more focused on the importance of all employees being able to pursue activities that contribute to a greater sense of self. We’re focused on empowering people to work differently. We have remarkable legal professionals, and they need to have the space to navigate their lives as they wish, whether that means shifting things around to take care of aging parents, kids, or frankly, just to pursue their interests outside of work.”

Each of the legal leaders acknowledges the demanding nature of in-house work, which has many of the same short deadlines and time constraints as private practice. “As leaders, we focus on our teams providing high-quality legal support to the business while

leveraging flexibility as a tool to help team members navigate the personal and professional demands on their time, rather than adding pressure to find an elusive balance between the two at any given moment,” Kovalan explains.

Perspectives on Progress

Kovalan and Burrelle are slightly later additions to the McDonald’s legal team. Hussain has been at the company nineteen years, Lepping-Pool for twenty-three, and Horne hit her quarter-century milestone this year. These five women’s differing perspectives offer insight into the continuing progress the legal team has made to be at the forefront of culture building.

“Mary’s experience with strategy and organizational change and her desire to innovate have guided the evolution of the department’s culture and values,” Horne says of Burrelle. “I can’t believe she’s only been here since 2014; she’s been such a critical component.”

From Burrelle’s perspective, part of her job is to hold leadership accountable for executing on the department’s strategy, for having the tough conversations, and for calling out assumptions or things that might otherwise be left unsaid.

“We need to be vigilant about whether we are engaging in the leadership behaviors we’ve articulated as important. Among other things, this means actively working to mitigate implicit bias in the hiring and talent decisions we make,” Burrelle says.

Horne’s own leadership shouldn’t go unnoticed. She considers one of her biggest career milestones to be watching a paralegal she mentored receive McDonald’s distinguished President’s Award. “This is an iconic award that recognizes the top 1 percent of McDonald’s employees globally,” Horne explains. “We talk about lifting others as we rise, and watching her walk across that stage, I was so proud that she got to that moment.”

The same goes for Hussain. It’s not her own accomplishments that she leans on when asked to recall her progress as a leader. It’s the memory of when she was in a lower role and tasked with taking over a challenging team.

“Working through issues with that team to get them to a place where they were as high performing as the rest of the organization really made me proud,” Hussain says. Horne interjects. “Mahrukh, how many people are in your organization?”

“Seventy-five,” Hussain replies quietly.

“Now that’s a real testament to your leadership,” Horne says.

Hussain says the company’s record on inclusion dates back to before any of them were with the company. “I remember hearing stores about the women pioneers here, before they were leaders, who started getting together at someone’s house as almost a support group,” Hussain says. “Eventually, those women rose as leaders, forming a women’s leadership network that has grown over time and now is a global organization.”

“We’ve tried to create opportunities and have people understand that they can grow in diverse areas that might put them in a better position to be ready for that next role.”

Denise Horne VP of Corporate Legal

Mary Burrelle Senior Director of Global Legal Operations

It’s All About the People

“Our people are our biggest asset,” Lepping-Pool says. This awareness translates into talent discussions at every leadership meeting. In addition, the legal department has a professional growth committee with members from across the globe, focused on providing substantive business and career development training and opportunities for every level of employee in the organization.

“Like many in-house legal functions, we have a relatively flat organization, which can be challenging from a retention perspective,” Burrelle notes. “I’m proud of the work of our professional growth committee. It’s really empowered our people to step outside of their comfort zones, to try to learn new things, and to craft new paths in their careers.”

“We need to be vigilant about whether we are engaging in the leadership behaviors we’ve articulated as important.”

In addition, McDonald’s leadership focuses on providing tailored opportunities for talent to help expand depth and breadth of experience, which may come in the way of expat assignments (in which Hussain has taken part), rotational roles, leadership coaching, and a wide array of other opportunities. McDonald’s isn’t just committed to building their bench— they want to keep them.

“We’ve tried to create opportunities and have people understand that they can grow in diverse areas that might put them in a better position to be ready for that next role,” Horne says. “They might be expected or unexpected roles, but the goal is to open up people’s minds to growth opportunities.”

Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary Jerry Krulewitch comes up a lot in the

“There are places where you get handed your values. For us, the words didn’t come first. We simply wrote down what we already do.”

Amy Kovalan VP and Chief Compliance Officer

Honoring achievement

conversation. “Our general counsel is a big proponent of professional growth, and he really models that for the leadership team and everyone here,” Burrelle says. “He openly talks about his own areas for growth; he believes we all have things we can improve on and that we should be accountable to ourselves and each other for improving.”

Similarly, Krulewitch embraces constructive feedback and has worked to make it a more integral part of the culture. “We leverage data from multiple annual surveys, small group discussions, focus groups, and one-on-one meetings to gather insights on how to improve leadership and management of the department,” Burrelle says. “In fact, the creation of the professional growth committee was a direct result of feedback from our employees.”

A Larger Impact

Hussain notes that some of these developmental opportunities also come by way of their long-standing and much-lauded pro bono program. “We have a strong service-oriented ethic, a very active pro bono committee, and most of our folks try to find a way to do some form of pro bono or community service every year,” Hussain notes, “which again goes back to our focus on culture and where we’ve continuously worked to devote our time and resources: diversity and inclusion, pro bono, and professional growth.”

www.pwc.com

Horne says that for legal, understanding the business and even the relationship between the departments within legal is critical. That collective understanding makes it a department in its own class. Lepping-Pool adds that the collective mind-set is also crucial to legal’s philosophy and starts at the top.

“We spend a lot of time focusing on building and sustaining our culture, but our business is our true driver. It’s the reason we are all here, so we have to make sure that our strategy is aligned with that of the broader enterprise,” Burrelle says.

“That’s true,” Hussain affirms. “At the end of the day, our purpose is to enable the business, and we have to make sure that our teams have a strategic focus aligned with the business. Our culture work is really about empowering and supporting our people, which naturally has a positive impact on our business.”

The legal team recently spent time trying to codify its values and culture. “There are places where you get handed your values,” Kovalan says. “For us, the words didn’t come first. We simply wrote down what we already do.”

We congratulate Amy Kovalan on being featured in Modern Counsel for her leadership, achievements and commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Amy, your colleagues at PwC congratulate you on receiving this recognition and wish you continued success in your career.

Those values? Supporting each other personally and professionally, realizing that families are vitally important to the health and well-being of all those on the team, modeling expected behavior and the value of growth, and appreciating development as well as diversity of experience and perspective. It’s clear in the way that these lawyers talk about each other than they’re not just like-minded lawyers or collaborative business partners. They’ve built—and continue to cultivate—a culture built on conscience, growth, and as many of the women expressed independently, “just doing the right thing.”

Gibson Dunn:

“

Congratulations

We applaud the women in law at McDonald’s Corporation for their groundbreaking accomplishments and well deserved recognition in Modern Counsel

congratulates

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We can help you predict, detect, and respond to the risks and vulnerabilities that come from corruption, litigation, fraud, financial mismanagement, and other threats. So you can turn complex issues into opportunities for resilience and long-term advantage.

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HUSSAIN of the McDonald’s Corporation for her outstanding career contributions to the legal profession

Mahrukh is a model lawyer and leader. She combines deep experience, exceptional intelligence, and an eye for both the practical and the strategic with other powerful personal qualities—including impeccable judgment, integrity, and an unfailingly thoughtful and considerate style— to deliver the highest quality advice and to bring out the very best in her in-house colleagues and outside counsel alike.”

—Jarrett Arp, Partner

Beijing  Brussels  Century City

Dallas  Denver  Dubai  Frankfurt

Hong Kong  Houston  London

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Orange County  Palo Alto  Paris

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Bold

Moves

Leah Perry’s focus on risk tolerance and perseverance guided her through a top-level international law program, key roles in Congress, and senior-level positions in the private sector

By Sara Deeter

Davis

Portraits by Cass

Leah Perry’s mother was diagnosed with kidney disease before Perry even started high school.

“I took over some of my mom’s responsibilities,” Perry says of her preteen years. “It taught me the value of hard work. As a female minority, I knew how hard I was going to have to work and that I had to have drive and perseverance. The fact that I got to my current position actually goes back all the way to those experiences and to my family.”

Now a seasoned attorney with proven expertise in privacy law and international law, including technology, financial services, compliance, and humanitarian law, among other areas, Perry takes pride in all the steps she took, the risks she embraced, and the challenges she faced along the way.

“Leah is one of the best privacy attorneys I’ve encountered in my decades in this field,” says Brenda R. Sharton, partner and global chair of Goodwin Procter’s privacy and cybersecurity practice. “Her background across public and private sectors brings unparalleled insight and practicality to the complex privacy issues businesses face today.”

The Beginning of the Journey

Perry worked as a research assistant for the Office of Congressman Elijah E. Cummings while working toward a degree in history at Vassar College. After graduating in 2000, she moved to New York City and found a PR role with Interbrand Corporation, a division of Omnicom. She later transitioned into a business development position at the same company. But Perry always knew she wanted to go to law school, and with this long-term goal in mind, she dedicated herself to studying for the LSAT.

It was in law school, at the University of Iowa College of Law, where Perry truly found her purpose. “I took a course on comparative constitutional law that

Leah Perry

Former Associate General Counsel Facebook

was taught by the former prime minister of New Zealand,” Perry recalls. “It introduced me to this whole world of laws in other nation states and how constitutional law is different from one country to another. I was fascinated by it and kept taking courses, including a course on public international law, international institutions law, and various courses over the summer.”

After graduating early from law school, Perry secured a position as an instructor at Morgan State University—a position she held while studying for the bar and working as an international policy commentator on a local radio station.

Fear Can’t Hold You Back

But Perry’s mother, who had by then recovered from her illness, had a feeling that Perry was meant for even greater things.

“She had a dream where she asked me whether I wanted to go back to school and get an advanced degree,” Perry remembers. “In the dream, I said, ‘No, absolutely not.’ And the next morning when she got up and asked me, I actually said the exact same words verbatim—an absolute and resolute no.”

Despite what she said at the time, Perry says, she began looking at international law programs, as she knew she didn’t want to focus exclusively on US law. Eventually, Perry discovered an advanced Master of Laws (LLM) program offered through Leiden University Faculty of Law on the Hague campus in the Netherlands.

“The more I read about it, the more I liked it and the more I was intrigued,” Perry says. But the moment she was accepted to the program, she realized she would have to make some drastic changes to make it happen. “I ended

up selling nearly everything I had, except for a few clothing items, in order to take the leap,” Perry says. “I sold my car and packed my bags, and I remember just standing there at the Peace Palace gates with my mom and thinking about all I had done and gone through to make it there.”

Taking that leap was difficult, but to Perry, it was worth it. “If you’re not willing to take a risk, you’re going to end up in the same place where you started,” Perry notes. “And just by taking the risk of selling my things and going to the Netherlands, I ended up not only meeting a professor who is my mentor to this day but also learning so much about foreign law and international law issues, which contributed greatly to my time in Congress and elsewhere.”

Voices in Congress

At the time, Perry didn’t realize that she was “doing anything special” by obtaining an LLM. She was just doing what she enjoyed. But shortly after she completed the program, she got a call from the secretary of the Maryland State Bar. “He said, ‘Congratulations, you’re the only person in the state of Maryland with this education,’” she remembers. “Because of that differentiator, it separated me from other attorneys and led me once again to the hallways of Congress and ultimately working for Congressman Cummings.”

While serving in Congressman Cummings’s office, Perry “staffed the member” on a number of key com-

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“I sold my car and packed my bags, and I remember just standing there at the Peace Palace gates with my mom and thinking about all I had done and gone through to make it there.”

mittees, such as the House Armed Services Committee and the Joint Economic Committee. Congressman Cummings had a “lot of faith in her,” Perry says. He later recommended her for the role of senior counsel on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has one of the broadest jurisdictions in Congress, including investigative authority over the federal government and private sector.

“We really made a meaningful difference,” Perry says of her work with those committees, which spanned the investigation of the 2008 financial crisis, as well as the implementation of both the Affordable Care Act and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the largest direct spending bill in US history). “For me, it was about taking one day and one step at a time and going back to the spirit of perseverance I had learned as a little kid. Because there were many times when it was very hard—I had to pick and choose battles—but if I hadn’t been willing to take all those risks, it would never have happened.”

One of a scarce handful of women of color serving on a House Committee as a senior attorney and the highest-ranking African American woman serving on a Senate Committee as legal staff at the time, Perry felt honored by the opportunities she was afforded. But she was also determined to use her position to help others.

“Being the ‘only person in a room’ taught me to be bold and make my voice heard,” Perry says. “I had opportunities to do things that could really help people in future generations. I was behind the scenes but still working to drive things forward and make a meaningful difference to people whose voices were not being heard.”

Perry details some of her many memorable experiences during her time in Congress: working with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s office on sexual assault cases in military campaigns; aiding in the development of the Military Leadership Diversity Commission; investigating violations of the rights of service members, whose banks were foreclosing on their homes while they were deployed; leading investigations into the 2008 financial crisis; and helping oversee and investigate the Indian Health Service.

Since leaving Congress, Perry’s drive and affinity for risk taking have taken her to high-profile roles in the tech sector. As she reflects on her journey, she credits the resilience and determination she acquired through the adversity she weathered—and overcame—in her formative years for giving her the strength to succeed.

Editor’s Note: At time of press, Leah Perry was no longer with Facebook.

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AMBER KAGAN ON CULTIVATING GE’S CULTURE OF

Kagan VP, Global Head of Labor and Employment, and Chief Ethics Compliance Officer General Electric

Amber

GE’s Amber Kagan is dedicated to trailblazing for a younger generation of women, establishing a reputation for excellence and strong leadership at GE and beyond

By Joseph Charney

Amber Kagan has a history of excelling and trailblazing everywhere she goes. Now a vice president, global head of labor and employment, and chief ethics compliance officer at General Electric (GE), the United States’ eighteenth-largest company in terms of gross revenue, Kagan joined GE after more than two decades with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius (Morgan Lewis), a global law firm that employs more than two thousand legal professionals. Over the years at Morgan Lewis, she ascended the ranks from summer associate to partner and head of the New York labor and employment practice group.

Arriving at Morgan Lewis straight out of law school, Kagan acknowledges that the firm was foundational in developing her professional skills and leadership style. Back then, finding such a foundation was rare.

“I knew it at the time, but I appreciate it so much more with the ability to look back: Morgan Lewis was

just a terrific place to develop my career,” Kagan says. “The firm provided me with a friendly environment that allowed me to learn the basics of my field as well as leadership skills, all while balancing my home life.”

Kagan highlights the firm’s culture and countless mentors who were instrumental in allowing her to ascend to the position of part-time partner—one of the first women to attain that title in the firm’s history. “I had mentors and sponsors throughout most of my career, even if they were informal, who helped me navigate and advance,” Kagan describes.

“Amber has always exemplified the values and characteristics that are key to Morgan Lewis’s culture—a strong commitment to the firm and our clients, collegiality and collaboration with others, and a spirit of generosity,” says Morgan Lewis Chair Jami McKeon. “She lives the philosophy of teamwork and excellence, lifting up each person who comes in contact with her.”

By Michelle Fang:

Amber embodies the best of our profession, and her leadership is what we need to improve diversity and inclusion. She is personally investing in up-and-comers within her in-house team and advocating for their advancement. Amber is also using GE’s sizable legal spend to help ensure deserving diverse attorneys are ascending the ranks at their law firms.

The leadership styles of her various supervisors— the ones she admired and ones she didn’t—have played critical roles in establishing Kagan’s style, especially when it comes to developing her team at GE. “When I see someone on my team that I see potential in, I seek them out,” Kagan says. “When GE sees something in an employee, particularly in the leadership space, it is willing to invest resources in them and then stretch them in ways that I am not sure other companies do. Early in my career, GE began sending me to leadership courses and expanding my scope outside of labor and employment. I try to challenge people that way, too.”

Kagan’s focus on mentorship extends beyond GE. Recently, when GE was hiring outside representation, Kagan chose a firm that had a female attorney give the main pitch. Kagan, blown away by her performance, not only hired the firm but also advocated for and sponsored the attorney for a partner position there—a role she now has.

“Amber’s leadership style—leading by example and by consensus—has served both her and her organizations well,” says Morgan Lewis partner Sam Shaulson, coleader of the labor and employment practice’s financial services team and a former member of the firm’s advisory board. “By doing the right thing, offering excellent judgment, and creating an inclusive and

respectful workplace, Amber makes members of the team want to rally behind her.”

In addition to leading GE’s labor & employment legal team, Kagan was recently named chief compliance officer for GE. In this role, she is tasked with ensuring legal compliance as well as compliance with the company’s stringent internal code of conduct. Underpinning this code is the establishment of a ubiquitous and open reporting culture, where employees at all levels in all departments not only feel comfortable but empowered to speak up. “It cannot be overstated,” Kagan says. “I believe it’s second to none and absolutely foundational for us.

“When you think of how big GE is—how many countries we operate in and how many third parties we do business with—it only takes one to do something that’s not consistent with all of the processes and programs we have,” Kagan continues. “We only have so much control, so an open reporting culture is our first line of defense.”

Finding ways to implement, track, and evaluate GE’s adherence to its code of conduct is the crux of Kagan’s work, which she describes as occurring in various stages and at various levels throughout the company.

Kagan must establish a sound set of procedures and policies that enable both legal and cultural com-

pliance and then continuously monitor and audit them to ensure that they are being upheld. Next, Kagan’s team evaluates whether the procedures and policies are effective from a programmatic perspective: what have the monitoring and auditing revealed?

When issues inevitably arise, Kagan’s team is also responsible for investigations and data analysis, which often elucidate the issues’ source or illuminate trends. Finally, Kagan must stay in ongoing communication with the senior leadership team, keeping them fully involved and aware of all matters regarding compliance.

Kagan is grateful that she works for a company that truly cares about a culture of integrity and compliance and is constantly looking for ways to improve. “Any company that thinks it has reached its pinnacle is fooling itself,” Kagan says. “You need to always look in the mirror and say, ‘OK, we’re good, but can we be better?’ I think the answer is always yes.”

Morgan Lewis helps employers navigate the constantly changing landscape of global laws. With more than 375 labor and employment lawyers and professionals in the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, we apply a solution-oriented approach to give our clients a competitive edge.

Littler:

“Amber brings intelligence, practicality, and a spirit of comradery in all the projects she undertakes. Littler is proud to be part of the team and joins in celebrating her successes.”

–Lori Alexander, Shareholder

THE FUTURE IS

Electric

Adraea Brown protects Harley-Davidson’s iconic name as the company unveils novel technologies, such as electric motorcycle LiveWire

By Chip Hooper

Harley-Davidson, one of the most iconic American brand names and a global leader in motorcycle manufacturing, has been in operation for more than 116 years. The company carefully manages its reputation and the lifestyle that goes along with its brand to maintain an image and identity that people want to be a part of. This type of management is particularly important as Harley-Davidson evolves with the changing times and embraces the advent of new technologies.

With the help of Adraea Brown, legal director of trademarks and brand protection, Harley-Davidson is entering untrodden territory. It has debuted electric motorcycle LiveWire, its first electric vehicle, which has now moved past the prototyping phases and entered production. Even as Harley-Davidson pursues the LiveWire motorcycle and other projects, it remains steeped in its history, never sacrificing the high standard of quality that has led to its being known and beloved all over the world.

Harley-Davidson is a lifestyle brand, Brown explains, and its fiercely loyal fans take that lifestyle seriously. “A lot of people love Oreo cookies. I love Oreos. But do people love Oreos enough to have them tattooed on their arm and go to Oreo conventions? Perhaps, but this is the level of passion for the HarleyDavidson brand.”

Since Harley can represent such a significant aspect of customers’ lives, the company goes above and beyond to protect its trademarks. “We want people to love Harley. We want people to show their passion,” Brown says. For instance, the company has no interest in policing people’s passion projects—homages to Harley that they make solely for their own personal, noncommercial use. “But we also want the public to buy genuine products and be safe. Quality and safety are paramount for Harley-Davidson.”

One customer Brown recalls hearing about purchased a neon sign, allegedly produced by Harley-Davidson, that burned down her house. The sign was a counterfeit, as

Harley-Davidson did not make or license neon signs. Since counterfeit products can often pose serious hazards, Brown and her team must be vigilant to protect people from goods that are being marketed and sold as Harley products though they are anything but.

Harley’s newer products pose different challenges for the legal team when it comes to safeguarding Harley’s trademarks. The 2020 model year launched in August 2019, and with it, LiveWire, Harley’s first fully electric vehicle. LiveWire is just the beginning for Harley-Davidson, which is currently working on pedal-assist electric

Adraea Brown Director of Legal, Trademarks & Brand Protection Harley-Davidson

bicycles and electric scooters. Because Harley has not made these types of products previously, it is up to the legal team to develop an enforcement strategy to protect the brand from counterfeits, including pursuit of additional trademark registrations.

A few years ago, Brown remembers that the team noticed some counterfeit Harley-branded e-scooters appearing in China and Vietnam. Then the e-scooters started coming through various customs ports. At the time, it was easy to tell customs to simply put a hold on any so-called Harley scooters because the company was not producing scooters. Now that genuine Harley scooters will exist, however, the company must prepare for how it will guide and train customs officers and agents so that they do not delay or confiscate genuine Harley scooters. Things are changing fast for Harley-Davidson, and with innovations ever on the horizon, Brown and her team continually tackle thorny legal issues to equip themselves and the company for the future.

Traditionally, Harley-Davidson has not shared its future plans with the public. That gave the legal team more time to plan and prepare. “2018 was the first year that Harley ever announced future plans to the public,” Brown says. “With that, my trademark team needs to be able to reach decisions faster to adapt to the direction and speed of the company. We have to be more agile, more accepting of risk, and more open to change.” She is promoting the acceptance of change throughout the company, reevaluating the company’s self-imposed rules to make the brand stronger. “We understand that in order to evolve and move forward, we have to embrace change,” she says.

This flexibility and open-mindedness are apparent in Harley-Davidson’s support of a diverse workforce. “One thing that’s great about Harley from a corporate perspective is that when most people think of Harley, they think of our stereotypical customer, who is, for the most part, a white man age forty and above,” Brown says. But the image of a typical customer is not necessarily reflective

of Harley-Davidson’s values or its employees. “We have that demographic, but we also have a lot of diversity. The legal department in particular is very diverse, especially as it relates to women.”

This diversity is a constant source of inspiration for Brown. “Seeing someone who has been able to excel and who looks like me tells me a lot about the company.” As an out black woman, she is aware of the stereotypes but does not allow herself to become boxed into them. The diversity she has observed at Harley-Davidson underscores its commitment to excellence and success.

“The idea around diversity discussions, in my opinion, is that one day there will be diversity without having to discuss it and create action plans. We will hire diverse talent and work in diverse work environments simply because everyone understands diverse teams produce the best results. That would be my dream.”

As Harley-Davidson continues to move forward, ever nimble as it builds vehicles and strategies for the future, it does so with a diverse lineup of new products coming down the pipeline and a diverse team of lawyers to protect it. Brown has shown that change is nothing to fear. HarleyDavidson will adapt to the landscape of electric vehicles for consumers at every level while maintaining the storied history of a great American lifestyle brand.

in the automotive, software and technology, entertainment, publishing, pharmaceutical, education, financial services, travel, lodging, and hospitality fields.

kelly-ip.com

Lyudmila Napoé

Associate General Counsel, Americas

Mars Wrigley Confectionery

Joe Lloyd

THE Legality

OF TIME TRAVEL

is at her best when she’s operating in the present but continually looking toward the future at Mars Wrigley

Lyudmila Napoé

By Billy Yost

When Lyudmila Napoé is operating at her finest, she’s a time traveler.

“My left foot is always in the present, trying to understand where my company is and what success looks like for us today,” the associate general counsel for the Americas at Mars Wrigley Confectionery says. “But I’m a righty, and my right foot is always in the future; it’s so important to know where our consumers and peer set are going and, more importantly, where we want to go and how to get there.”

Napoé, who has spent her entire legal career under the Mars Wrigley (and

formerly Wrigley) umbrellas, says that keeping her feet in the present and future is what makes her a better lawyer. It doesn’t hurt that while she essentially travels through time, Napoé has some of the most famous names in snacking to reward herself along the way.

Since coming to Mars Wrigley after an internship that left her enamored with the company, Napoé says that her increasing responsibilities have challenged her in how to best serve the business in a time of great change. The lawyer serves as head of legal for the confectionery business in the Americas while also acting as a member of

the US leadership team and site director for the US business’s Chicago office.

“With my president and business leadership team, my goal is always to bring a different perspective to the table,” Napoé says. “That’s where I can influence strategy and become a trusted advisor.” While she recognizes that the idea of blending in is desirable to some, she notes that the opposite is necessary to attain leadership status. “This is the table where who you are and the principles that you hold come heavily into play.”

As head of legal for the Americas, Napoé says that her own best practices often come down to team building and personal development. “I need to make sure that given the changing nature of the landscape, my team is ready, agile, and developmentally trained to be able to handle whatever lands on their desks,” she explains, adding that she tailors the development plans to ensure everyone is able to evolve at their own pace and pursue areas of law that apply to their respective interests.

It’s imperative to have team members stay ahead, understanding which issues will be trending and facing the industry, Napoé says, as new and different areas of the law wax and wane. Consumer privacy laws are making their way from Europe to the Americas, and Napoé is working to ensure that members of her team have delved into particular issues so that when the time comes, they are ready.

Napoé has faced significant challenges in helping associates accommodate shifts in the marketplace and the resulting career transitions. “Sometimes it can be very hard. I try to help our associates approach change with the mind-set of opportunity,” she says.

The associate GC was especially heartened when an associate with whom she’d worked closely as part of her site directorship confided in her that she was eager to pursue a different career path. As the woman was instrumental in creating an engaged environment during a period of transition at the Chicago site, Napoé eagerly recommended her for a position that

“With my president and business leadership team, my goal is always to bring a different perspective to the table.”

allowed her a promotion in Mars Wrigley’s new Newark facility. “It’s such a beautiful ending for this jewel who has shown herself to be ready for new opportunities and challenges,” Napoé says.

The increasingly fast pace of change for consumers in what they want from their products, how they purchase them, and their desire for social mission–driven purchases provides myriad complex challenges for both legal and the industry at large, Napoé says. “As companies become more outspoken about their missions and commitments, it’s imperative for us to be able to back up what we say and ensure that we’re able to honor the commitments that we make.”

Beyond supporting her consumers, associates, and various teams, Napoé allows herself time to demonstrate this skill set at home, too, when caring for her sons. “Many of us have these home roles, and it’s important to embrace and enjoy that,” she says. While the working mother of two may have her feet planted in multiple time periods, she says she can likely be found at her kids’ soccer practice, Snickers bar in hand.

Williams & Connolly LLP is proud to work with such innovative, creative, and collaborative leaders in the food, beverage, and pet industry. We applaud Mars’ shared commitment to diversity, excellence, and the highest standards of professionalism.

We are proud to support our friend and client LYUDMILA NAPOÉ of Mars Wrigley, and congratulate her on her dynamic career and continued success. www.wc.com

Wheel TAKING THE

By Robert Henry and Hana Yoo

Being a great lawyer is about more than just understanding the law. It’s about understanding people—and communities. Dorothy Capers has proven this point by using her interpersonal skills to rise to the level of general counsel, build a cohesive legal team, and better her community. As executive vice president and group general counsel for transportation company National Express Group, Capers exercises her devotion to making a difference in people’s lives. The company’s focus on safety is in line with Capers’s philosophy of community service.

Growing up watching Perry Mason with her grandmother, Capers knew she wanted to be a lawyer. “He just seemed so valiant and investigative,” she says, referencing the iconic title character’s role on the television show. This inspiration was further nurtured by

At National Express, Dorothy Capers acts with intentionality in serving the community, building relationships, and cultivating a cohesive company culture

Dorothy Capers EVP and Group General Counsel National Express Group

Dan Merlo

Driving Change

Dorothy Capers sits on a number of boards and has taken on multiple passion projects that are in keeping with her dedication to community service. For example, as a transit company whose clients include a number of Chicago-area schools, National Express Group was facing a shortage of qualified bus drivers. Capers noticed an opportunity to simultaneously address National Express’ people needs and connect unemployed parents of children at the schools National Express serves to provide training and employment opportunities. She worked on an initiative with Children’s Home and Aid to help these parents obtain CDL licenses and become drivers for the schools that their children attended. She also volunteers at a battered women’s shelter and, with the help of her children and children’s friends, assembles survival kits for local homeless populations. These are issues that she cares deeply about, and in giving back with her children, she is carrying on her parents’ legacy.

her ties to civil rights lawyer Wiley Austin Branton Sr., an African American lawyer who helped desegregate the Arkansas school system and increase voter registrations for African Americans. Branton, a family friend, worked alongside her parents, who were also civil rights activists in Alabama and Arkansas during the 1960s. Influenced by her parents’ ideals, this lifelong legal warrior’s guidance, and the passion of a television drama character, Capers says, “I just became committed to serving my community, and I found the law a great way to make sure that justice is served.”

Some of her most memorable legal accomplishments have happened in Chicago. During the 1990s, local gangs began selling drugs on street corners. Capers

worked with a number of agencies and departments on a multifunctional project to develop a drug and gang house initiative, engaging the community to combat crime and improve public safety. Later, she lent her skills to Chicago’s 2016 Summer Olympics bid, forging connections between corporate, municipal, and civic groups to prepare for the city’s bid. Working for city institutions like the Cook County government, City of Chicago Department of Law, and Cook County State Attorney’s Office “always made me feel like I was making a huge difference for the citizens of Chicago,” she says.

As much as she enjoyed these jobs, Capers has viewed every role as a stepping-stone to the next, continually building on her past experiences to go new places. When she took up her current position at National Express—a multinational company headquartered in the UK—at its North America office in the northwest Chicago suburb of Lisle, she learned the value of self-care. She recalls, “When I first started in the

“I just became committed to serving my community, and I found the law a great way to make sure that justice is served.”

global role a little over a year ago, I was literally up for twenty-four hours. As soon as I went to bed at eleven o’clock, [my international colleagues] were waking up and would start emailing, and then I would start responding. And I would look up and it’d be nine o’clock. I had to get to the office.” It took some time to understand the nuances of supporting a multinational company.

Aside from the time differences, she had to negotiate cultural differences, such as dissimilar work paces and approaches to company growth. The key to navigating such differences—and overcoming any career-related

rshc-law.com

obstacles—has been relationships Capers emphasizes the importance of long-term relationships over shortterm wins in building and sustaining a career path.

Another challenge Capers has addressed, in part, by leaning on the strong relationships she’s built over the years is launching her own diversity and inclusion initiative at National Express. “When I first got here, there were few women and no attorneys of color in the legal department. I was troubled by that, and so I changed the dynamic by ensuring that the set of candidates that I was presented with always had to have diverse attorneys.” It made sense to her, given the diverse groups National Express serves, that the company composition should reflect those communities internally.

In addition to reaching out to her vast network to find strong candidates, Capers has worked with many organizations, including the Black Women Lawyer’s Association of Greater Chicago, the Asian American Bar Association of Greater Chicago, and Cook County Bar Association, to find quality candidates from different backgrounds. She notes that having different viewpoints on various projects has contributed to the company’s success.

Relationships are also what binds teams together when employees are weathering life’s storms. Capers lost a parent this year, as did one of her paralegals. Another employee was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. “We just really pulled together in a way that I’ve never seen employees work together,” she says. “I really do feel like it’s a family, because we all rely heavily on each other.”

Sedgwick:

“Dorothy Capers is a visionary leader and Sedgwick is very proud of our partnership with Dorothy and National Express Group. Our collaboration has fostered a family like team that continues to exceed expectations. Congrats on this well-deserved recognition!”

–Michael Betti, Senior Vice President

A law firm built for clients.®

We congratulate and are delighted to partner with Dorothy G. Capers Executive Vice President & Global General Counsel, National Express Group.

“If you’re going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that can’t be erased.”

~ Maya Angelou

Break KNOWING LIMITS TO Limits

Sirisha Gummaregula Chief Operating Officer QuisLex

QuisLex’s Sirisha Gummaregula helps provide the best that AI can offer by understanding its limits

By Billy Yost

Michael Grimm

QuisLex, headquartered in New York, has positioned itself at the mainline intersection of law, technology, analytics, and program management. The alternative legal services provider is utilizing technology to enable faster and more accurate solutions for early case assessment, document review, and other legal support services.

Chief Operating Officer Sirisha Gummaregula says that for the last thirteen years, she has focused on cutting-edge legal solutions, all the while understanding that although technology has the ability to enhance, for any technology to reach its full potential, the people behind it have to be more than technologists. They have to understand the limits of AI to ensure it operates at its absolute best.

Gummaregula says QuisLex provides an interesting expansion of what exactly “legal” can mean. “Law is no longer just the legal side,” Gummaregula says. “You need to understand technology, analytics, linguistics; it’s really a multidisciplinary area.”

The COO says it’s this expansive view of the law that allows QuisLex to truly operate as an effective business partner. By viewing legal issues through a wider lens as an overall business issue, QuisLex provides clients with the highest level of services. “When we are supporting our clients, there are no legal issues,” Gummaregula says. “There are only business issues with legal dimensions.”

Regardless of the lens through which either the client or the company views a given problem, Gummaregula says that her greatest source of satisfaction is solving challenging problems for clients who may feel like they’re up against a firing squad. “Our clients are often in the middle of big investigations or big transactions, and I can feel how stressful these

problems can be just by talking with our clients,” Gummaregula says. Her aim is always “to be able to quickly come up with a solution that provides not only a short-term accomplishment but a longterm one as well.” She continues, “I’m proud to solve these problems thoughtfully, strategically, and with more than a short-gain perspective.”

Gummaregula says that while QuisLex excels in using technology to facilitate faster, more efficient results, she is much more conservative about its role than most might imagine. “I’m a big fan of machines and have personally been involved in designing many systems and solutions for a good many of our clients,” the COO says. “But technology can only solve for the problems you design it to solve.”

Often, in the case of supervised learning, Gummaregula says, the people “teaching” the machines aren’t themselves subject matter experts for the problems they’re working to solve. It’s why when designing solutions, QuisLex places an emphasis on accepting the limitations of what AI can do, closely examining and refining the technological components to make them as accurate as possible.

In QuisLex’s efforts to provide far-ranging solutions for customers, Gummaregula says the company has worked to become a knowledge reposi-

tory for best practices and live analytics.

“Our live analytics are built into our modeling, so when an associate negotiates a contract on behalf of a client, they can see live what positions have been taken on similar agreements,” the COO says. “They can understand the comfort level of the company, and the decision can be made much quicker. And the revenue follows.” Overlaying analytics has allowed QuisLex to draw up customized workflows, which in turn have led to more efficient decision-making.

Most important, Gummaregula says, identifying these best practices and patterns lets QuisLex reuse processes on a constant basis, creating a perpetual cycle of process improvement and efficiency-sharpening tools.

Encountering Six Sigma earlier on in her career, Gummaregula says, aided her in leading Six Sigma black belts at QuisLex. “With analytics and data at Six Sigma’s core, it’s a much different science than the legal hat I was used to wearing,” Gummaregula says. “I was used to wading into an issue and just making a call, but this requires a completely different base of knowledge.”

Gummaregula is uniquely suited for her role at a company that prides itself on providing solutions better and faster. Earlier in her career, as an M&A services lawyer, she was required to work in what she calls “unprecedented time frames.” “We never really had the luxury of time,” the COO says. “Right from the start, the mentality had to be, ‘How do I get the same results in the shortest amount of time possible?’”

This preparation in a pressurecooker environment functioned as a building block to Gummaregula’s success at QuisLex. In ensuring results for her clients, Gummaregula has applied her fine-tuned capacity for time management and best-of-class results as a professional at the top of her game.

“Our goal is always to execute quickly, on a consistent basis, in a way that can be used again and again,” she remarks, “so the problem you’re solving isn’t a one-time solution.”

Empowering Through Inclusivity and Growth

Sirisha Gummaregula says QuisLex distinguishes itself from its counterparts through a comparatively high percentage of women in its workforce. According to the COO, this practice just makes good business sense.

“Having women in the workforce at senior and revenue-generating levels is important, as it helps younger women in the workforce establish role models, set goals, and generally realize that most aspirations in the workplace are achievable,” Gummaregula states. “In our company, this is something we track and measure closely. We have more than 40 percent women in our workforce, but more importantly, more than half of our revenue is generated and managed by our women employees. This is tremendous empowerment and something that allows us to foster a culture of inclusivity and growth.”

“I’m a big fan of machines and have personally been involved in designing many systems and solutions for a good many of our clients.”

Associate

Marilyn McClure-Demers on her top ten leadership strategies and driving change at Nationwide

By Billy Yost

Marilyn McClure-Demers’s entire approach to leadership sits in a nearby drawer, ready to be pulled out when a team member comes in to vent or is frustrated. It’s a symbol that can be drawn anywhere, anytime, even by McClure-Demers herself, who admits that “artistic” is one of the last ways she would describe herself. It’s a heart in the middle of a piece of paper with larger concentric circles: essentially a hearted bull’s-eye target.

McClure-Demers will pull out the piece of paper to disrupt her team’s negative thoughts or to encourage them that they’re doing the right thing. She calls it “Pure Heart Leadership,” a way to unburden her team of things they can’t control. As long as they’re doing their best, that’s all that matters. “It’s something that rallies us together to solve problems and make things better,” McClure-Demers says. “I think everyone could agree we could use a lot more of that.”

The vice president and associate general counsel of corporate and class action litigation and discovery at Nationwide has seen her Pure Heart Leadership model employed by those she mentored and even papers written on the subject. But it’s a larger umbrella of top ten leadership strategies that she has developed over an extensive legal career both in the firm world and as in-house counsel. She has molded and

built out each component of her list over a long period of time. Recently, she harmonized all ten at once and leveraged them during a legal transformation at Nationwide. This list has served as a model throughout her many leadership successes.

“I was charged with taking over an operation that was in dire need of some turnaround,” McClure-Demers says. “We needed an upgrade in our talent and development in best legal practices as well as increasing engagement and inclusivity on our teams.”

In short, a lot of moving parts with the potential for pushback, upheaval, and all of the growing pains that a turnaround can elicit. Here, in McClure-Demers’s own words, is a snapshot of her top ten strategies in action, practiced with the full realization that even when they are successful, “there is always something else to nurture.”

1. Lead at All Times

“As we journeyed through this process, there was no downtime when you weren’t leading or influencing. This was about a renewed investment in talking about the concepts of First Team [that leaders should assist and advocate for their fellow leaders, prioritizing these ties over those with their direct reports] and how we collaborate and reach alignment.”

Marilyn-isms

Marilyn McClure-Demers has a way with words, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed. The lawyer has had at least a couple informal volumes of her “Marilyn-isms” lightheartedly created by her teams and colleagues.

Certain phrases from McClureDemers are well loved. Her analogy of “enterprise as an octopus” landed a stuffed purple octopus in her office. And the VP’s assistant can easily rattle off one of her boss’s favorite standby phrases: “If we’re dealing with apples, let’s deal with apples and not make a fruit salad out of it.”

This well-honed technique is a key part of her leadership style and an effective way to connect with others. Marilyn uses her Marilynisms to get others’ attention and to keep them focused, especially when encountering challenging scenarios.

2. Authenticity

“People know if you’re genuinely interested in helping them. This played out in a number of ways successfully. This brought several folks to a fork in the road where they were able to assess for themselves if this was where they wanted to be and if they possessed the skills to be able to be part of this transformation.”

3. Cultivate a Growth Mind-Set

“Once we started to assemble the talent we needed, it was an opportunity to create new processes and efficiencies. It was a chance for our folks to really live into a growth mind-set.”

4. Listen

“You need to come in and demonstrate your desire to learn from your team and listen to them. It’s important for insight, validation, and to ‘lean in’ to enable others to lead and grow, too.”

5. Be a Strategic Visionary

“We need to be providing more enhanced efficiencies and corporate value. Some people can help create the vision; some cannot. But once you’ve come together as a leadership team on what the vision is, you have to create a strategy for executing on something that others can live into.”

6. Be Courageous

“There were plenty of naysayers on the sidelines. Making this kind of cultural and organizational change is going to create some rough seas. That’s when you need courage and fortitude as a leader to stay the course and be steadfast.”

7. Be Resilient

“It’s really hand in glove with courage. There were many late nights and early mornings where we had to work through a crisis. Resiliency and adaptability during these times is absolutely essential.”

8. Value People and Their Differences

“When you have to go through change—and you do have to, to make the organization better—you can do it in a way that appreciates people and helps them achieve their own goals. You can empower people to make their own decisions, and you have to be OK with the fact that sometimes that means they will go their own direction with your full support.”

9. Remain Grateful

“One of the biggest rewards was having those on my team who thanked me for giving them a chance. I could see personal growth in myself and growth in others, and I wanted to be sure to let those appreciate the accolades that came our way.”

10. Employ Grace and Kindness

“In difficult times, when conflict resolution may be necessary, you have to have the grace to slow it down and have meaningful exchanges, giving people the opportunity to build deeper relationships. Doing that has given people the chance to really surprise me. Always be kind to others and acknowledge and appreciate when they are kind to you, too.”

Dentons:

“Marilyn draws strength and insight from challenges she has overcome and makes a difference for others. She appreciates the unique talents of each member of her teams and makes them feel valued, supported, and inspired.”

–Sonia Martin, Partner

Focused Excellence

For more than 40 years, our 250+ attorneys have brought experience to bear in several practices and industries. This sustained focus enables us to offer the kind of uncommon solutions and practical insights that can help your organization thrive.

ebglaw.com

Congratulations to Marilyn McClure-Demers on her recognition as a leader in promoting diversity and inclusion. Dentons is proud to work with Marilyn and with Nationwide to foster a more diverse, inclusive and equitable legal profession.

We celebrate the women in-house counsel, founders and investors making their voices heard.

m

Gunderson Dettmer believes in the power of individual and diverse perspectives.

Su-Jin Lee VP and General Counsel PopSugar

Bonnie Mills

Magical PART OF SOMETHING

Su-Jin Lee has found her perfect fit with PopSugar’s legal team, where she is able to stretch herself as well as push her majoritywomen team to drive business growth

By Sara Deeter

If you had asked Su-Jin Lee as a young girl what she wanted to be when she grew up, she would have said “a lawyer . . . and work at Disneyland,” Lee laughs. “I wanted to help others and to be a part of something magical and inspiring.” Now a vice president and general counsel at media and technology sensation PopSugar, Lee has the magic and inspiration she asked for.

When Lee was first starting out in her career, however, she wasn’t always sure that the law field would provide what she was looking for. After graduating from law school, Lee found herself in Silicon Valley, working with venture capital firms, tech start-ups, data analytics companies, and more. But one particular experience from her time in the Valley stands out in Lee’s mind.

In her first year at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Lee was invited to sit in on an initial client intake meeting along with a few other partners and associates. “I remember it like it was yesterday—we walked into a conference room, and one of the founders of the company jokingly said, ‘Here come the lawyers, where our dreams go to die.’ And, of course, everyone laughed,” she recalls. “But I never forgot it, because I didn’t want to be that kind of lawyer.”

Emoting Happiness

From the legal department to the company website, PopSugar’s sunny optimism and creative flair shines through.

Su-Jin Lee’s employee bio details her career history and educational background, but it also includes a unique twist: her favorite emoji, the tongue-out emoji. “It’s kind of cheeky and fun, just like PopSugar,” Lee says of the emoji. “We often laugh at ourselves and at some of the crazy, tricky situations we find ourselves in. Our mission is to be a positive brand, and I really try to inject that culture of happiness into my dayto-day work.”

Rather, Lee says, what excited her about the legal industry and the clients she worked with was the creativity involved: the teams that drove innovation and helped build products and services that in many cases were changing people’s lives. “Now, at PopSugar, I am surrounded by some of the most actively creative people, people who inspire other women around the world,” Lee offers. “I am very proud that I am part of that team.”

PopSugar is far more than a media publisher. “We’re a leading digital brand for women globally. In the past few years, our focus has been on revenue diversification, which has led us to create more innovative technology, products, and services for our audience and our partners,” the GC explains. “We’ve also established new licensing partnerships, including a makeup line called Beauty by PopSugar and a women’s apparel line, PopSugar Collection at Kohl’s.”

The company also has a subscription box service called PopSugar Must Have and has been expanding its experiential business, Lee notes, which has presented new challenges and opportunities for her and

“At PopSugar, I am surrounded by some of the most actively creative people, people who inspire other women around the world. I am very proud that I am part of that team.”

her legal team. “We recently had our second annual PopSugar Play/Ground, which is a weekend festival with more than fifteen thousand attendees in New York City. It’s like millennial heaven,” Lee chuckles.

It is nevertheless a monumental feat to ramp up to a large-scale event like that, Lee points out, requiring the legal team to support every other team at the company, help the creative and sales teams flesh out ideas very early on in the process, and dive into more granular logistical or legal issues at a moment’s notice. “Sometimes the conversations and negotiations continue straight up to the day of the event,” Lee notes. “So we have to take a nimble-solutions approach to understand and support what our advertisers want to accomplish, what we want to accomplish for attendees of the event, and what our business and marketing teams want to bring to life.”

While that type of environment may seem overwhelming to some, Lee revels in it. “I’m always trying to operate with one foot in what I call my stretch zone, which is just outside my comfort zone,” she says.

“Su-Jin nails the delicate balance every corporate lawyer struggles with—weighing risk against business pragmatism,” says Ivan Gaviria, a partner at Gunderson Dettmer. “She skillfully leverages outside counsel’s input and experience to put herself in the best position to make those fine judgment calls across a range of issues.”

Lee also gives a great deal of credit for her success to her team and the culture of family, happiness, and community that the company has cultivated. “Many companies strive for a culture that supports collaboration and teamwork, and here at PopSugar that culture also has to be positive and make room for kindness,” she says. “I always try to encourage my team to prioritize trust, and we have a great deal of fun, too.”

Lee’s team is actually a bit of an oddity in the tech industry, she says. “It’s incredible—more than 80 percent of the employees here at PopSugar are women, and 64 percent of our VPs and above are women,” the GC shares. “For so much of my professional life, I was the only woman or the only person of color in the room. That’s rarely the case here, and I do what I can to promote diversity, mentor other women, and implement these ideas in my hiring practices so that this can be a norm for future generations.”

The past five years have flown by, Lee says, and she cannot wait to see what the future holds for both her and PopSugar. “The digital media industry is evolving and we’re evolving with it but practicing law out here in Silicon Valley has always been like the Wild West— you have to be comfortable going into the unknown,” she says with a laugh. “It’s an exciting journey, so I just try to be open and spontaneous because I never know what will happen down the line.”

Reecy Korrine Photography

RISING TO THE

Occasion

Meaghan Nelson has spent her entire career surpassing expectations, a talent that comes in handy at Veeva

By Sara Deeter

Meaghan Nelson is unstoppable. As the associate general counsel, corporate, and assistant corporate secretary at Veeva, a leader in cloud-based industry solutions, Nelson naturally leverages years of experience with C-suite coordination, investor relations, corporate communications, IPOs, and more. But Nelson also brings to the table a talent for exceeding expectations—both her own and those of individuals all around her.

A graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, Nelson performed much better than she expected in terms of grades, she says. “I graduated close to the top of my class, which gave me opportunities to work in top firms in New York City,” Nelson explains. “I believe I am actually the first woman from my law school to work at Cravath [Cravath, Swaine & Moore].”

After leaving Cravath in 2011, Nelson found new opportunities to work on IPOs at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Silicon Valley. Nelson proved well suited to IPO work because “I could pull consecutive all-nighters and outwork pretty much anybody else,” she says. “I just didn’t need a lot of sleep—I’m naturally caffeinated.”

In 2013, the strong impressions Nelson had made on her colleagues through her diligence and persistence paid off. Richard Blake, a partner at Wilson, was offered a new position at Gunderson Dettmer, where he would be running the IPO and public company practice group. He asked Nelson to be his second-in-command. “I was still pretty early in my career at that point. It was a chance to run deals several years ahead of the traditional schedule,” Nelson says. “So, I said yes, and my first day at Gunderson was the organizational meeting for Veeva’s IPO.”

While working with the Veeva team as a Gunderson associate, Nelson took on some of the most challenging projects of her career. “I took three companies public, simultaneously, in 2015,” she says. But after reflecting on that process, Nelson says, she began to consider finding an in-house position. “I had done pretty much the hardest thing I could imagine doing at a law firm. I was ready for the next challenge,” Nelson remembers.

There wasn’t an in-house position open at Veeva at the time, she says, but the general counsel there had become a mentor, “like a big brother.” When Nelson told him about her potential plans to leave Gunderson, he immediately told her to come to Veeva. “It was a very natural fit because I had already been working with them for so long. I was already acquainted with my counterparts in finance, too,” Nelson adds.

“While at Gunderson Dettmer, Meaghan was extraordinarily focused and driven—qualities I have seen firsthand add tremendous value to Veeva,” says Brian Patterson, a partner at Gunderson Dettmer. “Meaghan has earned the board’s trust, and they count on her to drive difficult legal-related initiatives forward.”

Meaghan Nelson Associate General Counsel, Corporate and Assistant Corporate Secretary Veeva

Since Nelson came in-house at Veeva in 2016, both her team and the company as a whole have rapidly expanded. “It’s been a time of dynamic change. We’ve more than doubled in size, our market cap has grown more than five times, we’ve set a goal of getting ten thousand employees by 2025, we made the decision to move outside of the life sciences industry, and we’ve hit a billion-dollar revenue run rate,” Nelson says.

Because of this dynamism, Nelson focuses on maintaining a start-up mentality in her legal work. “You have to think about how you can facilitate a very quickly moving business,” Nelson points out. “And that’s about getting up

Reecy Korrine Photography

to speed on something you might not be an expert on and approaching problems with a business-centered mind-set.”

High business growth also creates new opportunities for employees, Nelson notes. “I give everyone on my team opportunities to learn and grow,” she says. “People want to do well. They want to feel empowered and like they have ownership over their part of the process. I give them room to do that.”

In addition to managing her team, Nelson is heavily involved in Veeva’s corporate matters, from managing strategic transactions to US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) reporting to compliance with New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) regulations. Nelson notes that these matters are key parts of her role. “A big part of my job boils down to communicating clearly: I review all our public communications once they rise to a certain level.”

Reecy Korrine Photography

In the course of her corporate governance work, Nelson has helped overhaul the company’s proxy statement. “I own that document from start to finish. It’s really my baby,” Nelson chuckles. “We’ve made a lot of enhancements since I started, both from a way-finding perspective and in terms of what we’re communicating to our investors.”

Nelson has received a lot of positive feedback on that document, she says, including feedback from Veeva’s board members. Nelson values her relationship with the board—in addition to covering nominating and governance, compensation, and audit committee matters, she strives to dedicate at least thirty minutes of each day to professional reading so that she can keep an eye on topics of interest to board members and of importance to Veeva’s corporate governance.

In accordance with her passion for maximizing stakeholder engagement, she has consistently dedicated herself to keeping the lines of communication with Veeva’s stockholders clear and open, especially on environmental social governance issues.

While this may all seem like an overwhelming amount of work, Nelson prides herself on her ability to stay on top of things. “I don’t like to preach to others and tell them I know best,” Nelson says. “But people always say, ‘Meaghan gets stuff done.’ I’ve given presentations on how to manage all the work that comes in and why you can’t let the tyranny of everyday work get in the way of your long-term goals. If you take your eyes off the prize, you can miss the mark.”

Expertise Spotlight

Gunderson Dettmer, celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary this year, is one of the few international law firms singularly focused on the global venture capital, growth equity, and emerging companies ecosystem. The firm’s more than two hundred and eighty lawyers provide comprehensive service for company and investor clients worldwide from nine offices located in Silicon Valley, Ann Arbor, Beijing, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, and Singapore.

The firm supports more than 2,500 venture-backed companies with guidance at every stage in their life cycles, from launch through IPO and beyond, becoming extensions of their management teams as they prepare for their next stage of growth. For the past six years, Gunderson Dettmer has been recognized by PitchBook as the number one law firm globally for venture and growth equity deals.

Gunderson Dettmer also represents more than four hundred and fifty of the world’s top venture capital and growth equity firms, including thousands of their underlying funds. The firm routinely negotiates nearly one-third of every venture capital dollar raised worldwide. Gunderson Dettmer is the recognized global leader in the representation of venture capital and other growth equity funds in its investment activities, negotiating more than a thousand venture and growth financings for fund clients every year.

Selected Practice Areas:

• Corporate/emerging companies

• Fund formation and fund representation

• Mergers and acquisitions

• Public offerings/public companies

• IP and technology transactions

• Executive compensation

Recent recognitions:

• Most Active VC Law Firm Globally, PitchBook Global League Tables, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014

• Band 1 Nationwide in the Investment Funds: Venture Capital Fund Formation and Startups & Emerging Companies categories, 2019 Chambers USA

• Deal of the Year for Asia, Best M&A Deal in Asia, and Best India Deal, Finance Asia Awards, 2018

• TMT Deal of the Year, Asia Legal Awards, 2019

• PE/VC and AI Deal of the Year, China Business Law Journal, 2019

YOUR

Opportunities

Hannah Sholl puts the “pro” in “pro bono” and builds a culture of giving back at Visa

By Billy Yost

“Alot of lawyers don’t realize the immense power they have to help other people,” says Hannah Sholl, senior counsel of global litigation and competition at Visa. “It’s a real gift.”

Sholl isn’t speaking in generalities. The lawyer, who spent time in firms large and small prior to coming in-house at Visa, has cultivated one enduring trait over several career stops: a clear commitment to pro bono work. The senior counsel has a history of standing up for those who most need a second

chance, and she is helping create a culture of pro bono excellence and inclusive mind-sets in the process.

A Pro Bono Culture

Since coming to Visa in 2017, Sholl has helped spearhead exciting new pro bono opportunities at the company. “I could see there were opportunities for pro bono work, and I was given tremendous support to create several legal clinics,” Sholl says.

Those clinics included partnerships with Her Justice, through which Visa

lawyers were able to help several women obtain divorces—and freedom from challenging and often violent marital situations. Another clinic partnered with the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund on their Name Change Project, which gave Visa employees the chance to help transgender clients obtain legal name changes.

Sholl was ultimately asked to cochair the pro bono committee at Visa, which includes more than three hundred lawyers and compliance employees worldwide. “There are certain regions of the

Hannah Sholl Senior Counsel of Global Litigation & Competition

Visa

Preston Leatherman

From Michelle Fang:

Hannah’s pro bono leadership is a great reminder that we don’t need to make a choice between corporate legal work and giving back. Hannah is a fabulous role model. She demonstrates that these aspects of our professional lives can live in harmony, not tension. Visa is lucky to have her.

world that don’t have the same culture of pro bono practice, and we are trying to support their efforts,” Sholl says.

The senior counsel is helping build out more pro bono opportunities as well as expose new hires to the burgeoning pro bono culture. “We think that it’s important for people coming from other firms or other companies to see that we have a tradition and passion for giving back to the community,” Sholl says.

The Promise of a Second Chance

The bulk of Sholl’s own pro bono work often revolves around the idea of second chances. Knowingly or not, Sholl seems to find herself working to help those whose lives may have taken an unplanned turn and need a hand in getting back on the path. For instance, Sholl helped a mother accused of shaking her baby clear her name and reunite with her family in Bronx Family Court. She also helped several exonerees resolve unpaid load debt through the Innocence Project.

Sholl is part of three Visa teams around the world that, in tandem with the Tahirih Justice Center, are helping women seek asylum from violence or political persecution. The senior counsel is currently representing a woman from Cameroon whose husband essentially forced her to flee for her life. “It’s an opportunity to put my legal skills to a really meaningful use,” Sholl says. “It’s an opportunity I’d like others to realize they have.”

Standing Proud

The senior counsel’s willingness to stand up for those who need it was first a realization she took to heart for herself. Sholl says she has learned valuable lessons from her own mentors about how the obligations often placed on women to be perfect unknowingly diminish their willingness to speak candidly.

“As lawyers, we focus for so many years on getting all the facts right and knowing the law perfectly before we speak. But the idea of being perfect can really get in the way of growing as a leader,” Sholl says. “As in-house attorneys, we are often called upon to give advice and assessments based on our experience with the expectation that those facts may be different down the line.” She continues, “I try to raise my hand for any opportunity, especially if I think it will help me expand my skills and experiences.” It’s exactly how Sholl wound up leading successful legal teams that have helped so many people.

When learning the difficult ropes of the payments industry, Sholl herself had to learn to embrace her own imperfections. “It’s an industry that’s changing every moment,” she says. “I definitely spent my first year

immersing myself in the changing dynamics of the industry.”

As the senior counsel navigates Visa’s litigation profile, she has started flexing new legal muscles simply by embodying a spirit of persistence and a willingness to grow.

Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete LLP: “Hannah is a premier litigator and strategist with long experience navigating complex legal terrain. She raises the professional bar for all of us as a listener, collaborator, mentor, and friend.

Congratulations, Hannah!”

–Sarah Kroll-Rosenbaum, Partner and Deputy Office Head, Los Angeles Office

Holwell Shuster & Goldberg LLP: “Hannah is a savvy and creative lawyer, and her passion and talent for mentoring junior lawyers, especially women and minorities, are unparalleled. I am fortunate to call her a colleague, client, and friend.”

- Blair Kaminsky, Partner

TECH, DIVERSITY, AND THE DESIRE TO Do It All

Jana Gouchev left a career at the New York Times to build a firm unlike any other from the ground up

By Will Grant Portraits by Gillian Fry

Jana Gouchev

Managing Partner Gouchev Law Group

Jana Gouchev has achieved the unattainable twice. Before founding Gouchev Law Group, a progressive and tech-focused New York firm, Gouchev made the choice to switch careers entirely. As an editorial director at the New York Times, Gouchev knew she had already achieved what many people would consider the dream, but she also knew she was driven to build something bigger.

The law field was calling her, and as she had always done before, Gouchev followed her gut. “I knew I would be a different kind of lawyer, although I didn’t know what that meant exactly,” Gouchev says.

So she went to law school and channeled her ambition and remarkable aptitude for building on her own terms. Now Gouchev stands at the helm of a law firm bearing her name that was voted among the top three law firms in New York City of its size. Indeed, Gouchev Law is a modern law firm that has become known for performance and prestige. The firm now has eleven attorneys and is rapidly growing.

The origins of Gouchev Law can be traced to a single meeting over coffee. After graduating from law school and working in a large firm, Gouchev realized that she had bigger plans. She attended a panel featuring a business lawyer with his own small practice. After the panel, Gouchev asked if she could pick his brain. During their meeting, he said, “Why don’t you do a little bit of work for me? All you really need is a computer to set up your own shop.”

So she did. Gouchev set up shop with a laptop, her cell phone, and coffee in hand. Within months, she hired her first attorney and opened an office in Rockefeller Plaza. Before she knew it, she was running a full-service corporate and intellectual property law firm.

“I am so proud of our growth and evolution. Not only are we able to focus on what we do best, we also get to choose our clients,” she says. It seems that this is the reason Gouchev and her staff are so passionate about the work they do. “The clients we work with are genuinely great, smart people who are open to executing on the counsel they receive.”

Driven by an interest in making big things happen for visionary business leaders, Gouchev focused her energies on working with small companies early on. “My passion is helping companies grow and innovate,” Gouchev says. Soon enough, the firm attracted larger companies as well. Now, Gouchev works with Fortune 500 companies while still maintaining relationships with most of her start-up clients from the early days.

The focus on deep relationships is a hallmark of Gouchev Law because its founder is dedicated to understanding the goals, the operations, and the vision of its partnering companies, from large consulting firms in industries like technology and operations to marketing agencies to retail and beauty giants.

“We strive to do what a lot of other firms don’t,” Gouchev explains. “We really dive into the business practices and understand how they can be used to help make operations more efficient, where gaps in risk can be closed off, where contracts need to be reviewed with a fine-toothed comb and fiercely yet diplomatically negotiated, and where IP can be leveraged and protected.”

Overall, Gouchev has built something impressive: a firm that specializes in doing it all when it comes to a business’s legal needs. Thanks to her experience running a team at a prestigious organization prior to law school, Gouchev had the confidence to take a chance. Had she lacked this background, she says, she may have been much more reticent. Her ambition has since rubbed off on her carefully crafted team.

Gouchev sought to unite a group of diverse and empowered individuals who shared her passion for building meaningful, long-term relationships with clients. She found herself organically hiring a highly diverse staff that is virtually unmatched by any other firm of its size. At least half of the staff at Gouchev Law Group are from diverse backgrounds—a majority of the lawyers are women, people of color, and people part of the LGBTQ community.

“The people I work with are so smart and so genuine; I feel so lucky to have them represent the firm,” she says. Overall, Gouchev credits her diverse and highly capable team as the main motivation behind her goal to continue growing her firm.

Recently, Gouchev hired one of her own mentors from her legal internship days doing contract law at MTV. “This was someone who was really hard on her people and I have to say was pretty intimidating at the time,” Gouchev laughs. “But I really admired her and learned so much.” This former mentor, who managed

a team of eighty attorneys, decided Gouchev Law was exactly the kind of place she wanted to work. “I look at that as such a testament to where we are.”

Where is Gouchev Law heading? Its founder has built a successful, innovation-based practice that has managed to touch many different areas: large-scale consulting, IP, start-ups, and large companies’ areas of expertise. Gouchev wants the firm to become regarded as a national leader in the legal space—as a tech-focused modern law firm capable of taking businesses to the next level. That original ambition has gotten Gouchev Law to be a leader in its industry, and it’s the reason that it will continue to flourish for years to come.

“The people I work with are so smart and so genuine; I feel so lucky to have them represent the firm.”

Robin Elkowitz spent years breaking away from conventional ideas and boundaries surrounding working women. Now, she’s helping those around her do the same.

By Sara Deeter

You Can’t. Says Who?

Robin Elkowitz EVP, Deputy General Counsel, and Secretary Citizens Financial Group

Don’t tell Robin Elkowitz that she can’t do something. For so many years—while growing up, while attending college and law school, while working at a Wall Street law firm—she made decisions because “I was following the path that it seemed I was supposed to take,” Elkowitz says. Now an executive vice president, deputy general counsel, and secretary at Citizens Financial Group, Elkowitz chooses to follow only the path she sets for herself.

As a first-year associate at Wall Street law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, Elkowitz remembers hearing that only one or two people would be promoted to partner each year. “There were about thirty of us firstyears at the time,” Elkowitz says, “and I just looked around and thought to myself, ‘What are the other twenty-eight people going to do?’”

Very quickly, though, Elkowitz realized that she didn’t want to spend the majority of her career at a Wall Street law firm. That decision came as a shock to her as well as those around her, who operated under an assumption that a Wall Street law firm was exactly where someone of Elkowitz’s background should be. Elkowitz had studied accounting and finance at the Wharton School as an undergraduate and obtained a CPA before going to law school.

“Everyone told me that I shouldn’t leave the firm until I’d been there for at least five years,” Elkowitz says. “‘You can’t do that, nobody’s going to want you,’ they told me.” Refusing to bow to conventional wisdom, Elkowitz determined to keep her mind open to any new opportunity that came her way. She accepted an inhouse position at an investment bank, which perfectly

Julie Brimberg

combined her passion for analysis, problem-solving, and client-facing work, just two years after joining the firm.

Today, at Citizens Financial Group, Elkowitz continues to seize and enjoy learning opportunities. In the past five years, ever since the company launched its IPO (the largest traditional bank IPO in US history), Elkowitz and her majority-women team have experienced a great deal of growth.

“I have a great team, both the men and the women,” Elkowitz says. “We have been together since the beginning of this journey. There was a time when we weren’t quite sure what was going to happen, and I pride myself on the fact that we have a community that works very well together and that there’s a lot of loyalty among us.”

Elkowitz strives to maintain an open line of communication with her team, encouraging them to come to her with any problem. And sometimes, those problems are much more pervasive than others. As Elkowitz notes, there is a widespread notion in America in general, and in financial services in particular, that workplaces have a male-dominated culture.

“I think that can be intimidating—that women tell themselves they’re not cut out for all the long hours

“When I was growing up, there was always this idea that women can do it all. But no one ever told me how to do that.”

From Michelle Fang:

Robin is more than “good enough.” She is exactly the type of boss and mentor I wish I had when I was coming up through the ranks. She is clearly focused on building an amazing, diverse team and investing in developing her people for success. Robin is also leading by example in terms of balancing her personal and professional life. She embodies all of my favorite leadership qualities.

required in those jobs,” Elkowitz says. “We need to place more emphasis on the substantive qualities required for success in those roles: problem-solving, negotiating, prioritizing, and connecting with people on a personal level. Those are all things that are going to improve the overall success of the business or company.”

Another key piece of the puzzle, Elkowitz says, is networking. “Men are more apt to reach out to people if they think that person can help them,” Elkowitz says. “I tell women, ‘What’s the worst that can happen? You’re just asking for feedback.’” As Elkowitz points out, networking can be done anywhere, anytime, even when you’re talking to another parent on the playground. You never know where the next opportunity may come from.

Elkowitz is particularly motivated to give such advice because, as a working woman, she has felt certain pressures herself. “When I was growing up, there was always this idea that women can do it all. But no one ever told me how to do that,” Elkowitz says. “Trying to get into that mind-set and internalize the importance of finding a work/life balance is probably the most important life lesson I’ve learned.

“I always told myself that I was focusing on work and life, but I realized one day that I wasn’t actually doing that,” she

adds. “I pursued my career, but I kept my personal life largely on hold until I was forty years old.” Achieving your personal goals only happens if you make them a priority as well, Elkowitz explains. Unwilling to put her personal goals off any longer, Elkowitz became a mother when she was nearly forty-three.

“Making your personal life a priority doesn’t necessarily mean cutting your career short, but it’s true that there’s never going to be an ideal time and that it isn’t easy,” Elkowitz acknowledges. “I just didn’t want to wake up one day and regret that I hadn’t figured out a way to make it happen.”

And while the method that Elkowitz found works for her, she stresses that her personal best practices may not be right for everyone. “There’s always going to be people telling you that you’re not a good enough worker, not a good enough manager, not a good enough mother,” Elkowitz advises. “You can listen to them, or you can have a conversation with yourself and determine whether you’re doing what you need to do in a way that works for you.”

And at Citizens, the effort to help all employees find the work/life balance that works for them starts at the top, Elkowitz says. “Our CEO is committed to

Robin S. Elkowitz Executive Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Secretary of our client Citizens Financial Group, Inc.,

for her recognition in Modern Counsel

creating a culture where all are welcomed and all have the ability to succeed,” says the EVP. “Three of our twelve directors are women, there are several women in very senior executive positions, and we have publicly committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and high-performing culture.”

The company boasts a number of business resource groups—including ones for women, people of color, veterans, individuals with disabilities, and LGBTQ employees—as well as a “first-class” maternity policy, a paternity policy, an adoption assistance program, and more. “We want people to feel better able to manage all of their responsibilities to the best of their abilities,” Elkowitz says. “There’s this feeling here at Citizens that if you talk the talk, you have to walk the walk.”

Locke Lord LLP:

Locke Lord congratulates

“Robin Elkowitz is a trusted thought leader in the field of corporate governance and a determined advocate for women throughout the legal profession. We congratulate Robin for this momentous achievement and wish her continued success.”

–Scott Wofsy and George Ticknor, Partners

D ream RUNNING TOWARD HER

Anna Oliveira explains how she achieved her dream of being an international lawyer—and what motivates her to keep learning and challenging herself every day at Kraft Heinz

By Sara Deeter

Anna Oliveira Counsel of Global Corporate Compliance & Transactions

The Kraft Heinz Company

Luke Davis

Be humble. Be bold. And dream big. These are the philosophies that have driven Anna Oliveira to achieve the goal she wasn’t always sure she would be able to reach—securing an international legal position. Born and raised in Brazil, Oliveira always worked hard to achieve her career goals. “My inclination toward a career in law started early. From a young age, I discussed with my parents the concepts of ethics, justice, and social responsibility, which have been fundamental in building my character and values and guiding me in my personal and professional decisions.”

Today, building on a thorough, wide-ranging grounding in legal and business affairs, Oliveira serves as global corporate compliance and transactions counsel at The Kraft Heinz Company.

“It has been a long and challenging journey since then. I had to start my career over from the beginning,” Oliveira says of her biggest career change of moving to Chicago in 2014. In Brazil, she had spent the last decade accruing experience as a litigation associate at Tozzini Freire Advogados, one of the country’s top law firms, and as a senior lawyer and investor relations analyst at Valid SA, a Brazilian manufacturing company. At Valid SA, she developed an unusual skill set that allowed her to navigate cross-functional business teams and transition easily between legal and financial matters.

“Working directly with the CFO of the company and supporting the international transactions were

“I always wanted to be an international lawyer, but for so long that seemed like a far-off dream. But sitting in my first law class . . . I just kept thinking, ‘Gosh, the dream is coming true.’”

fundamental for my career as an international lawyer,” she explains. “I was at the top of my career when the opportunity to pursue my dream to be an international counsel was given to me.” The decision to move to Chicago came along with a very clear goal: enroll in the LLM and business studies program at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. Oliveira was thrilled at the chance to expand on her areas of expertise in a new legal landscape.

“I always wanted to be an international lawyer, but for so long that seemed like a far-off dream,” Oliveira says. “But sitting in my first law class, it was like a Hollywood scene in my mind. I just kept thinking, ‘Gosh, the dream is coming true.’”

At Kraft Heinz, Oliveira has leveraged both her international experience and the cross-functional expertise she honed while at Northwestern. “I love the intellectual challenges of this work, the opportunities to constantly learn from jurisdictions with different laws, risks, and cultures,” she says. “International lawyers have very specific skills—we have a foundation of law from our own countries, but at the end of the day we have to promote a balance between the sense of the law as it exists in different countries.”

The legal department at Kraft Heinz realized that this global approach would be valuable when Oliveira joined the company in 2016. “They saw that I had cross-border financial and M&A transaction experience from my roles in Brazil and that there is a sort

Life Training

On top of her work at Kraft Heinz, Anna Oliveira seeks out new challenges and opportunities to connect with people. Since joining a running group in 2014, Oliveira has run seven marathons—she even ran five hundred miles while pregnant with her son. This highly intensive training has given her the strength, resilience, and confidence she needs to manage her responsibilities as a mother and lawyer.

“You have to sprint sometimes in your life,” Oliveira advises. “Maybe it’s a marathon to get to the finish line, but that marathon is just a lot of little sprints strung together. And training for marathons, while taking care of my child and running to business meetings, has actually helped me train for all those life sprints.”

of art to learning from local requirements while working on a global deal,” Oliveira explains. “One of my roles now is to support local teams with the required support from world headquarters while guaranteeing the adoption of corporate governance standards.”

Beyond the legal norms and requirements of various jurisdictions, Oliveira believes that a successful in-house counsel must learn about the company—its culture, market, and products. “I saw it as a part of my job, to learn about the history of the company,” she says. “As a transactional counsel, you need to understand how acquisitions are related to the company’s assets and brands.”

While Oliveira admires Kraft Heinz’s history and legacy, she is even more inspired by the iconic company’s culture today, which emphasizes corporate social responsibility and diversity. The company hosts philanthropic initiatives, such as Rise Against Hunger meal-packaging events that support Kraft Heinz’s commitment to donate one billion nutritious meals to people in need by 2021, and actively encourages employees to participate. Ownership is one of Kraft Heinz’s five values, fostering the idea that “we are all owners of the company and we support each other to deliver the results and to create value.”

Last year, Oliveira had her first child, and the company’s support during her leave confirmed her belief that the company truly values female leaders. “Of course, I was little bit nervous to return to work and have to find my space again,” she acknowledges. But the company has consistently helped her advance in her career, and she is surrounded at the organization by examples of successful women.

“Diversity is real at Kraft Heinz,” she says. “Legal has a majority-female team, all of whom are so supportive and inspirational, and I’ve had the same treatment and opportunities that I would have had as a man. I was even promoted when I came back from

maternity leave, which for me means that the company understands how important the female workforce is.”

As a working mom, Oliveira says, she strives to be extremely honest with her son. She wants to be the best she can be for him, and that means being frank about when you need help and keeping yourself open even to potentially daunting experiences.

“I actually feel confident when I’m faced with unknown situations and don’t have any previous experience,” Oliveira notes. “I challenge myself all the time, in every aspect of my life, and every day is an opportunity to do my best.”

Gibson Dunn:

“We are thrilled to celebrate Anna’s success. Anna is a talented lawyer with a truly international, businessoriented perspective and we congratulate her on this well-earned recognition for her contributions to the legal community.”

–John W.F. Chesley, Partner

Staying

Sharp

Charter Communications’ Christie Schmieder explains how a philosophy of continual learning has guided her toward success

By Sara Deeter

Ray Glaser Photography

Don’t be afraid to learn. Christie Schmieder hasn’t been. From becoming her family’s first college graduate to securing a position as vice president and senior counsel in Charter Communications’ litigation division, Schmieder has dived headfirst into learning and development opportunities.

Schmieder first decided to become an attorney after moving next door to two lawyers, a husband and wife, who always seemed to be dressed in suits and carrying briefcases. “In my ten-year-old mind, they were important people. They were respected. They were successful,” Schmieder recalls. “When my parents explained to me what they did for a living, I said, ‘Well then, that’s what I’m going to be.’ But even though I knew what I wanted to do, I had no one to guide me along that journey.”

With parents completely unfamiliar with the college application process and no search engine standing by with ready answers, Schmieder found ways to teach herself. “As I got older and heard friends talk about which colleges they were interested in, I paid at-

tention. Very close attention,” Schmieder remembers. “I asked a lot of questions—I picked up the phone and talked to a lot of admissions officers, a lot of financial aid officers, because this was my future.”

Schmieder worked as a receptionist, retail associate, waitress, and papergirl to put herself through college. After graduating from the Southern Illinois University School of Law in 1997, she became an assistant state’s attorney.

“I was working in criminal law at that time and learned how to try cases—everything from traffic tickets to murder charges. I loved being in the courtroom,” Schmieder recalls. “Even twenty years ago, it was a very challenging time for a young female prosecutor.”

The hardest part may have been educating judges and colleagues about the dynamics of domestic violence, an issue garnering new attention. “The court was creating a new domestic violence courtroom to specifically oversee those offenses and related orders of protection, and I was selected to supervise a newly created division in the State’s Attorney’s Office. I even

Christie Schmieder VP and Senior Counsel of Litigation Charter Communications

Ray Glaser Photography

trained law enforcement on evidence preservation issues related to domestic violence. It was interesting and rewarding work.”

Schmieder’s experience as assistant state’s attorney, where she was held to higher ethical and professional standards, fundamentally shaped her perception of the law and legal system. “I knew that my role was ultimately to seek justice, not merely to convict someone. So it was really important for me to exercise my judgment and not be unduly influenced by a police officer, victim, or witness.”

Although that sense of integrity has stayed with her throughout her career, Schmieder says that her view of justice continued to evolve as a result of her diverse legal experiences. Whereas she had previously viewed justice as a form of punishment, Schmieder’s next job meant justice was an avenue for ensuring accountability and compassionate treatment. She learned to appreciate the long-term, and even lifelong, impact that injuries have on people. Representing personal injury clients, Schmieder specialized in appellate work, handling appeals throughout the country in both state and federal courts.

At Charter, where there is “always something new going on,” Schmieder has ample opportunities to keep growing and learning. When Schmieder first joined the company in 2010, it was already in the Fortune 500. Today, Charter is a Fortune 100 company and one of the leading broadband communications companies in the country. The second-largest cable operator in the United States, Charter connects more than 28 million customers in 41 states.

Charter’s already large footprint expanded in 2016 when it merged with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, Schmieder explains, “with no endpoint in sight for the company’s innovation and growth.” During the merger, “I saw a need,” she says of her decision to manage an area of litigation completely new to her and involving all three legacy companies. Schmieder provided a consistent approach and gained the knowledge that allowed her to guide the company during the integration of its processes and procedures surrounding that subject matter.

Learning to Be Present

“I always try to be present,” Christie Schmieder says of her approach to balancing a litigation career with her responsibilities as a mom of three. That means not overextending herself outside of work so she can do activities with her kids, like helping out at school functions or attending their sports events. But it also means being truly present for her family when she’s at home.

That balance requires planning ahead to minimize work emergencies. “Once I’m home, I try to ‘turn off.’ I only check my phone or email at designated times. And my kids are really good at monitoring me,” she laughs. “I want them to see that work/life balance is a skill that you can learn—and work on every single day.”

THOMPSON COBURN CELEBRATES THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF CHRISTIE SCHMIEDER

A LITIGATION AND COMPLIANCE BOUTIQUE WITH A NATIONAL PRACTICE

Even now, Schmieder says, she continues to adapt and assume new roles and responsibilities. Currently, she manages a wide range of litigation work, including consumer class action litigation, personal injury claims, commercial litigation, trespass, easement, and right-of-way disputes, and an array of prelitigation issues, all on top of coordinating with and managing the company’s outside counsel. She credits her different jobs over the years for helping her relate to, advise, and communicate with people with varying backgrounds and roles.

“That’s why Charter is such a good fit for me,” Schmieder states. “I work on so many different issues and with so many talented people, so I always feel like I’m keeping sharp, challenging myself, and continuing to refine my abilities. Charter has continually given me opportunities to learn, to progress, and to lead.”

–Ryan D. Watstein, Partner

KABAT CHAPMAN & OZMER LLP

Kabat Chapman & Ozmer LLP: “Christie artfully manages a significant portfolio of litigation, spanning many different subject areas. Most could not do her job. She is a valued partner and a true pleasure to work with.”

Lead

Portraits of today’s top legal executives, the remarkable careers they have cultivated, and the management strategies and best practices they employ to succeed both individually and collaboratively

Casey Templeton

Trials Demand Talent

Craig Proctor has helped build a unique program that identifies—and trains—talented attorneys to better support Altria’s litigation team

By Zayvelle Williamson

Craig Proctor VP and Associate General Counsel Altria

CRAIG PROCTOR FIRST BECAME INTERESTED IN THE law while participating in mock trials in high school. Today, as vice president and associate general counsel for Altria, Proctor manages all product liability litigation for the entire country.

“I’ve probably managed more than one hundred fifty trials during my time here at Altria,” Proctor says. “I love their excitement, the challenges they present, and their inherent unpredictability. Some people don’t like how unpredictable they are, but to me that’s what makes my work feel exciting and new—I’m not doing the same exact thing over and over again.”

Under Proctor’s management, the legal team at Altria has seen its caseload drop dramatically. When Proctor joined in 2010, his team had roughly ten thousand smoking and health cases. Now, there are fewer than two thousand five hundred.

Casey Templeton

“Craig and the Altria legal team have done a remarkable job of creating a highly functional ‘virtual firm’ of talented lawyers around the country who work together with mutual respect and professional commitment to the job,” says John Wunderli, a shareholder at Ray Quinney & Nebeker.

“The point was to winnow down our cases so that we could spend more time and energy on the ones that are actually going to go to trial,” Proctor explains. “So we’ve inserted ourselves much more aggressively into the case activation process and are more aggressive in terms of our strategy as well.”

For Proctor, lowering the department’s caseload has been critical in allowing him to dedicate his time to what he is most enthusiastic about. “Trial work is my greatest strength and my greatest passion,” he says. “At Altria, I have a pretty unique position where I work almost exclusively on those aspects, whereas most in-house counsel work on a whole array of things.”

Although Proctor doesn’t try cases himself, he is directly involved in the upward of twenty trials handled by his team each year. “I personally select the trial lawyers and the legal people we use,” Proctor says. “I’m heavily involved in the development of their strategy for each individual trial. I’ll go to the trials to watch, especially if a new lawyer is involved or there is a unique aspect of the case, but I’ll also watch them through live video feed, sometimes toggling between four or five different screens so that I can watch numerous trials simultaneously.”

Proctor’s affinity for trial work has attracted the attention of many of his peers, including Walt Cofer, a partner at Shook, Hardy & Bacon. “Craig is a collaborative, decisive leader who hasn’t forgotten what it’s like to be in the courtroom,” Cofer says. “He is innovative, accessible, unflappable, and an absolute joy to work with.”

We applaud Craig Proctor for his outstanding contributions as Vice President & Associate General Counsel at Altria Client Services, Inc.

Craig’s recognition by Modern Counsel is well-deserved and we look forward to continuing to partner with him.

Expertise Spotlight

Ray Quinney & Nebeker is a full-service Salt Lake City law firm. Our product liability attorneys defend manufacturers and distributors in wrongful death, catastrophic personal injury, and complex product liability claims in state and federal courts throughout Utah and the Intermountain West. We act as lead and local counsel for major national and international clients involved in large-scale mass tort actions, including multidistrict litigation, across the country. Our clients include drug and medical device companies, motor vehicle and aircraft manufacturers, and all-terrain vehicle, heavy equipment, and recreational equipment manufacturers.

We tailor our approach as advocates to the individual needs of each client. Our legal team is aware of the need for cost-effective solutions and active communication throughout the course of our representation. Our litigation attorneys have extensive experience at trial in state and federal courts across the country. Many of our attorneys have had previous experience as in-house counsel, bringing a unique perspective to our clients’ challenges in the product liability realm. Understanding our clients’ goals, their business, their industry, and their future is our highest priority.

Ray Quinney & Nebeker commends Craig Proctor on his outstanding achievements and appreciates the opportunity to partner with Craig and Altria’s talented legal team.

While individual trials certainly present their own problems and challenges, Proctor says that one of the biggest challenges he has faced while managing Altria’s product liability litigation actually centers on the attorneys themselves. Altria has a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, Proctor says, but it has been difficult to find talent that reflects that policy.

“At the beginning of my time at the company, we could easily see that we didn’t have nearly enough first-chair trial lawyers—especially diverse first-chair lawyers—to staff our trials,” Proctor offers. “But I strongly believe that working with lawyers from a diversity of backgrounds is an important part of our success.”

The solution to this problem? The Trial College Program. While many companies employ mock trial programs to test prospective trial lawyers or trial themes, Proctor says, Altria does something completely different and special.

It’s a two-part solution, Proctor explains. First, Proctor and his team look for talented first-chair lawyers. They seek recommendations from outside law firms, consultants, and other in-house counsel. But that in and of itself wasn’t an answer. “We still needed to match these people up much better with our jury pool, which is very diverse, and the judges and types of cases we deal with,” Proctor says. “So after finding people who have the skills we’re looking for, we put them through the Trial College Program. It’s not intended to enhance their skill sets but rather to see if their skill sets are adaptable to our particular type of litigation and our types of trials.”

For an entire week, Proctor and his team monitor and evaluate participants as they go through their opening statements, conduct direct and cross-examinations, and deliver closing statements in front of mock jurors. After that, Proctor can determine whether an individual is the right fit for the firm.

The second part of the solution is something unique to Altria as a firm, Proctor believes. “We didn’t have enough first-chair trial lawyers even after instituting the Trial College Program, and we were still lacking in diverse, young trial lawyers. We had to try something else,” Proctor recalls. “We looked to our existing firms, and I handpicked people from our firm’s younger and diverse attorneys—people who we thought were up-and-coming superstars but didn’t have any trial experience at all.”

Those attorneys go through a two-year program that includes the mock trial training as well as leadership training, skill development, and storytelling exercises. “Our trial lawyers and even some

Boies Schiller Flexner LLP is a firm of internationally recognized trial lawyers, crisis managers, and strategic advisors known for our creative, aggressive and e cient pursuit of success for our clients.

We regularly take cases to trial and we prepare each one accordingly from the start. We have the experience, judgment, and vision to develop the arguments that achieve favorable outcomes both inside and outside of the courtroom.

Boies Schiller Flexner is proud to partner with Craig Proctor & Altria

Clients turn to us to represent them in any matter, in any forum, anywhere in the world. And we regularly represent our clients as plainti s as well as defendants, often sharing the risk of litigation through creative fee structures.

With 15 o ces located throughout the United States and in London, we operate as one firm with a seamless approach to building the most skillful and cost-e ective team possible for every matter.

www.bsfllp.com

Expertise Spotlight

Shook, Hardy & Bacon has been at the forefront of legal representation for more than 130 years, bringing innovation to legal strategies and budgets. With a well-earned reputation as a litigation powerhouse, Shook is the go-to firm for the world’s leading health, science, and technology companies. In addition to fielding the largest product liability practice in the world, Shook handles commercial litigation, environmental and toxic tort, and intellectual property disputes for the pharmaceutical and medical device, food and beverage, and consumer goods industries. While its high-stakes, complex litigation experience is second to none, the firm also has the regulatory compliance and risk management experience upon which companies have come to rely. Established in Kansas City in 1889, Shook has grown to approximately five hundred attorneys and two hundred research analysts and paraprofessionals, many of whom have advanced scientific and technical degrees. Shook’s offices are strategically located in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Orange County, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa, and Washington, DC.

former judges evaluate the participants and give them feedback. We also assign them trial lawyer mentors,” Proctor says. “Each mentor watches, monitors, and assists one of the new lawyers.”

“We are proud to partner with Altria on the Trial College Program,” says Andrew Brenner, a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner. “It has been a true win-win situation; the training our younger lawyers have received is invaluable to the firm, and [the program] has helped Craig fill a void Altria had in its trial counsel stable.”

Many of the attorneys who have graduated from the Trial College Program have gone on to try cases for Altria, Proctor says. “Sometimes, we couldn’t find the attorneys we were looking for,” he says, laughing, “so we created them.”

Arnold & Porter:

“As one of the participants in Altria’s Trial College program, I can personally attest to Craig’s commitment to identifying and training diverse trial counsel. Altria’s investment in me has been instrumental in the progress of my career and has ultimately resulted in many challenging and rewarding trial opportunities.”

–Keri Arnold, Partner

“Sometimes, we couldn’t find the attorneys we were looking for, so we created them.”

Lori Bennett is where she is today because of the example of two strong women—and she wants to carry on the tradition at Aetion

By Billy Yost

Mentorship that Changes Lives

MENTORSHIP MIGHT MEAN A LITTLE MORE TO Lori Bennett than the average GC. The lawyer was the beneficiary of two strong women whose backgrounds couldn’t be more different. Both helped the young Bennett find the career path she had been struggling to define for herself. As an occupational wandering soul whose interests ranged from genetics to Irish literature, Bennett’s first foray into the law as a paralegal put her off the field entirely. It wasn’t until she encountered the broader responsibilities of an in-house role—as demonstrated by a strong attorney more than holding her own in a field dominated by men—that Bennett began to see how good a life in the law could be.

Now, as the GC for mission-driven healthcare technology company Aetion, Bennett is intent on passing on her mentorship and sponsorship experiences, especially to women, by going to bat for young lawyers and being a sounding board for future leaders.

Bennett says that for as long as she can remember, her mother championed her daughter’s doing everything she could to use education as a springboard to better things. “She wasn’t a professional and her education ended in high school, but she saw the value of education and emphasized doing everything I could to get into the best college possible,” Bennett says. “And while it may sound archaic today, she also emphasized the need for financial independence because it was not something that most women had when she was growing up; she wanted me to be able to make my own decisions without reliance on financial support from anyone else.”

While the support was there, it took Bennett time to figure out where she belonged. Initially a molecular

Lori Bennett General Counsel Aetion

biology major, Bennett wound up switching to English after realizing she didn’t want to spend her life in a lab. Upon graduation, a paralegal job in a big New York firm left her thinking that she wanted to go anywhere but law school.

It wasn’t until Bennett took an executive assistant position for the GC of the Metropolitan Opera, Sharon Grubin, that she saw the side of the law that would help define her own path. “[Grubin] was an incredible mentor and role model,” Bennett says. “Her experience was impressive, and her command of the

Isabella Bejarano

law and her role was, frankly, intimidating when I began.” Bennett saw a strong woman who wouldn’t suffer fools and often led meetings.

Bennett’s office overlooked Fordham Law School at Lincoln Center in New York City, and the school’s reputable night school program soon became Bennett’s evening reality. The GC says had her boss not supported her workload, she never could have made it through. She worked full-time, went to law school at night, and studied during downtime at work.

Following her graduation and a handful of successful stints at firms, Bennett was asked to come in-house at Aetion when the healthcare start-up barely had double-digit staff. “We have a saying here that two years at a start-up equals about ten years of job experience,” Bennett laughs. “Things are happening so quickly and at once that your experiences are definitely compounded.”

As a woman in leadership, Bennett says she focused on combating the well-documented struggle of women’s confidence in the workplace. “Traditionally, women struggle more with confidence than men, and having a mentor to talk through the various related challenges allowed me to better understand and then address those challenges,” Bennett says. “This was a critical factor in landing the GC role at Aetion and something I want to pass on.”

“Lori is a role model as a mentor and champion for others,” says Anthony O. Pergola, a partner at Lowenstein Sandler as well as the cofounder and vice chair of Lowenstein Sandler’s tech group, “and is an amazing attorney who has earned the respect of her own supervisors and peers.”

Bennett says that along with mentorship, she takes the idea of “sponsorship” very seriously. “It differs from mentorship in that a sponsor advocates for you when you aren’t in the room to do it yourself or aren’t in a position to identify when an opportunity arises

that can advance your career,” Bennett says. “I’ve been the benefactor of sponsors acting as advocates for me, and now I want to be that advocate for others.”

Bennett was asked to act as executive sponsor for Women at Aetion, a group open to anyone at the company interested in equality and parity in the workplace. “It is one of my greatest honors and privileges,” Bennett says. “This groups asks tough questions and wants to have necessary conversations that challenge workplace norms.”

Including all voices in the push for equality is a necessity, Bennett says, and she has had important male mentors and sponsors as well. But it’s still vital for women to validate each other’s experiences because it builds support and confidence that ultimately opens doors that previously seemed closed. “Not only does this help advance our careers, but together allows us to push for changes that might need to happen in the workplace.”

Professional Insurance Associates:

“As an insurance agent, it’s a real pleasure to work with Lori. She professionally and efficiently manages the complex, fast-changing insurance needs relative to the protection and contractual needs of Aetion.”

–Charles J. Cavadini, Vice President

“I’ve been the benefactor of sponsors acting as advocates for me, and now I want to be that advocate for others.”

Protecting Under Armour’s House

Vice President and Managing Counsel

Mehri Shadman has played a key role in

Under Armour’s international growth

By Joseph Charney

“PROTECT

THIS HOUSE”

HAS

BECOME

A

LEGEND

ary slogan for Under Armour, an international sports apparel conglomerate whose annual revenue has exceeded $4 billion each of the past three years. Under Armour sponsors a host of sports icons, including the twenty-three-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps, the six-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, and the three-time major champion Jordan Spieth— all of whom have, because of their athletic excellence and steely resolve, always embodied their sponsor’s slogan, consistently “protecting” their dominance and their teams in their respective domains of swimming, football, and golf.

Mehri Shadman, in her role as a vice president and managing counsel at Under Armour, also personifies her company’s rallying cry, consistently protecting the company’s vulnerabilities and ensuring its prosperous future.

Shadman studied government and political science at the University of Maryland as an undergraduate before attending New York University for law school. She began her career at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, an international general practice law firm headquartered in New York. There, Shadman worked as an associate with a focus on asset management, capital markets, corporate governance, private acquisitions, and private equity. In her seven years there, Shadman accumulated valuable experience and industry knowledge that has allowed her to thrive at Under Armour.

Shadman spent six years as a managing counsel at Under Armour before the executive team took note of her outstanding work—and, in recognition of her stellar track record as managing counsel, promoted her to an all-encompassing vice president role in March 2019.

At Under Armour, Shadman is committed to arriving at the “right answers,” both from economic and ethical standpoints. To achieve this objective, Shadman strives to foment a culture of “not staying in your lane,” which, according to Shadman, is a key tenet of her leadership style.

Coming on board at a time when Under Armour’s international operations generated only 6 percent

of total net revenues, Shadman has, through her M&A and international subsidiary work, helped the company revitalize and restructure its revenue flow. Additionally, Shadman spearheaded a redesigning of Under Armour’s enterprise risk management team, which has had a remarkable impact on the company’s compliance culture.

As managing counsel, Shadman has played a significant role in Under Armour’s growth throughout the past several years. The company’s prospects for continued growth are auspicious, given its plans for international expansion. Shadman is dedicated to growing the company’s brand by serving its interests to the best of her ability.

In addition to excelling in her day-to-day responsibilities at Under Armour, Shadman focuses a lot of her attention on inspiring others. Shadman has spoken on various panels about her experience as a woman in the sports industry, including at the Women in Sports and Events conference in Washington, DC in the summer of 2019. There, Shadman spoke about growing a global sports brand and specifically about her role in contributing to Under Armour’s growth.

Under Armour was founded in 1996 by Kevin Plank, a former special teams captain for the University of Maryland football team, who started the company in his grandmother’s basement. The company now operates in ten different countries and sponsors hundreds of world-renowned athletes and university sports teams whose products include shoes, shirts, jackets, pants, and various protective accessories. Additionally, Under Armour manufactures uniforms and gear for football, basketball, and soccer franchises, among other sports. Although the company’s biggest market is in the United States, its most lucrative team contract is with the Tottenham Hotspurs, an English soccer team in the Premier League. Recently, Under Armour has invested significantly in technology, acquiring and launching several different fitness applications.

Under Armour was the originator of “performance apparel,” gear that is “engineered to keep athletes cool, dry, and light throughout the course of a game, practice, or workout.” The company values a culture of innovation, and Shadman contributes to this culture in the diverse areas of the company touched by her work. Under Armour holds that all of its products make consumers better at their sports, and Shadman aspires for her legal work to have the same impact on the company at large, always striving to make the company a better, more profitable, and more welcoming place to work.

Fried Frank

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP advises the world’s leading corporations and financial institutions on their most critical legal needs and business opportunities. The Firm’s approximately 500 lawyers are based in North America and Europe.

is proud to work with our former colleague, client and friend Mehri Shadman, along with her colleagues at Under Armour. Mehri’s talent, leadership, dedication and creativity inspire all of us.

Drawing Attention to Accountability

In her role with Cohen Milstein, Carol Gilden fearlessly fights big challenges to ensure that investors aren’t being shortchanged by fraud or illegal practices

By Paul Snyder

ALTHOUGH THERE ARE A FEW PRINCIples and philosophies by which Carol Gilden operates, mentors, and leads, she says the guiding principle of her legal work boils down to a basic—or, at least, what should be a basic—fact of life.

“It’s about doing the right thing and making the right choices. I’m proud of my work because we are fighting for people and institutions who have been harmed by illegal business practices. Fraud is never sustainable,” she says. “Illegal business practices are never sustainable as a business model. The truth always comes out.”

In her role as a partner in the securities litigation and investor protection practice group in Cohen Milstein’s Chicago office, Gilden maintains a relentless pursuit of that truth as

she represents public pension funds, Taft-Hartley pension plans, and health and welfare funds as well as other institutional investors in securities class actions and transaction and derivative litigation. She also handles complex litigation in addition to class actions in state and federal courts nationwide and advises clients regarding foreign securities litigation.

It might sound like she covers a lot of varying ground, but Gilden says she sees all the work she does as having a unified mission.

“It all falls under the same idea of accountability,” she says. “At the end of the day, fraud is rampant in our marketplace, and investors have the right to invest based on full information and without someone cooking the books or

Carol Gilden Partner, Securities Litigation & Investor Protection Practice Group Cohen Milstein

VERITEXT CONGRATULATES CAROL GILDEN

ON HER RECOGNITION BY MODERN COUNSEL

We are deeply honored to work with you and are proud to celebrate your many achievements. Thank you for your continued contributions to the pursuit of justice.

rigging the system against them. The reality is that fraud manifests itself in a variety of different ways, so when misconduct is uncovered, we have to be creative and look at all the laws available to address the problem.”

Gilden’s pursuit of accountability has included work as lead, co-lead, or executive committee counsel on numerous high-profile securities cases. One among them: MF Global, in which a federal court determined that companies that make false, misleading statements cannot hide behind risk disclosures to escape liability. She was also lead counsel in one of the first securities class actions to be certified following the Supreme Court’s decision in Halliburton II, which established a road map for obtaining class certification to other cases.

That’s not to say that every decision goes the way she would hope. Gilden can think of some cases where she feels a decision was wrong or that goalposts were moved. Still, she says she doesn’t lose sleep at night over the losses, as she knows she and her team have given it their all and fought with integrity. “At the end of the day, if something doesn’t turn out the way I want, I know we’ve done the right thing and given it our all, so I accept the ruling and move on.

“I don’t cut corners in my cases,” she continues. “There are firms out there that take cases based on how much money or notoriety they can get. We believe in taking cases to right wrongs—and then work relentlessly to get the best result.”

The decisions and strategy surrounding the cases on which Gilden works are not all her own. She advo -

cates for a collaborative environment where all team members are encouraged to speak their minds so that every possible angle is considered. Besides creating a forum for the widest possible expanse of ideas and input, Gilden says a collaborative environment fosters a sense of deeper investment and challenge throughout her team.

“I don’t shy away from making decisions when they need to be made,” she says. “At the same time, I feel it’s important for people’s growth, and it’s also fun, when people raise issues and come up with different ideas or push back on a strategy. It means we’re all coming to the challenge with different, valuable perspectives.”

Looking back on her career, Gilden says she’s heartened by the changes that she’s seen in the legal sphere when it comes to women taking more leadership roles in firms and on major cases. As a young attorney, she says one of the biggest challenges she faced in the industry was simply finding her voice—

not letting herself be talked over or have her ideas and input be overlooked.

“I’ve never been one to go in a room and sit there quietly,” she says. “But there was a process of learning to be assertive. Saying, ‘Excuse me, I’m not done’ when people would try to talk over me. You see more women taking the lead now, but we’re only getting started. For too long, women have been denied a seat at the table or minimized because of their gender, to be frank.

“The days of overt sexism ended years ago,” she adds. “But it doesn’t mean sometimes there aren’t holdover attitudes in the industry.”

Moreover, Gilden says she plans to keep striving for excellence. She embraces the challenge each day brings and says there is satisfaction to be found in the details.

“No two cases are ever the same,” she says. “I don’t always know what I’ll face when I come into work in the morning. I’m continually learning new things and loving every second of it.”

With her track record, it’s likely that a lot of young attorneys, regardless of gender, will be looking up to her as an example.

Veritext:

“I am honored to work with trailblazers like Carol Gilden. With a proven track record of excellence, Veritext is the established leader in providing superior court reporting and litigation support services.” VERITEXT.com

–Debra Neiderfer, Senior Executive

“You see more women taking the lead now, but we’re only getting started. For too long, women have been denied a seat at the table or minimized because of their gender, to be frank.”

A Team Leader’s Greatest Assets

To McCray Pettway, VP and AGC at Expeditors, team leadership is all about listening to and learning from those around you

By Sara Deeter

LISTENING AND LEARNING AREN’T JUST FOR THE classroom. They’re for every moment of your life. As vice president and associate general counsel at Expeditors, a Seattle-based global logistics company, McCray Pettway prioritizes listening and learning to ensure that her team members feel like the invaluable assets they truly are.

According to Pettway, all you have to do to know if you’re a good listener is talk to a four-year-old. “I haven’t always listened well to my nephew,” the AGC says, chuckling. “One time, he asked if he could go with me when I left the house to go run errands. I said sure, thinking I had listened and understood. But the next time he heard the jingling of the key, he thought he was leaving with me.

“And there were tears,” Pettway remembers. “I said, ‘I didn’t mean this time!’ But he said, ‘You said I could go, and now you say I can’t.’ You have to be specific when you’re responding and listen to what people mean as well as what they say.”

At Expeditors, Pettway strives to not only listen to what her team members say and mean but also to create an environment in which her team members are comfortable sharing their thoughts. To her mind, being part of a team means you’re not going alone; it means you have cross-functional insights and problem-solving abilities. But if you don’t listen to what your teammates are saying, you’ll never see those results.

“It’s important that leaders allow people to bring their ideas and their creativity to the table because you don’t know where the answer is going to come from or what the breakthrough moment is going to be,” Pettway says. “Your responsibility as a leader is to cultivate an environment in which people are not afraid or stymied in providing their feedback.”

That’s when the company grows, Pettway says— when the employees who are so critical to getting work done and delivering great value for customers know that you are engaging deeply with them and considering their perspectives.

As Pettway notes, that employeecentric approach is one of the reasons she joined the Expeditors team in the first place. “The president had such a sincere approach to how he treats employees,” Pettway remembers of her interviewing process. “The president’s decisions are driven by the fact that we are an organization that highly regards our employees.”

One decision that stands out to Pettway is the company’s determination to invest in employees’ learning. Every employee at Expeditors, from the CEO and the president to the desklevel agents, is required to complete fifty-two hours of training per year. But while that training is mandatory, it is intended to be an opportunity for growth and inspiration. Employees can opt to enroll in a wide array of courses, from computer-related topics to mindfulness to content development.

“We regard our employees as our greatest assets. We don’t have any assets of our own other than the buildings—

McCray Pettway VP and Associate General Counsel Expeditors

we don’t own ocean liners to ship our products or anything like that,” Pettway explains. “We have human capital: folks who are really impressive and really smart. It’s our job to try to create unlimited opportunities for them.”

Today, helping people find the opportunities they’re most excited about is one of Pettway’s greatest joys. But she wasn’t always so keen on managing and mentoring others. Initially, “I was absolutely against it,” Pettway laughs. “It would take time—time that I did not see myself having. But my boss at BJ’s [Wholesale Club] said that it was a condition for me to be promoted to assistant vice president. I thought that was so harsh; none of my other colleagues had to manage anyone else. But he saw a talent in me that I didn’t.”

Thus, Pettway carved out the time to be a leader and mentor and continues to do so today. She takes the time to mentor people in the legal department, in other departments at Expeditors, and outside of the company, even when

“You have to be specific when you’re responding and listen to what people mean as well as what they say.”

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Littler proudly salutes McCray Pettway’s ingenuity and brilliance as she provides innovative strategies and solutions to complex labor and employment matters around the globe –Dionysia Johnson-Massie, Littler Shareholder Fueled

juggling multiple obligations and long, unpredictable days. “Relationships are so important, but when caseload gets high, they become competing interests,” Pettway says. “You want to have a certain service level, but you also want to be able to spend time with an employee who comes to you about a concern in your office. I wish I had more time, the whole year round, to do all the things I wish I could do.”

Sheer perfection as a leader is unattainable, Pettway knows. But there are always people willing to support and help you, and as long as you’re willing to learn from and listen to them, you’ll find an answer.

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Going to Gemba

By Chip Hooper

Chris Schafer was born in Ohio, grew up in Arizona, and attended college in Oklahoma, followed by law school in California and business school in Illinois. These varied life experiences and his background in the disparate disciplines of science, business, and the law have aided him in his role as associate general counsel at Komatsu America.

With initial thoughts of attending medical school, Schafer majored in chemistry at the University of Oklahoma. Though he ultimately determined that this path was not for him, he retains a love of the scientific method. “The scientific method, the sort of rigorous analysis of a given problem, is underrated as a skill set in the world at large,” he says. This grounding in the sciences has given Schafer useful technical acumen when it comes to Komatsu’s inner workings and factors into his legal and business decision-making process.

After college, Schafer earned his JD with a focus on law and technology from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. He worked at several law firms, gaining experience in mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, debt and equity financing, securities law, and licensing. Schafer also pursued his MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he delved deep into finance and strategy.

At Komatsu, Schafer was introduced to the Komatsu way, a written statement of values that every employee signs to ensure that the company functions to its fullest. He has embraced the Japanese philosophies of well-roundedness, “go to gemba,” and kaizen, or continuous learning.

“Go to gemba,” Schafer explains, “means go to the workplace—meaning go to where your customers are, or the people you’re working with.” By physically visiting the sites that manufacture your products,

Chris Schafer Associate General Counsel Komatsu America

the other offices you work with, and the customers who use the products, you gain a richer, more holistic understanding of the company. Additionally, these in-person visits help cultivate relationships with colleagues and clients. To this end, Schafer has visited facilities in Italy, Australia, Japan, and all over the United States.

“You don’t arrive at a position fully formed,” Schafer states. “You’re going to learn over the course of your career naturally.” At Komatsu, employees go out of their way to learn new things. They want to be prepared for unexpected challenges and generate innovative solutions to problems. This approach proved fruitful in 2017, when Komatsu bought Joy Global, which manufactures surface and underground mining equipment that Komatsu had never made before. Everyone had to learn processes and familiarize themselves with a new market.

That is hardly the only adjustment employees have dealt with in recent years at Komatsu. “Not only Komatsu, but a lot of manufacturers are undergoing a transition from a pure manufacturing company that provides discrete products to a company that provides solutions,” Schafer says. “For example, we have a solution called the autonomous haulage system that involves driverless trucks operating at mines. That is a whole software and hardware solution that is implemented at a particular mine. That requires quite a bit of interaction with the customer that simply wasn’t there before when we were selling a discrete piece of equipment. And if you just look at the world at large, that’s the way things are going.”

This shift from products to solutions has led to “more conversations about intellectual property and data ownership than you might’ve had when you were selling an electric dump truck or a set of electric dump trucks.” For the legal team, that means considerations ranging from delivery of software solutions to meticulous drafting of the terms and conditions of use to the customer’s business requirements.

“Komatsu does pride itself as a technical leader in the construction and mining fields,” Schafer says. Among its solutions is “intelligent machine control.” As an example, intelligent machine control can automatically adjust bulldozers’ work equipment loads to accommodate task switching from digging to carrying soil to leveling. Such advances allow operators to operate a bulldozer with less training and skill than was previously required, lessen operator fatigue, and augment the efficiency of the bulldozing process.

“You don’t arrive at a position fully formed. You’re going to learn over the course of your career naturally.”

GIVE HIM A HAND.

“You’ve got to continuously improve your skill set,” Schafer remarks. “That’ll help you provide more value. And also, it makes your job more fun.” At Komatsu, “we have a pretty generalist philosophy about how we do things within the department. And you get to work on a lot of different things, work with different, bright, interesting people, and solve an array of problems. It’s not the same thing from one day to the next.”

A subsidiary of the Japanese company Komatsu Ltd., a multinational manufacturing company with a large number of companies under its global umbrella, Komatsu America has experienced significant growth and increased its productivity by following the company’s core tenets. In his role, Schafer connects offices scattered across the world, translating the corporate philosophy throughout and providing insights and feedback to the headquarters in Japan.

“One of the things I love the most about my job is that you get to do so many different things,” he says, “but one of the challenges is that there are so many different things to do!”

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“You get to work on a lot of different things, work with different, bright, interesting people, and solve an array of problems. It’s not the same thing from one day to the next.”

Listening Goes a Long Way

Lorrie Leonard explains how a focus on listening has made her a better leader, business partner, and mentor at AGCS

By Sara Deeter

LORRIE LEONARD IS A NATURAL helper and problem-solver. But when she transitioned from private practice to an in-house position, she had to learn how to be an effective people manager.

Leonard decided to attend law school because she wanted to help others (and because she didn’t like statistics enough to pursue the training to become a psychiatrist). And in her twenty years at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, North America (AGCS), she is proud of all the ways she has worked to help the company with its various insurance products and services.

“When I first started in the insurance industry, I spent weeks just reading insurance policies,” Leonard

remembers. “And I’ve done so many different things since then. My prior jobs included working in claims and managing litigation spending. Since I have been in the general counsel’s office, I’ve volunteered for projects in areas that were new to me and taken it upon myself to become a subject matter expert in areas where someone needed to be an expert, like bankruptcy and real estate.” Leonard continually strives to understand both the business and legal aspects of insurance so she can maximize the benefits of her services to AGCS.

Leonard credits her success as a vice president, associate general counsel, and the chief litigation counsel at AGCS to this flexible, helpful, and solu-

tion-oriented approach. Her litigation team is also known as problem-solvers, Leonard says, but it has been a bit of a journey for her to figure out exactly how to best motivate and adjust to her team.

“My mentor at my first insurance company job actually told me that I needed to work on communicating with my team more,” Leonard explains. “I was used to being a litigator, where you’re arguing a motion before a judge and have just a short amount of time to state your case. My mentor taught me that I needed to slow down, listen more, and rely on my team.”

Leonard says that this is something she is still working on to this day. “I’m always asking myself, ‘Do I really need to talk at this particular time, or should

I just listen?’” she explains. “Sometimes, if you just wait, the answer that you need will come to you.”

Waiting applies to electronic as well as verbal communication, Leonard believes. Just because we can message each other instantly, she says, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take a breath and pause before sending the message. “I actually have Post-its all over my monitors reminding me to wait a second before pressing the send button,” Leonard laughs. “You don’t have to react immediately.”

Every day, Leonard tries to be the best leader and listener she can be. And she wants her team to be good listeners, too.

Leonard’s litigation team regularly hosts all-hands meetings for the entire legal and compliance department to share hot topics in litigation with the rest of the department. Leonard explains that the all-hands meetings last for about an hour. During this time, her team shares approaches, ideas, and concerns with the rest of the group—but in a “fun way,” Leonard says, chuckling. “We’re the fun team! One time we had a Jeopardy-style tournament, with the music and prizes at the end, and another time we did a skit complete with costumes. The point is to show other members of the legal and compliance team what it’s like to live a day in the life of the litigation team.”

Leonard says that a “listen more” approach has also helped her be a better mentor, not just to her team members but to anyone interested in a career in insurance or a position in a corporate counsel office.

“I believe that as a leader, I’m supposed to help prepare people for their next role or the next stage in their career,” Leonard says. “I ask people about what they want to do next and what can I do to help them reach that next level, and after listening to them, I do what I can to help them achieve their goals.”

Leonard says that in the name of helping her team members achieve their goals, she has worked with her peers to establish opportunities for her team to shadow other members of the legal and compliance group. That way, they can learn more about any areas of interest.

Sometimes, Leonard says, what people are interested in is completely unrelated to the company and

Lorrie Leonard VP, Associate General Counsel, and Chief Litigation Counsel Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, North America (AGCS)

its work. But that doesn’t matter to her. “People like to work for companies that allow them to participate and engage in activities that they have an interest in outside of work,” she notes. “My team is encouraged to take advantage of the many AGCS programs that promote social and community involvement.”

According to Leonard, AGCS and the group of Allianz companies organize volunteer events, host an annual charity golf tournament, match employees’ contributions to nonprofits, help improve financial literacy among seniors, and give employees opportunities to take leave if they want to participate in a charity function or community program. Employees

are able to donate their vacation time to other employees in need, and Leonard says that members of her team have taken entire workdays to volunteer as teachers in classrooms or to work with high school students to prepare them for their first days at college.

“I think we all want to help, greatly,” Leonard remarks. “As an insurance company, we see a lot—we work with the victims of hurricanes and other natural disasters—so we really do just want to do our part. Hopefully, we are part of a larger industry effort to provide for and give back to the community.”

“Allianz is well served by Lorrie’s consistently thoughtful guidance and wise counsel. I am honored to work with her as outside counsel and value my relationship with her—both as a client and a friend.”

–Jennifer G. Anderson, Shareholder

Nerves of Concrete

By Billy Yost

IT SOUNDS OUTRAGEOUS. IT SOUNDS PATRONIZING .

Above all, it just sounds wrong.

After graduating with a degree in geology, April Snyder was excited to begin a career in what she initially thought would be environmental consulting. Snyder had developed such an interest in the field that she’d changed majors from secondary education in earth sciences to geology.

What she hadn’t planned, however, was eighteen months of prospective interviews where male interviewers would ask to see Snyder’s fingernails, skeptical of the young geologist’s hands (well-groomed because of the office job Snyder was holding down until she was able to find a position in her field) and unconvinced a woman was up to the challenge of the work. What’s more, they actually made her lift the equipment she would be using to prove she was able

to. “None of the men interviewing for that job had to lift the equipment,” Snyder points out.

Despite her early trials and tribulations, Snyder eventually found the perfect fit at RJ Lee Group, where she’s spent her entire career. The company’s culture has allowed her to find that ever-challenging work/ life balance for women in the workplace. It’s perhaps all the more fitting that the now principal investigator and director of concrete materials would also wind up being elected the first female president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the American Concrete Institute in its fifty-five-year history.

Snyder says that relationships and the way that they are built are responsible not just for her own personal growth, but in the way RJ Lee Group effectively uses all of its available capabilities to solve difficult problems for clients, who are

most often calling

How April Snyder of RJ Lee Group overcame adversity early in her career, which only made her stronger

because they need guidance. “We have a wide range of analytical capabilities in the company,” Snyder says. “What I have found essential is to learn what each of those tools does—equipment or the knowledge of our experts—so we’re able to leverage those to address client concerns.”

That often means working to combine the expertise of many different individuals from across the company. “Team building is really key,” Snyder says. “Everyone here plays a part, and you have to interact in an appropriate way, granting the respect that each person deserves.” Snyder says it’s this approach that has allowed her teams to effectively get results.

One of Snyder’s more highprofile cases involved a litigation failure investigation of a recently placed concrete runway for an international airport. “The project required assembling a team of experts from within the company and outside,” Snyder says. “It really covered a range of expertise, including airport design and construction engineering as well as materials.”

April Snyder

Construction Materials Laboratory Manager and Senior Scientist RJ Lee Group

Lending a Helping Hand

April Snyder loves to take advantage of volunteer opportunities inside and outside RJ Lee Group. She is proud of the company’s “Group Troop,” which picks a different organization every year for which to hold multiple fundraisers.

On a more personal level, if Snyder’s children are involved in an activity, she’s probably volunteering to help with it. “My kids are in sports, band, and musical activities, and I always get involved to support those programs the best way I can.”

Finding the appropriate team and right combination of expertise and analytical testing to identify a root cause for the concrete degradation while providing litigious support to the customer was challenging. What’s more, the client had already worked with previous organizations that had proven ineffective. Once April and her team were called in, the timing was urgent. “We were on a very tight schedule and had equipment and personnel constraints, but we were very successful in helping get our client the results they needed in the time they needed them.”

Snyder has stayed close to experts both within and outside the company. She is active on international technical committees that develop standard procedures and guidelines for the concrete industry. She joined the Pittsburgh chapter of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) in 2012 and was elected vice president in 2017, then president in 2018. During her tenure, the ACI initiated a regional Excellence in Concrete award program. The Pittsburgh chapter winner wound up earning second place in the ACI international awards. Snyder’s team also developed and rolled out new educational and certification programs.

While Snyder still has the disheartening stories of her past interviews to remember, she says she’s happy to report that the number of women in engineering

and materials is growing rapidly. And she has good advice for those who may hope to find themselves in her position someday.

“Building relationships and really being straightforward with communication has been key to making my way through my career,” Snyder says. “I always tell my kids the number one thing they can do is take advantage of the opportunities when they come to you.”

It was the RJ Lee Group job that appeared on Snyder’s radar after eighteen months of job searching that would help define her next decades, and she’s glad she grabbed it without having to fuss over how clean her nails were.

“I always tell my kids the number one thing they can do is take advantage of the opportunities when they come to you.”

The Holy Trinity of KPIs

By Billy Yost

TODD HANNA LIKES TO THINK OF HIS real legal career starting when he went in-house in 2005, not his private practice days. After achieving his dream of scoring a high-profile gig in a notable Rhode Island firm, Hanna says he quickly realized he wasn’t meant for the law firm track. “What I learned is that I wanted to practice business in addition to law,” Hanna says, now vice president and general counsel at tax compliance and regulatory reporting software company Sovos. “I wanted to have a voice in strategy, sales, office culture, and branding, and it’s just not possible to have that wide of an impact in a firm setting.”

Since coming to Sovos in 2016, Hanna says a combination of multiple acquisitions with organic growth have essentially doubled the size of the company, which has provided unique challenges. “In one sense, it’s obviously great news that Sovos is growing like wildfire,” Hanna says, “But it’s also one of the biggest challenges for the company: in growing so fast, how do the infrastructure and the business enablement functions scale to that kind of growth?”

In the case of the legal department, it was clear that the scale of growth was outpacing the department’s ability to operate anything more than reactively. “We lacked staffing vision and were hiring more resources only when something was fundamentally broken or in the absolute worst-case scenario,”

Todd Hanna of Sovos on empowering his legal team to take ownership and shed light on legal functions

Hanna says. And there was a larger issue impacting the business capacity of the department.

“Our five attorneys and two legal assistants had no clear division of labor as to who did what,” Hanna says. “Our internal clients never knew for sure who was doing their work or when they’d hear from us, which was frustrating for them.” Those challenges had created tension between legal and sales, an already delicate working relationship in most companies.

So the Sovos legal department took it upon themselves to reinvent their department as a more modern in-house legal function.

“We focused on creating visibility, predictability, and data and measurement for reporting,” Hanna says. “Every other unit of business operates with performance standards, objectives, and data to measure their performance, but traditionally, legal gets a free pass not to provide historical data or future forecasting.” With that gap in mind, Hanna’s team began rolling out what he considers his “holy trinity” of key performance indicators: volume, grade, and customer satisfaction.

“Remarkably, we couldn’t easily tell someone how many agreements we had done in a given period of time,” Hanna says. “Through Salesforce, we’re now able to check our volume and activity level.” As Hanna is speaking, he pulls up a graph of the past two fiscal years, showing indicators like which quarters tend to be busiest and

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may require additional hiring. “But volume itself isn’t a great indicator of how well the team is doing,” Hanna says.

Legal had already graded its contracts based on the favorable conditions and risk mitigation negotiated. But in comparing those letter grades against overall volume, more trends can be detected: negotiating too much (and at higher grades) can stall volume, while negotiating too little for volume’s sake can create unfavorable and risky terms for Sovos. The goal, ultimately, is to find the right balance.

Finally, in engaging internal clients with a legal effectiveness survey, Hanna says the business can now fully appreciate what legal is doing to help enable business. “We are willing to put our work out there to be judged and critiqued in the way everyone else has to,” Hanna says. “It’s no longer this deep, dark secret that no one wants to talk about.”

All this data, Hanna explains, flows into a quarterly scorecard of legal department key performance indicators, which Hanna shares with other Sovos functional leads. “I’m sure every GC believes he or she has a hardworking, value-adding team that is achieving the right results for the company while fostering productive relationships with internal clients,” Hanna says. “But at Sovos, we have the data to prove it about our team.”

Further bridging the gap between legal and business, an individual attorney and legal

assistant have been assigned to specific business units, enabling a sense of cooperation and familiarity that makes both business and legal feel like they’re on the same side.

Hanna is adamant that every member on his team is, at their core, a good businessperson. “Our team is well versed in what our products do and how they’re going to help our customers,” Hanna says. Hanna also emphasizes selling and customer experience skills with his team. “When you negotiate a contract, you’re beginning a relationship, and it’s crazy to think of starting that contentiously.”

In addition, Hanna stresses that it’s the capacity of his team, and not merely his own leadership, that has aided legal’s doubling down on business partnership. “The people on my team are really a driving catalyst for our growth and success,” Hanna says. “We are now a modern, sophisticated, data-driven, sales-focused legal department that gets things done.”

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Part of the Solution

By Sara Deeter

Vadim Daniel Photography

Susan Comparato, SVP and US General Counsel, Argo Group

IMAGINE A WORLD DIVIDED. ONE SIDE is filled with people who want to be part of the solution, part of finding answers and executing change. On the other side is everybody else.

Susan Comparato, senior vice president and US general counsel at Argo Group, stands solidly on the first side. In fact, to her mind, you don’t have much of a choice if you want to be an effective in-house lawyer. An in-house lawyer’s purpose is to “protect, enable, and grow” their companies, Comparato says. Their primary mandate is to protect the company and its reputation, but they should also help expand the company’s interests by finding creative solutions when faced with new proposals or challenges.

“Unlike at a law firm, where you can just get bombarded by the sheer volume of work, you can pick the areas where you want to have an impact in an in-house role,” Comparato explains. “You don’t have to stay in the ‘lawyer lane.’ Figure out where you can bring

a useful perspective, where you have something to offer, and then lean hard into those particular areas.

“Most importantly,” Comparato continues, “you need to figure out how to say to your business partners in those areas, ‘I hear you, and I understand your challenges. Maybe we can’t do exactly what you were thinking, but here’s an idea that I think has an acceptable level of risk.’”

Comparato knows firsthand how helpful it is to hear that from an in-house attorney. Prior to accepting her current position at Argo, Comparato served as CEO, president, and board director of Syncora Holdings, a monoline financial guarantee insurer based in New York. During her nine years in that position, Comparato worked closely with the company’s attorneys to see Syncora through its worst days.

“After the financial crisis, just about all of the products we had written were in distress. The company itself was in terrible distress,” Comparato remembers.

SVP and GC Susan Comparato on how her nonlegal business roles have helped her become a more effective, solution-oriented lawyer

“Every day, we thought the company might go under, so we were fighting just to keep it alive.”

Comparato, who was initially promoted to acting CEO from her role as general counsel and managing director of Syncora Guarantee, leveraged her particular combination of experiences in structured products and credit enhancement as well as her history in helping start the company and deep knowledge of the company’s corporate structure.

This was a pivotal point in her career, Comparato says. She was not only transitioning from in-house counsel to senior business leader but also responsible for managing a company embroiled in chaos. “Such enormous changes were coming at me, often completely unexpectedly, and it never stopped,” Comparato says. “When you’re in distress, you have to change. And I saw a massive number of changes. I had to deal with a whole host of new regulatory issues, I had a board of directors wanting to hear from me all the time, and at the same time I had to immerse myself in completely unfamiliar issues to try to figure out what happened with all the risks and systems that went wrong.”

Eventually, after years of restructuring the business, Comparato says she helped pick Syncora up off its feet and make good on its financial obligations. But in 2018, she decided to transition back into a legal role, joining Argo. “I liked helping fix Syncora, and I had good results,” Comparato laughs. “But I thought it would be a better fit for my personality to join a growing business. When I came on, it was so

“In-house lawyers need to be able to think about what kinds of solutions they can bring to their department.”

Weil congratulates Susan Comparato of Argo Group on her well-deserved recognition in Modern Counsel

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

exciting to see all Argo had done already and to think about where they could go in future.”

This ties back to her focus on “growing” a company as well as protecting it—wherever she works and in whatever role, Comparato wants to know that she is influencing the organization’s future. “Sometimes lawyers are in roles or companies where they don’t really see what their efforts are yielding,” Comparato explains. “But at Argo I can see all the changes I’m helping make. The company’s leadership is so committed to innovation and to using technology to enhance the business, which is all just so exciting.”

At Argo, Comparato is continuing in her quest to be part of the solution. Legal departments, particularly at companies in “staid” industries like insurance, are often the last ones to see any sort of innovation. But that doesn’t make sense, says Comparato. “In-house lawyers need to be able to think about what kinds of solutions they can bring to their department,” she notes. “They need to be able to spend time on higher-value work, which means that we have to look to technology, data, and automation to free them up and give them that time.”

“Susan, an SVP and US general counsel, manages risk and protects corporations at the highest level. She leads by example with high energy and cares deeply about her work at Argo Group US—and most about all the people with which she works and interfaces. It is an honor to work with Susan as her outside counsel.”

–Mercedes Colwin, Founding Partner–NYC

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Investing in Good

Ingersoll Rand’s Nicole Brunson has created opportunities to make an impact by betting on herself and her career

By Sara Deeter

Nicole Brunson

Associate General Counsel of Litigation

Ingersoll Rand

NICOLE BRUNSON IS ALWAYS GOING to bet on herself. It’s what she’s been doing since she started her legal career, and she’s certainly not going to stop now.

Brunson was working at Indiana University as a marketing and program specialist when she saw that a practice LSAT was being offered in her town. “I was watching shows like The Practice at the time,” Brunson recalls. “And I was having all these flashes of realization that I could and should go to law school, so I just took the test cold turkey.”

Despite her lack of preparation, Brunson did so well on the practice LSAT that she decided to take the real exam—but with a caveat. “I told myself that if I did equally well or better on the real test as I did on the practice, then I had to apply to law school,” Brunson says, laughing. “And I’m a woman of my word, so when I scored even higher on the official LSAT without any serious studying, I started applying to schools.”

Even then, Brunson continued to make deals with herself. She resolved that she would only attend law school if she received a scholarship supported by the Indiana Supreme Court. When she showed up for her first day at Indiana University Maurer School of Law in Bloomington, Indiana, and was asked why she had decided to go to law school, she laughed and said that she was there because she had lost a bet.

“Don’t be afraid to try something different or new,” Brunson advises. “It’s not a failure if you’ve given your best, although oftentimes people fail because they don’t give their best.”

Of course, Brunson also had a serious answer for why she was going to law school. After majoring in biochemistry at Xavier University of Louisiana

and obtaining an MBA from Christian Brothers University, Brunson was looking for a career that would help her synthesize her diverse experiences, skills, and technical background into a single area in which she could make an impact without being restricted or held back by preconceived expectations.

Now, as associate general counsel of litigation at the industrial manufacturing company Ingersoll Rand, Brunson has considerable latitude in making the impact she was looking for. “I am here to do good,” Brunson asserts. “For me, that means that everything—everyone I encounter, everything I touch— should be better than how I found them.”

Brunson believes that she has an obligation to do good partly because she has had so many opportunities and responsibilities. On top of managing commercial disputes, product liability, personal injury, and motor vehicle accident cases at Ingersoll Rand, Brunson has been nominated to participate in the company’s advanced leadership program, women’s leadership program, and executive leadership program as well as its first black leader forum.

“Don’t be afraid to try something different or new. It’s not a failure if you’ve given your best, although oftentimes people fail because they don’t give their best.”

Because of these programs, Brunson says, her life has changed. Her executive leadership program experiences have been transformative, she explains, because they gave her a chance to be immersed in the culture of a city like Shanghai while collaborating with and learning from other leaders of every background imaginable. These programs provide opportunities to engage with the Ingersoll Rand CEO and other executive leaders who ask what the company can do better and how they can help employees get what they need. When it comes to such questions, Brunson and others in these programs can provide real, actionable answers.

As Brunson sees it, participating in these programs is not just about perfecting the company’s leaders or culture. It’s also in keeping with her philosophy of leaving things better than she found them. Taking lessons learned from these programs, she is instituting small improvements in her work stream and leadership style to ease the way for those coming up close behind her.

“I want to add value wherever I am,” Brunson says. “It’s important to help other people realize that your gender or ethnicity doesn’t dictate the value that you can bring, and it certainly shouldn’t stop you from believing that you can make an impact as well as add value. People are valuable based on their skills and experiences and their willingness to give.”

Motivated by these opportunities, programs, and initiatives, Brunson continues to bet on herself and invest in her career as well as what she can provide to others. At a recent black leader forum, for example, she spoke with a nonprofit CEO about an important conference taking place later in the year. Galvanized by this conversation, she went to her general counsel and asked to be able to attend.

He said yes.

Hall & Evans:

“Hall & Evans is proud to have the pleasure of working with Nicole. We enjoy her charisma and appreciate her insight and knowledge. Nicole is a talented speaker who strives to make the world better.”

–Steven M. Hamilton, Member and Gary L. Kuhn, Special Counsel

A Creative Dealmaker

Michele Page uses her background in communications to drive success in today’s constantly evolving media landscape, where IP, tech, and licensing intersect

By Sara Deeter

Who Supports Innovation

AS CONSUMERS CONTINUE TO ENGAGE with media across multiple platforms and devices, content providers seek to cut through the clutter to make sure what they are offering stands out from everything else. To Michele Page, serving as deputy general counsel for a global measurement and data analytics company like Nielsen is about uniting proprietary Nielsen data with other data sources to help clients around the world understand what’s happening now, what’s happening next, and how to best act on this knowledge.

Page has always been fascinated by interpersonal communication, a passion that led her to major in communications and minor in linguistics at Northwestern University. After graduating, Page leveraged that passion into artists and repertoire project management roles at major record labels, including Arista, Columbia (Sony), and PolyGram/Mercury (Universal). She became captivated by the interplay between art and commerce, which led to her decision to attend law school at night while continuing to work full-time.

Page began her legal career in intellectual property litigation at the law firm Pryor Cashman, serving as third chair in a David Yurman jewelry trade dress infringement trial and working with other well-known brands. As she transitioned into the legal side of the

media industry, securing positions at top companies like Jive Records, EMI Music Publishing, and the start-up Vevo, she handled many first-of-a-kind digital deals in a rapidly changing marketplace—and realized that her affinity for communication provided her with a unique advantage.

“It’s no special trick,” Page says. “I’m always sort of naturally aware of verbal and nonverbal communication and try to use it to bring a sense of zen, balance, and problem-solving, especially in a crisis or urgent

Michele Page Deputy General Counsel Nielsen

situation. I’ve realized that when people are feeling more relaxed, they’re more accessible—you can get your ideas across more clearly, and you can meet people where they are and draw them out if needed.”

This came in handy, for example, when during her tenure, Jive was bought by BMG, BMG was then bought by Sony, and EMI was acquired by a private equity company. This vast M&A exposure continues to prove valuable given the consolidation happening in today’s corporate atmosphere. Page takes what she’s learned—in terms of both subject matter knowledge and communication strategies—and applies it to advise and assist her various constituents as clients in the agency, network, cable, radio, social, production, and distribution fields divest and acquire each other with increased frequency.

As Page sees it, a differentiator between productive and unproductive negotiations or interactions frequently boils down to the language and tone, and whether it was positive or negative. Put simply, this can be the difference between saying “Let’s do this” and “You have to do this.”

Page takes pride in the results she has gotten from developing a solution-oriented method of communication.

“A solution-oriented method of communication is helpful for anyone who works with people to facilitate change, enhance clarity, encourage calm, and save time,” Page asserts. “My process is to articulate a matter succinctly in a way that defines the situation and desired outcome. I will say, ‘Here’s the scenario. Let’s solve for x, my ideas are y, now what are your thoughts?’ This takes emotion, including blame, out of the equation and lets me focus on getting fast approvals and relevant feedback.”

Page continues, “Clear, detailed, yet concise communication is a crucial skill to develop if you need the ability to pivot across legal disciplines in a fast-moving entertainment and technology company. It is also important to practice active listening and keep communication a two-way street, so all participants can increase their business acumen and assess the feasibility and financial impact of contract and deal terms in a wide variety of business areas.”

Prioritizing collaboration and getting that relevant feedback is especially vital in today’s on-demand media environment, Page explains, because there’s a degree of uncertainty in terms of what that environment is going to look like moving forward. She says, “Architecting repeatable deal structures that facilitate business development and execution upon your company’s growth initiatives is paramount. When guiding teams through digital revolutions in the media and entertainment industry, growth isn’t always about doing more things. It’s about doing the right things better.”

In the future, Page says, media organizations will have to determine not only what consumers want but also how much advertising (especially targeted advertising) consumers are willing to take. Platforms can be ad-supported free-to-consumer, subscription-based, or hybrid models.

“We still don’t know at what point viewers will reach a saturation point in terms of how many individual platforms they are willing to routinely build into their everyday lives,” Page explains. “Will viewers or listeners say, ‘I have five favorite platforms, and if a show or artist isn’t on one of them, I guess I’ll just skip it until it’s available on one of my primary destinations?’ Will the preference trend towards viewers wanting two or three free or affordable places to access all of their content, or is there a consumer appetite to have nine or ten (or more) decentralized destinations? What’s the consumer tolerance for what those cost to access?”

All of these questions impact ratings measurements, content valuations, media entities, and

“When guiding teams through digital revolutions in the media and entertainment industry, growth isn’t always about doing more things. It’s about doing the right things better.”

intellectual property licensing fees, Page says, which is why the measurements and analytics provided by Nielsen are so valuable. Nielsen delves into granular audience segmentation data to obtain an accurate depiction of viewers’ preferences, habits, and opinions.

“To succeed in today’s fragmented media landscape, it’s not enough to just put content out into the world,” Page asserts. “Networks, labels, and platforms all need advanced products and analytics that accurately measure the power of their business and offer metrics to monetize their audiences. Nielsen’s measurement tools and services combine big data with Nielsen’s proprietary panel data, yielding tools that span the entire media process of what people are watching and buying—on all platforms and on all devices.”

McGuireWoods:

“As outside counsel to Nielsen, McGuireWoods has the pleasure of working with Michele on a frequent basis, and she has consistently delivered the experience and capabilities that distinguish her as a leader across the industry.”

–K. Elizabeth Sieg, Partner, Restructuring and Insolvency

Corporate-Level Caring

MoneyGram International’s Elizabeth WeathersNguyen discusses the importance of treating people well and making employees feel valued

By Sara Deeter

PEOPLE REMEMBER HOW THEY’RE TREATED. Whether positive or negative, your personal interactions become some of your most powerful memories. And to MoneyGram International’s Associate General Counsel Elizabeth Weathers-Nguyen, those memories are so meaningful that her entire career trajectory has been shaped around them.

“I hated pretty much everything about my first job at a big law firm,” Weathers-Nguyen remembers. “It was nothing like I thought being a lawyer would be, and I never felt valued as a person. One of the senior partners at the firm told my first-year associate class that we should understand that we are but ‘fungible goods’ to them. I have carried that memory with me throughout my career.”

After three years of feeling like she couldn’t learn or grow, Weathers-Nguyen left the firm for an associ-

ate position with Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold’s Dallas office. Immediately, Weathers-Nguyen says, it was “night and day. I was a human being again.” Every single partner was somebody she could respect, she says, and people there took the time to help her answer questions and manage problems.

“I loved working with them, even when things were tough. About two years after I started, I got very sick and ended up in the hospital for almost a month,” Weathers-Nguyen says. “Every single day, people from Sedgwick came to my room with breakfast or lunch and sat with me. No one asked them to do that. But everyone, from the senior partners all the way down, just kept coming. We were a family.”

Since then, Weathers-Nguyen has made a point of only working at companies where employees are truly valued. That’s what drew her to an in-house role

at JCPenney in 2010—and to MoneyGram five years later. “MoneyGram wasn’t the best offer I got in terms of the compensation or job title,” WeathersNguyen explains. “But as soon as I met the legal team, I knew that they were people I wanted to work with. I can grow here. I can be a mentor here; I can help people.”

At MoneyGram, WeathersNguyen’s philosophy of treating people well plays into her everyday work. As head of global employment law, she is responsible for the company’s employeeand contractor-related legal problems. Those duties range from talent acquisition and recruiting to employee contracts and disputes, meaning that no matter what Weathers-Nguyen works on, she sees the real-life impact of how people choose to interact. Legal Counsel Adam Brzeziński Sr., who works within MoneyGram’s employment department in Warsaw, Poland, says, “Elizabeth inspires others and makes employees want to go an extra mile for her, thanks to her attitude. One could say this might be even seen as a problem—I will never be happy working for someone else. Clearly, she has really limited my career options!”

That work can be challenging at times, Weathers-Nguyen admits. MoneyGram has employees in thirty-nine countries and contractors in even more, and each country has its own legal entity—or even two or three. “I actually put together a monthly legal training program when I came to MoneyGram because we have so many people working on so many different

Elizabeth Weathers-Nguyen Associate General Counsel MoneyGram International

things, and they don’t necessarily know all of the rules,” Weathers-Nguyen says. “People ultimately want to do the right thing. They just have to know what the right thing is.”

Weathers-Nguyen has also spearheaded a “shredding and digitizing” initiative to improve the legal department’s efficiency. Sorting through paperwork, removing old records, and integrating the remaining documents into an online database proved a huge cost saver. But instead of relegating the work to secretaries or paralegals, she gathered the entire legal department for a day dedicated to cleaning up and organizing records—and eating pizza and tacos.

“I actually gave myself an asthma attack from all the dust we stirred up,” Weathers-Nguyen laughs. “But we found so many documents that we had been wondering about and were able to answer a lot of long-standing questions.”

Bringing a Wealth of Experience and Leadership To MoneyGram

But Weathers-Nguyen isn’t stopping at helping her legal team. “I ask myself, ‘What are we doing right?’ and ‘How are we looking out for our people?’” she says. “But I also wonder how we’re looking out for our community and how we’re respecting our planet. We need to be asking ourselves all of those things if we want to go about our work responsibly.”

To that end, Weathers-Nguyen has headed company-wide pro bono programs and helped build a corporate social responsibility program that allows employees to volunteer two days a year with full pay. Those two days can be spent at PTA or MoneyGram Foundation events, the food bank—or whatever is most meaningful to individual employees.

It makes a huge difference to MoneyGram employees, Weathers-Nguyen says, to know that the company cares about this work.

“If you have the opportunity, it doesn’t hurt to be kind. And it’s not hard to be kind,” Weathers-Nguyen says. “That’s why I went to law school in the first place, because I wanted to be a lawyer who makes a difference. And my job does make a difference—it makes a difference to every single person who works at MoneyGram, and it gives me a platform to make a difference for others.”

“People ultimately want to do the right thing. They just have to know what the right thing is.”

Drinker

Biddle & Reath LLP: “Elizabeth is a true thought leader in recognizing changes and opportunities in today’s global landscape. She is whip-smart, proactive, and strategic in implementing global approaches for transformation—the perfect partner to help shepherd MoneyGram into the future.” –Dawn McCord, Partner

Drinker Biddle joins Modern Counsel in saluting Elizabeth Weathers-Nguyen for her role in advancing MoneyGram International’s ambitious legal, compliance and human resources objectives.

Drinker Biddle is a proud partner of MoneyGram and businesses across the nation. Our attorneys help clients achieve their goals and stay ahead of complex legal challenges.

Kroger’s Nathan Brown is as pure a retail in-house counsel as they come

By Billy Yost

Pure Retail

THE FUTURE OF NATHAN BROWN’S LEGAL CAREER CONsisted of a piece of paper tacked to a bulletin board at the University of Utah Law Library. It wasn’t even Brown’s university; it was just close to his home and a good place to study. “It was less than a year after I’d taken the bar,” Brown says. “The job board had a posting for a legal position at Walmart, and that’s where my journey really started.”

The lawyer is unique in that while he wasn’t sure what path his law career would take him down, he realized almost immediately that the firm life of billable hours and hyperspecialization wasn’t for him. That realization would eventuate a career steeped in retail expertise and highlighted by a fundamental mastery of setting strategy, defining scope, and taking command of a team capable of taking on increasingly complex issues without having to grow in number. The

now corporate counsel at the Kroger Company has tackled legal roles at the first- and second-largest general retailers in the US, always focusing on the big picture and honing a knack for selecting the right outside counsel for the right job at the right price.

An Immediate In-House Attorney

Brown’s growth into an in-house role is relatively unique among lawyers, as many organizations require attorneys they’re thinking about bringing in-house to spend a few years out in the wilds of law firm life. The problem was that after interviewing at several large East Coast firms and receiving offers from some, Brown knew that he didn’t belong. “While the salary might have been great, the lifestyle didn’t look appealing to me at all,” Brown says. He elected to work as

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Nathan Brown Corporate Counsel The Kroger Company

a law clerk and associate attorney while waiting for his bar results. That’s when he noticed the Walmart posting and decided to apply.

“Not many in-house jobs allow someone with less than five years of experience to join them,” Brown admits. “I was barely even a lawyer yet.” But Walmart has a history of taking on young attorneys at a lower price point, and anything seemed better to Brown than the ten hours he was spending in front of a computer doing estate planning.

The mammoth size of the company allowed the neophyte lawyer to immediately be entrusted with issues whose monetary stakes dwarfed anything he had seen previously. “They could give me matters of substance because they had so many,” Brown says. “It may not have hit big on their radar, but being given matters to run right off the bat provided me with immediate opportunities to grow.”

Assuming control over his own cases meant Brown was suddenly tasked with managing outside counsel. “It was sort of essential to learn how to assess the quality of the work they’re giving you and what you’re paying for.”

Defining the Role

Brown spent seven and a half years at Walmart, serving in roles from compliance to insurance coverage to corporate investigations and tort litigation. “They allowed me a wide variety of roles and autonomy in how I approached them,” Brown says. “They weren’t shy about letting their people learn new things.”

The lawyer was able to bring that expertise to Kroger in 2010 when he was offered a role that was too good to pass up: the chance to define a brand-new function. Brown was charged with the creation and framing of the tort litigation and discovery responses team, which would comprise Brown and four paralegals that he would hire. The lawyer says this role is one of his proudest accomplishments—and for good reason. The team has been together for nearly a decade with barely any turnover: a rarity in any field, let alone law.

Brown says that lack of turnover has meant his team has learned over time how to assume more—and greater—responsibilities without having to add more manpower. “There are always people wanting to offer you a solution in billing or some AI capability, but the likelihood of that adoption is low because we just manage with the resources that we have: our brains and our people,” the corporate counsel says. Team cohesion and experience have led to the team’s taking

Guiding clients for over

third-party subpoena responses and shifting to an increasing focus on ADA litigation.

“In order for outside counsel to be effective, there must be a relationship of trust with in-house general counsel. With Nathan, that trust begins and ends with his word,” says Frank D’Oro, partner at Wesierski & Zurek and a close colleague of Brown’s. “Because you can always count on it, true teamwork results between in-house and outside counsel.”

Over the years, these relationships have strengthened Brown’s credibility as a lawyer and have bolstered his and his team’s success. Many of Brown’s colleagues, such as D’Oro and Adraon D. Greene, director at

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Larry McClung and Katie Pratt congratulate Nathan Brown for his leadership in a rapidly changing marketplace as General Counsel with The Kroger Company.

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Galloway, Johnson, Tompkins, Burr & Smith, are effusive in congratulating Brown and wishing him continued success. Greene remarks, “Nathan’s commitment to Kroger and focus on team cohesion foster a partnership that encourages strategic, innovative, and efficient case handling. Galloway values and appreciates his stewardship, leadership, and friendship.”

“The Pure Essence of Being a Lawyer”

For more information, visit: www.warllc.com

Coming to Kroger has allowed Brown to take on a more holistic set of duties, managing the litigation process and having a chance to think bigger. Especially when it comes to litigation, Brown says that learning to effectively

manage outside counsel over the years isn’t just essential for the company’s bottom line but also for Brown’s ability to maintain his scope. “Sometimes the best decision I will make on a matter isn’t necessarily what to do but who to assign it to,” Brown says. “It’s more than just finding a good lawyer. There are lots of those. It has to be the best lawyer at the best price with the best philosophy.”

Brown and his team’s everexpanding responsibilities are a tribute to the lawyer who has in-house in his veins. On any given day, he’s helping better align the multitude of acquisitions Kroger

has made over the years, negotiating a sponsorship deals, or assigning litigation to outside counsel. It’s a role the corporate counsel relishes. He says that in many ways, in-house work mirrors his law school experience. “When I come into the office on a normal day, I’ll have dozens of emails on different topics, and there just is no way to do a deep dive on each and every issue,” Brown says. “You have to pick and choose and just keep moving. In many ways, it feels like it’s the pure essence of being a lawyer.”

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Accepted, Acknowledged, Affirmed

As TQL’s first in-house counsel, Chris Brown has built a cohesive team by emphasizing trust, transparency, and employees’ strengths

By Chip Hooper

Andrew Kennedy

Chris Brown Chief Legal Officer Total Quality Logistics

GROWING UP, CHRIS BROWN WANTED to follow in the footsteps of his uncle, who was in law enforcement. But while he was pursuing his criminal justice degree, a trusted professor advised him to take the LSAT and attend law school. The next day, he changed his trajectory to law. That path later led him to law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister and to his current role as chief legal officer of Total Quality Logistics (TQL), the nation’s second-largest freight brokerage firm.

Brown’s open-mindedness and adaptability not only transported him into the legal world but has also helped him handle difficult situations, such as serving as TQL’s first in-house attorney and growing the company’s legal team. “Initially, it was daunting,” he says. “There was just so much going on. TQL is a robust, fast-moving, hyperspeed, driven company.”

Though it took him some time to adjust to TQL, Brown had learned a great deal from his prior role as an associate attorney, where he had considerable freedom and experience with

large-scale cases. He was confident he could tie up the loose ends he’d inherited and develop his team into an agile legal force. “I love a good challenge,” he says, “and this was certainly that.” With that mentality, he set off.

He began by dividing the work into bite-sized chunks, holding to the rock, pebble, and sand management analogy emphasized by his direct supervisor, in which you prioritize large tasks first, fit in medium tasks after that, and put small tasks last. “We used to joke, ‘Hey, what big stones are you moving?’ We wanted to make sure we were moving boulders.” He broke up his time into ninety-day increments and laid out the three biggest goals he needed to accomplish in that time period. Alongside that, he created a five-year plan, mapping out what he wanted TQL’s legal team to look like.

In Brown’s time at TQL, much of his long-term plan has come to fruition. This is due in part to the candid environment TQL has cultivated, in which people are very transparent about their needs from the legal team. Brown built relationships with the sales team by sitting among them, wearing a headset and soaking in the ambience. “They are the heartbeat of our organization,” Brown states. “People will understand that you care about them if you meet them where they’re at.”

None of this success would have been possible without strong support from the rest of the company’s leaders. “The one thing about leadership is you never do it by yourself,” Brown says. “Even though I was the sole lawyer

here, I had to rely on tons of people to get me up to speed.” To realize his full potential at TQL, he had to learn what the truck brokerage business was all about. “People were very patient with me as I learned the industry in depth.” He earned the respect and trust of his coworkers by admitting his vulnerability and owning his mistakes. He now returns the favor: “A lot of times, people come to you after a situation has happened and they know they made a mistake,” he says. “They come to you to pull them out of the quicksand. Although we cannot promise to pull them out without any quicksand residue left on them, we can pull them out.”

Sometimes, Brown needs to get pulled out of the quicksand, too, which is why he needs a highly capable team around him. He is proud that every member of his legal team has a hand in interviewing new hires. “Everyone is involved,” he says. “That way, there is full ownership when that person comes on board to be a part of our team.” Everybody on Brown’s team is equally responsible for the culture.

Brown’s longstanding commitment to culture helped ease the transition when he assumed leadership over TQL’s HR function. In this capacity, he has

his eye on the future, particularly strategic staffing: “When TQL has ten thousand employees and is a five- to six-billiondollar company, what does HR need to do to scale?” he says. “What is our model employee going to look like?”

Though Brown prioritizes personal growth, he does so in proportion to the growth of his team and his teaching of leadership. Driven to continuously learn, Brown keeps a large library of books and CDs in his office and finishes a book every two weeks. He also frequently lends—and gifts—books to TQL employees. “Develop my leaders: difficult to do, but it’s a simple goal,” he says. He regularly sits down with his reports and challenges them to answer the same questions he asks himself: What are you doing to further the goals of the company? How are you developing your team?

“Every human being wants to be accepted, acknowledged, and affirmed,” Brown says. He believes in recognizing people for both their professional and

“Pouring into people and doing the right thing will always pay off.”

Managing the workplace

Taft’s Employment Team: Guiding employers’ decision-making processes.

personal skills and strengths. He often reminds his crew that he values them, thanking them for their contributions via email or handwritten note. He also treats small groups of employees from the legal, HR, and operations departments to coffee or breakfast meetings. During these free-flowing conversations, he listens while people tell him what’s on their minds, get to know each other, and form lasting bonds.

“If leadership were easy, there wouldn’t be seventy thousand books about it,” Brown says. But he has faith that building up his team is the most worthwhile of endeavors. “Pouring into people and doing the right thing will always pay off.”

Dickinson Wright PLLC:

“Chris has mastered the ability, rare among lawyers, to merge in his decision-making the legal and business aspects of an issue, always keeping in mind the overall bigger picture.”

–Matthew J. Wiles, Member

Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP:

“Chris has been a perfect fit for a rapidlygrowing company like TQL. His attention to detail and work ethic are invaluable in such an environment. We are privileged to work closely with him.”

–Douglas C. Anspach, Partner

Evaluate

A look at the logistical challenges, evolving regulations, industry shifts, and cultural concerns outside the office that lawyers must analyze and navigate to manage their impact inside the office

AStoryteller at Heart

A partner at boutique law firm MoloLamken, Gerald Meyer uses his storytelling chops to win cases while making sure clients’ stories are heard

By Sara Deeter

Gerald Meyer Partner MoloLamken

GERALD MEYER IS A STORYTELLER.

To him, the legal profession pivots around lawyers’ ability to tell a good story, to craft a cohesive narrative and persuade a judge or jury of the “right” answer. And as a partner at MoloLamken, a boutique-style law firm where Meyer immerses himself in each case, his talent for storytelling has led both him and the firm to success.

An English major in college, Meyer decided to apply to law school so he could employ his critical thinking and writing skills. And when he got to the University of Illinois College of Law, “it clicked right away,” he remembers. After graduating, Meyer completed two judicial clerkships and worked as an attorney for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Affiliates. But as he advanced in his career, Meyer saw one of the “most important parts of being a litigator” being pushed to the wayside.

“You have to be able to tell a story that makes sense,” Meyer says. “You have to think about the narrative in terms of what the answer should be, and why, as well as how you can make it engaging for your audience.”

Well versed in both federal- and state-level white-collar criminal law, Meyer emphasizes the value of those storytelling abilities. “Criminal cases have a human element,” he explains. “You’re telling an individual’s story, and that’s going to impact them on a very real level. As you take them through the legal process, you are telling their story, helping them, and advocating for them.”

White-collar criminal cases also involve a lot of complexity, Meyer says, which makes them particularly interesting for him. “Because there are a lot of moving parts, it takes a lot more work to craft a narrative,” he notes. “You have to consider what’s going on in each individual dispute and look at how various statutes can be interpreted.”

“Gerald reminds lawyers why they wanted to practice law in the first place,” says Cat Casey, chief innovation officer at DISCO. “His compassion and dedication to the pursuit of justice for his clients make him a formidable foe, as many have learned in the courtroom.”

In one of Meyer’s most memorable cases, which ultimately went to the Supreme Court, he represented

the Islamic Republic of Iran. “It could have been very dry and uninteresting because it was essentially a statutory interpretation issue,” Meyer says. “But we made it compelling—we explained why the statute existed in the first place, where it came from, and what the words mean when actually applied.”

But whether you’re arguing a case in front of the Supreme Court or a local judge, Meyer urges his fellow attorneys to be careful about leading people toward the “right” answer. “It’s very easy to get locked into a position where you think it’s obvious you’re right. You think the judge will see it that way, too, but that’s often not the case,” Meyer advises. “Everyone has different experiences and got to where they are from different

“Everyone has different experiences and got to where they are from different places, so not everybody is going to see things the way you see them.”

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places, so not everybody is going to see things the way you see them.”

Not treating an outcome like it’s obvious is especially important when the outcome actually is obvious, Meyer says. “You may feel like the other side is making a stupid argument, like explaining why the earth is flat, but you still have to address their argument properly,” he points out. “You can’t just say, ‘That’s stupid.’ You have to break it down, state your position, and explain why their argument doesn’t make sense instead of just stating that it’s wrong.”

In addition to his regular work at MoloLamken, Meyer and his team take on a variety of pro bono cases, primarily criminal and civil rights cases. “It’s important to me and should be very important to everyone who practices law,” Meyer asserts. “We all became lawyers because we have faith in the system, but there’s an idea out there that if you have enough money, you can buy the verdicts you want. If we want the system to stay respected, we have to put in the effort to keep it that way.”

In the spring of 2018, Meyer took on a particularly meaningful pro bono case. “We were helping a man who had been incarcerated. During his time in the facility, he had received some bad treatments that resulted in him losing a couple teeth,” Meyer recalls. “He couldn’t go and choose a dentist; he had to use who the prison provided. It was really frustrating for him.”

While Meyer didn’t ultimately get the verdict he was hoping for, he was nevertheless pleased that he had been able to advocate for the client and

make sure that his story was heard. “At the end of the day, what happened to him may have been within the law. But the negative results he experienced were still acknowledged,” Meyer states. And that’s exactly what Meyer prioritizes in his everyday work at MoloLamken: “You may go into a case knowing you’re unlikely to win, but you can still accomplish something at the end of the day, even if it’s just providing some resolution for the client.”

Andrew Collings Photography

Innovating an

Afterthought

Gregory Zarin has taken subrogation, an area at the intersection of law and insurance often considered an afterthought, and made it a focus at SubroSmart, a technology-driven company

By Sara Deeter

ACCORDING TO GREGORY ZARIN, cofounder and president of SubroSmart, the established and hierarchical nature of the legal and insurance industries can be at odds with what is needed for success in today’s world. Many smart and talented young professionals feel restricted by the dated conventions of those industries, Zarin says, which inhibits innovation and growth. And that is one reason why, in 2013, Zarin and cofounder Elliot Schuler came together to found SubroSmart.

“Throughout my career, I have been passionate about raising the bar of established practices by delivering approachable innovation,” Zarin explains. “And for me, this has been a twenty-year journey.”

Zarin’s journey began with a blind move to Seattle in 2000 after college graduation. It was right at the time of the first “real push” of the internet and technology revolution. “I was immersed in and practically obsessed with what was happening in Silicon Valley and Seattle,” Zarin remembers. And because he was entering that marketplace during a major crossroads period, Zarin wasn’t exactly looking at the technology industry with rose-tinted glasses.

“The first project I worked on was related to the aftermath of Y2K. There was the theory that software would stop in the year 2000, that it would break,” Zarin says. “This issue showed me the vulnerability in introducing new technology to established markets.” The estimated cost to address this bug was

more than $100 billion, and Zarin quickly learned that new technology could bring major unintended consequences when designed improperly.

After nearly three years and the dot-com bust in 2003, Zarin took a career break to attend law school at the University of Miami. “I really like gray areas where there aren’t clear answers, where people drive solutions,” Zarin says. “In one of my favorite exercises in law school, the instructor made me get up and make a compelling argument for my position, sit down, walk to the other podium, and then make an argument against everything I had just said. And it just goes to show there are always two sides to every story, two ways to think about everything.”

But the longer Zarin worked at law firms, the more frustrated he became with the dated processes and the lack of meaningful data. “Attorneys are not ones to generally take risks to drive change. The legal community felt threatened about introducing new technology, and not many people would stick their neck out for change,” Zarin recalls. “Since everything was so competitive, it really closed the door to innovation. No one wants to make a mistake. But you can’t bring about change without being willing to step outside the box.”

At SubroSmart, Zarin and his team are constantly testing innovation boundaries. “We thought, Why don’t we use technology and data to help drive our decisions? Why can’t the flip of a switch tell me the information we need, what has higher or lower priorities, what has or has not been successful in the past? At SubroSmart, we have gone into an industry

“Throughout my career, I have been passionate about raising the bar of established practices by delivering approachable innovation.”

Gregory Zarin Cofounder and President SubroSmart

that lacked transparency and innovation and made it something great,” Zarin asserts. “We are not relevant if we aren’t making a difference.”

Subrogation is hundreds of years old and touches on several industries, particularly law and insurance. “It’s a big word,” Zarin chuckles. “For a long time, people didn’t really know how to deal with it, and so there were major gaps in the market to manage this product. So my partner and I thought we’d take something that’s frequently viewed as an afterthought and make it a focus, make it interesting.”

Zarin and his team members act as a liaison, he explains, to tie together various parts of the recovery process through leading experts and datadriven technology. But to Zarin, this technology could not be a gimmick; it had to actually be useful. “New software can also get in your way and hinder your ability to effectively perform the job,” Zarin remarks. “We embrace technology for things where

humans can’t perform well but rely on experienced and proven professionals to execute the work.

“You still want to use the intellectual capital of your people. Most technology cannot replace a person’s true value,” Zarin continues. “But people should be spending their time on the things they do well and not fighting for information, or worse, doing things differently just for the sake of doing them differently.”

That combined expertise and data-centric approach sets SubroSmart apart from others, Zarin says. “It’s a highly fragmented industry in a complex global marketplace,” Zarin notes. “We will always be first and foremost a manager of subrogation claims. We understand our product extremely well and partner with our clients so that they understand our product better, too. Every day brings new challenges, but I’m really proud of my colleagues and our clients for coming together and taking risks to make a positive difference.”

“At SubroSmart, we have gone into an industry that lacked transparency and innovation and made it something great.”

The Advertising Lawyer

Susan Rosenfeld is effective in IP by thinking like a psychologist and studying marketing

By Billy Yost

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW ISN’T INHERENTLY loaded with the cinematic qualities of, say, a private eye’s or superhero’s line of work, but Susan Rosenfeld’s introduction to IP might as well have had a soundtrack behind it. Two years out of undergrad and working various odd jobs, Rosenfeld was still wondering if law school was the right path forward or if she should pursue her other interests, such as a career in advertising. Then the “aha” moment happened.

While working as a document clerk at a law firm, she attended a barbecue hosted by a friend of hers who worked as a paralegal. She was chatting with one of the guests, an attorney, and asked him what kind of law he practiced. The man pointed to his bottle of beer—to the “circled R” after the brand name. “That’s what I do,” the lawyer said.

In the movie version of this interaction, there would be stars in Rosenfeld’s eyes as she realized what her future looked like. The reality is more nuanced.

After careful consideration, Rosenfeld decided to attend the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law, which is to this day one of the top IP law schools in the country. The school’s exceptional, IP-focused curriculum and practical approach to education prepared her for a successful future in IP law, where she combined her interests in law and advertising.

Rosenfeld’s twenty years of IP expertise is driven by an advertiser’s eye for consumer trends, a psychologist’s insight into the motivation of individuals, and an executive’s drive to lead with practicality and approachability.

The seasoned IP attorney explains that what makes IP so interesting is also what makes it so challenging. “Legal principles may stay the same, but you have to be adaptable,” Rosenfeld comments. “This area of the law is always changing—how technology works, how people interact with it, and what and where data is being collected. These are all things I have to pay close attention to.”

Time Away from the Computer

Susan Rosenfeld is a student of human behavior, a political junkie, and an advertising law aficionado. She’s also in training for the New York City Marathon.

“It’s time not at a computer,” the lawyer laughs. “It’s a different goal that isn’t work related that gives me time to unwind; it’s just so rewarding to be part of such an inspiring community.” Though running 26.2 miles may not seem like the most relaxing activity, it’s one of the ways in which the IP lawyer is able to truly unplug.

Rosenfeld’s interest in advertising has helped inform her IP career. For instance, she pays close attention to the influence of millennials on more consumer-centric marketing. “The millennial generation was born into a digital age that was skeptical of typical advertising,” Rosenfeld says. “They are on social media platforms that give them access to public opinion and reviews that really let them see behind the curtain.” This shift gave rise to influencer-based advertising, which relies on an everyman approach that seems less motivated by pure profit and more tied to a product’s quality.

She has been in the IP game long enough to see the consumer model shift dramatically. “Consumercentric marketing means focusing on the customer, not the product,” Rosenfeld says. “You’re asking the consumer what they want and designing or innovating to that need or want.”

As consumers increasingly demand greater transparency and social responsibility, companies need to do more than deliver a good product to fulfill customers’ expectations, Rosenfeld explains. “You also need to be a good corporate citizen and contribute to society,” she says. “Consumers care

Susan Rosenfeld

Intellectual Property Expert

about whether you care.” Understanding what drives consumers at a deeper level lies at the heart of any successful business strategy.

“The common thread of my interests is the question, What motivates people?” she says. Rosenfeld is as intrigued by politics as she is by human behavior and the technology that effectively delivers news, advertising, and other information in an increasingly connected-disconnected world.

It’s Rosenfeld’s multitiered interest in people and their motivations that has made her effective in her role. To her internal clients, Rosenfeld prides herself on being anything but disconnected. “The strong relationships that I build with my clients and business partners allow them to trust me and create open lines of communication, which help us work closely together to meet their needs in a legally compliant manner,” Rosenfeld says. “Building those relationships has made my work more interesting, more satisfying.”

Katten, Muchin, Rosenman, LLP:

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“Throughout the course of our business relationship, I have had the pleasure of watching Susan utilize the same creativity to solve intellectual property issues that PVH is renowned for applying to the fashion industry. Susan’s breadth of knowledge allows her to make light work of developing innovative solutions to complex legal issues while still mitigating risk. I am honored to count her among my clients and look forward to every opportunity to work alongside her.”

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Solving Problems That Have Troubled Dealmakers for Years

How GC Gretchen Dahlberg helps Merrill Corporation maintain and enhance its reputation as the leading name in intelligent due diligence and enterprise collaboration

By Sara Deeter

Portraits by Gillian Fry

DATA PRIVACY AND SECURITY ARE TOP OF MIND FOR everyone these days. If they’re not actively scaring people away from making deals, they’re slowing people down because so many different aspects of data access and sharing have to be considered. But Merrill Corporation has been mindful of those concerns since its establishment fifty years ago. Its focused and meticulous approach to how information is stored and shared is a large part of what has moved the company to the upper echelons of the software as a service (SaaS) industry and positioned it as the leading technology provider for participants in the M&A life cycle.

“We’ve done some independent polling, and 55 percent of dealmakers believe that M&A transactions did not progress because of concerns about a company’s data privacy compliance,” asserts Gretchen Dahlberg, general counsel at Merrill. “It’s astonishing but not surprising, given the hefty fines and tarnished reputation associated with noncompliance.”

For example, some companies are facing fines of more than $1.5 billion in the European Union and up to $5 billion in the US for privacy transgressions, while others face similar eye-watering fines, especially in the EU.

“But sometime in the early 2000s, Merrill leveraged technology to turn the due diligence process into an online experience,” Dahlberg continues. “It really

revolutionized the way deal information is stored and shared and drastically changed the way the due diligence process is managed, including for lawyers. Merrill’s core platform, DatasiteOne, enables users to share the right data with the right people at the right time. That’s crucial to any deal.”

Dahlberg has been at Merrill for more than ten years now. When she joined the company as associate general counsel, she jumped at the opportunity to leverage her previous experience in international business. Approved for an expatriate assignment in London, Dahlberg spent more than eighteen months familiarizing herself with the company’s European and Asian entities. She also opened Merrill’s offices in Japan.

Ever since then, Dahlberg’s role at Merrill has only continued to evolve. And that variety is one of the things that has kept her at the company throughout the years, says the GC, because it aligns so well with her lifelong desire to continue challenging herself and expanding on what she’s already learned. “I’ve always been a learner. I always enjoyed school and was curious—constantly curious,” Dahlberg says, laughing.

And with the exponential growth in the amount of electronic data available in recent years, Dahlberg has had numerous opportunities to keep learning and challenging herself. As data availability has changed and grown, so too have the laws surrounding that

Gretchen Dahlberg General Counsel Merrill Corporation

data, the GC explains. Merrill has had to keep up with these regulations to protect its employees and, most importantly, the data included in its customers’ deal information.

“Our platform has to be ironclad secure,” Dahlberg notes. “In the legal department here at Merrill, we have to be knowledgeable about data privacy so that we can assure our customers that we have the right administrative, physical, and technical protocols in place.”

But Merrill isn’t just careful when it comes to utilizing and navigating technology. The company is also highly innovative. Merrill is dedicated to finding ways to use different technologies, often layered on top of each other, to save time and resources. A perfect example of that commitment, according to Dahlberg, is the AI-based redaction tool Merrill recently launched to make it easier for lawyers and project managers to locate key information.

“When Merrill was looking at what technology tools might be the most beneficial to dealmakers, we found that almost 75 percent of the deals were using some form of manual redaction,” says Dahlberg. “Can you imagine the amount of time it takes to go through and draw lines with Sharpies through names or dates of birth or medical details, then scanning the documents and putting them back up in the virtual data room? Now you can do all that with the click of a button. What’s even more impressive is you can then unredact at the click of a button.”

“We have to be knowledgeable about data privacy so that we can assure our customers that we have the right administrative, physical, and technical protocols in place.”

In the Business

As VP of legal and associate GC at EDF Renewables, Joshua Pearson helps his team act as a “sleeve” to facilitate the company’s extraordinary commitment to sustainable energy

By Sara Deeter

Daniel Peters

of Development

AT EDF RENEWABLES, JOSHUA PEARSON helps develop a great deal—the business, the company’s large-scale renewable energy projects, the people on his legal team. And that is exactly what he was looking for, says the vice president of legal and associate general counsel. Pearson grew up in a family full of people in the construction trades, and he even worked in the industry himself between his graduation from Dartmouth and his first year at the University of San Diego School of Law.

“I was looking for something that would provide an intellectual challenge and also allow me to drive around the country and actually look at the work the company has done,” Pearson explains. “It’s always so gratifying to have a tangible embodiment of the effort that I put forth. I also believe strongly in the power of clean energy—my work makes me feel like I am doing something positive for our planet.”

Pearson certainly has ample opportunity to see the tangible rewards of his hard work. EDF Renewables is the North American division of the EDF Group, one of the largest energy solutions and electricity-generating companies in the world. Right now, as a result of the impending end of US federal tax incentives for wind and solar projects, EDF Renewables is

Joshua Pearson

VP of Legal and Associate General Counsel

EDF Renewables

Hilde Baumann, EDF Renewables

slated for more sustainable energy and energy storage projects than it has ever developed in the past.

“The tax credits were designed to help the fledgling renewable energy industry lower costs, and they have worked remarkably well,” says Pearson. “Even though the tax credits are being phased out, the actual capital costs of renewable energy projects have come down dramatically as the manufacturing base has increased and the technologies we rely on have improved. So as an industry and as a company, we will see more wind projects built in 2020 in the United States than in any other year prior.”

According to Pearson, EDF Renewables is uniquely equipped to handle this transformation in the industry because of its position in France and its “extraordinary” commitments to sustainability.

“Our parent company is based in Paris,” Pearson notes. “About 86 percent of the company is actually owned directly by the French government, which gives

us access to substantial capital as well as some dexterity and flexibility in terms of the speed at which we can bring projects online.” Simply put, this flexibility means that EDF Renewables is not as financially constrained as other renewable energy companies. Furthermore, EDF Renewables can conserve substantial carbon and human capital because it does not have to devote time and energy to finding new sources of funding. In turn, Pearson says, this means that EDF Renewables is often able to attract customers with the unusually low prices of its projects.

The second factor that differentiates EDF Renewables, Pearson believes, is the sheer commitment exemplified in its sustainability programs, like CAP 2030. Per that program, the EDF Group will double the company’s global renewable generation capacity by 2030, meaning countries and regions that previously had access to about 25 gigawatts of renewable energy will be able to tap into 50 gigawatts. But despite

Frederic Neema

Built on 900 acres of land, the Catalina Solar Project represents EDF Renewables’ largest utility scale project. It is the world’s eighth largest photovoltaic plant and is estimated to offset 250,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emis sions annually.

Baker McKenzie 452 Fifth Avenue New York, New York 10018

www.bakermckenzie.com

its impressive nature, Pearson emphasizes that the CAP 2030 program is “just one of the many extraordinary commitments to renewable energy that this company regularly makes.”

As VP and associate GC, Pearson facilitates the execution of those programs and the development of the company’s many projects by acting as a “sleeve” between the company’s internal commercial teams and its external lawyers and experts. He and his team hold a critical role within the company, Pearson remarks, because they know the business better than any of the outside consultants. “We know the commercial expectations within EDF Renewables, so we are uniquely positioned to be able to translate those desires as well as technical legal issues to our outside counsel,” he says. While Pearson himself used to focus primarily on this client-facing, project-oriented work, he is now devoting himself to the development of his team so that they can shoulder some of those responsibilities. “I take a lot of pride in that, in my ability to assist in their professional development,” Pearson offers. “And while I’m doing that, I’m also building out their expertise about the industry so that they don’t have to go through the incredibly intense learning process I had to go through when I first came to the company.”

“I take a lot of pride in that, in my ability to assist in my team’s professional development.”

Baker McKenzie congratulates Joshua Pearson, VP Legal & Associate General Counsel at EDF Renewables for his contributions to the development of renewable energy

Keeping CapGemini in Check

As an assistant general counsel and ethics manager for CapGemini, Keri Halperin helps the company live its values

By Joseph Charney

KERI HALPERIN, AN ASSISTANT general counsel at international technology and digital transformation consulting firm CapGemini, focuses her work on the company’s heartbeat: its people. Having acquired more than eighteen years of experience in employment litigation, Halperin has established herself as a leader in the field.

Increasingly, as is the case with many in-house employment lawyers, Halperin serves as her company’s ultimate check, confirming that it’s complying with all regulatory laws and upholding a high standard of ethics. And her work is making an impact.

CapGemini’s ethics and compliance program is the company’s guiding force; it informs decision-making, ensures proper checks and balances, and verifies adherence to internal and external regulations. This program has allowed the company to be among the most trusted and well respected in the world. Indeed, the Ethisphere Institute recognized it as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies seven years in a row.

Employment law presents “an opportunity to be better than the floor,” Halperin says. CapGemini employs twenty-thousand people in

North America, and in the United States specifically, Halperin serves as CapGemini’s moral compass—its ethics manager. As a high-level executive with so many employees under her ethics purview, Halperin is challenged with a host of competing priorities. Nevertheless, Halperin thrives amid such challenges because the ethics component of her work is aspirational in nature: there are always higher standards to meet and new goals to reach.

According to CapGemini’s website, the company’s seven core values— honesty, boldness, trust, freedom, fun, modesty, and team spirit—set the company apart from its competition. Together, these values serve as the foundation of CapGemini’s internal operations and external partnerships. CapGemini’s website holds that the values are “not only rules of behavior but also guiding principles” that shape the ethical culture and produce “a shared mind-set that keeps ethics at the heart of our decisions and actions.” Halperin strives to uphold these values in her work.

CapGemini also has a robust corporate social responsibility program called Architects of Positive Futures,

which is dedicated to the pillars of diversity, digital inclusion, and environmental sustainability. The multifaceted program consists of various partnerships across the globe, impacting many of the countries in which CapGemini operates.

In the last fiscal year, CapGemini, founded in 1967, generated nearly $15 billion. It currently employs more than two-hundred-thousand people in forty different countries, and the company’s international nature has led Halperin to abandon a purely American-centric mind-set. Halperin acknowledges that the American perspective toward business operations is only one perspective and standard business practices vary by country. This has afforded Halperin an opportunity to expand her business repertoire and given her an understanding of various cultural nuances that she applies to her work in ethics.

Halperin was featured in the Chicago Tribune in 2017 as part of its Shout Out series, a weekly feature in which readers are introduced to community members residing in the Chicago suburbs. Halperin told the Tribune that, growing up, she wanted to be an actor, but pivoted to the law after realizing that she “didn’t want to be a waitress for the rest of my life.”

Aside from babysitting gigs, Halperin’s first real job was working for Cook County Clerk David Orr right out of college, which eventually led her to apply for law school and attend the Loyola University Chicago School of Law. After bouncing around to a few different law firms, Halperin eventually landed at Accenture, where she spent six years as a senior counsel in employment law, followed by two years as their director of employment

litigation. Halperin then spent four years as the head of employment for Wipro Limited before starting her career at CapGemini.

According to the Tribune, Halperin has a host of pet peeves, including slow drivers in passing lanes and dog owners who think there are “poop fairies” who clean up after their dogs. But above all, Halperin can’t stand lying and dishonesty—a good pet peeve for someone who has built a career in ethics.

of the Americas New York, NY 10036

Kramer Levin congratulates Keri Halperin, Assistant General Counsel of Capgemini, on her success and well-deserved recognition by Modern Counsel

Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP 1177 Avenue

Leadership is a Virtue

Gaining

Naturally competitive, Marcia Hatch uses her well-honed business development skills to help Gunderson Dettmer establish itself in the burgeoning technology market of the Midwest

By Sara Deeter

an Edge

Marcia Hatch Partner

Gunderson Dettmer Sean Carter Photography

MARCIA HATCH WENT TO LAW SCHOOL

because she likes business. She likes growing businesses, figuring out the strategies that will help them be successful, and unleashing her competitive side. At Gunderson Dettmer, where Hatch has worked as a corporate partner for about twelve years, she has put those passions to work.

A college athlete, Hatch is “by nature a competitive person.” “I push pretty hard—I’m a driver,” Hatch says. “That doesn’t always fit with how people expect women to fit in. And when I was in Silicon Valley, there weren’t a lot of other women at the time.”

But Hatch knew that her determination and focus would be an asset to clients. “For me, it was about advocating for my clients in a way that they would say, ‘Yeah, she’s tough. But we want her negotiating for us and representing us,’” Hatch recalls. “I got the deals done, so at the end of the day, people were fine with my edgy, competitive, driven side as long as I was on their team.”

A turning point, Hatch says, was when she discovered a knack for working with start-up companies. “It was something I really liked doing and something I was good at,” she remembers. “It was so engaging and fun, and I could really add value as a member of those teams. And I’ve been able to accomplish so much more than I expected when I started my career.”

Recently, though, Hatch has been developing businesses in a region that

many people don’t yet associate with start-up culture: the Midwest.

Nearly five years ago, Gunderson Dettmer opened an office in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Hatch was selected to be a founding partner, making her the first woman to lead an office in the firm’s history. Hatch herself admits that she never would have looked at the possibility of expanding into the Midwest as a new market for technology. But since taking charge of the Midwest office and building out both her teams and the firm’s business partners, she has realized the value of the decision.

“There are great universities, great technologies, and entrepreneurs here,” Hatch explains. “The people and ideas are there; it’s a matter of more money being invested. As a firm, we reviewed our Midwest client base and our longterm goals for where we want our companies to be. We ultimately viewed it as an opportunity to jump into the space early and be an early adopter. It was leading instead of following.”

But there are still many people who need to be convinced, Hatch says. The main challenge she has faced while working in the Midwest office has centered on the need to earn respect for the Midwest as a legitimate technology center and a hub for biotechnology. “We are helping grow the ecosystem here,” Hatch offers. “We’ve seen companies move from Series A to Series B [funding], financed a company that raised more than $100 million at a unicorn valua-

“We are helping to grow the ecosystem here . . . Being part of a smaller market, we contribute a lot to its core success.”

tion, and helped some of our companies in the Midwest get national recognition and funding from coastal offices. Being part of a smaller market, we contribute a lot to its core success.”

Just as Hatch has watched the Midwest’s technology market grow and evolve during her tenure in the region, she has seen Gunderson Dettmer itself evolve a great deal in the twelve years she has worked for the firm. “When I joined the firm as a junior female partner, we didn’t have many other female partners,” Hatch says. “So one of our gauges of success is the evolution of the firm as it looks at diversity. I’m thankful and proud that I’m part of that: a growing percentage of our female associates will continue to come up in the firm.”

But for Hatch, who had to learn how to harness her competitive instincts and leverage them in a way that would be acceptable to those around her, the

firm’s establishment of a platform where “anyone, including women, can be successful on their own terms” is invaluable.

“We’ve acknowledged that we have work to do yet, both the industry as a whole and the firm,” Hatch notes. “But there’s a huge talent pool out there, and evolving in this direction allows us to provide better client service for our company and clients and therefore be more successful in the long term.”

“One of our gauges of success is the evolution of the firm as it looks at diversity. I’m thankful and proud that I’m part of that.”

Adam Barea Leverages Google’s Reach to Help Change Lives

As a legal director at Google, Adam Barea has spearheaded efforts to combat addiction and the opioid crisis

By Joseph Charney

THERE ARE MORE WEBPAGES ON THE internet than stars in our galaxy. Each day, Google explores a vast universe of content, sifting through tens of trillions of websites. Like a NASA executive preparing for the discovery of extraterrestrial life, Adam Barea braces Google for what web surfers may find.

“If you assume that 1 percent of all webpages is ‘bad’ content, you’re still in the billions,” says Barea, legal director at Google. “Of that 1 percent, if Google suppresses, demotes, or removes 99 percent of it—just from a pure raw numbers perspective—you’re still talking about millions of bits of content that are ‘bad.’”

Adam Barea Legal Director Google

Angie Silvy Photography

Barea’s team helps mitigate against high-risk thirdparty content—financial scams, rogue online pharmacies, human trafficking—that might appear across Google’s platforms. They proactively identify content that, down the line, may pose a threat to users. And ultimately, the company tries to do something about it.

Because Google is a company built on trust—its maps accurately guiding users to their destinations, its email servers reliably delivering user correspondence, and its search engines producing secure and helpful results—Barea’s team helps maintain Google’s trustworthiness.

“We’re never going to keep out 100 percent of the bad stuff from our platforms,” Barea admits. “But if we in advance go above and beyond and work hard to keep out 99 percent of it, we become a more credible voice.”

By fostering user trust, Barea’s team can effect change—even save lives. The team works with external partners like the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to learn more about the opioid crisis, particularly whether users engage in online opioid exchange. Barea’s team has analyzed publicly available data sources like the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health and partnered with companies like Mastercard to better understand how website operators appearing in search results for “buy [opioid]” queries interface with the public. The team discovered that most of those sites promote fraudulent nondelivery scams and that most misused opioids come from offline sources—the result of a decades-long overprescription problem, not the internet. Nevertheless, Barea’s team rallies Google to leverage its platforms and find impactful ways to help its users deal with the epidemic.

Under Barea’s leadership, and with the strong support of senior executives, Google partnered with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) on Take Back Day—an initiative aimed at providing a safe, convenient, and anonymous means of disposing of prescription drugs—by using Google’s homepage to

advertise the campaign and to direct users toward maps highlighting dropoff centers. The idea came from one of Barea’s teammates, Aura NavarroAbreu, who recognized that getting legitimately prescribed opioids out of people’s medicine cabinets could, at scale, reduce overall misuse by reducing availability.

“Just by shining a spotlight,” Barea says, the DEA effort’s produced astounding results after Google’s promotion, which launched in April 2018. Search inquiries for Take Back Day skyrocketed, and the DEA collected and destroyed close to one million pounds of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs, making it the most successful event in DEA history.

“What happens if a company like Google can shine a light on people with addiction, highlighting that recovery is possible and addiction is a disease?”

Similar plans are in the works for related initiatives, most notably for National Recovery Month. Rather than focus solely on supply, Barea and his team hope to tackle the shame and stigma surrounding addiction. “Addiction is a chronic disease, and we already know that recovery is possible for anyone, especially when family is involved. What happens if a company like Google shines a light on people struggling with addiction, highlighting for them and their families that recovery is indeed possible and that addiction is a treatable disease?” Barea asks.

Barea acknowledges that, when it comes to public opinion, the entire tech industry is facing new challenges. “We no longer get the benefit of the doubt,” he says. “We have to earn it.” Tech companies must do a better job of explaining that “nothing is truly neutral, as algorithms are obviously designed with the intent of producing ‘relevant’ results.” Despite any connotations of bias associated with “content moderation,” its functional purpose is about helping web users find useful information while limiting any indirect harm to which third-party content might contribute.

“If you were to search ‘teen drug addiction’ on Google search, what you’ll see is a OneBox for the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids,” Barea says. “That is a feature we included because we understood sometimes parents feel overwhelmed by the information they are finding on the web, and they want to have a conversation with someone that can help them.” According to Barea, the average first call is forty-five minutes, with an average of six follow-up calls.

The crux of Barea’s work centers around the idea that Google’s services should help—not hurt—its users. By working across functions to more holistically address third-party “bad content” appearing on Google’s platforms while striving to surface credible content that helps users, such as those dealing with issues firsthand, Barea’s team is living up to Google’s mission of “helping everyone find the information they need.”

When he was hired in 2007, Barea could have never foreseen that Google, a company that at that time employed seven thousand people, would grow into a tech giant of nearly one hundred thousand. Foundational changes in the internet transformed Google into a fundamentally ubiquitous human tool. As the brand strengthened, so did its potential for world-altering impact, and Barea and his team are dedicated to maximizing such potential for the benefit of all users.

WilmerHale:

“Adam is a deep strategic thinker who sees opportunities where others only see problems and has an eye for the telling details on which cases turn. I always learn something when I work with Adam.”

–Peter Neiman, Partner

People & Companies

Adam Barea P236

Legal Director Google

Lori Bennett, P150

General Counsel

Aetion

Adler Bernard, P13

VP and Assistant General Counsel

JPMorgan Chase & Co

Adraea Brown, P82 Director of Legal–Trademarks & Brand Protection

Harley-Davidson

Chris Brown, P199

Chief Legal Officer

Total Quality Logistics

Nathan Brown, P191

Corporate Counsel

The Kroger Company

Nicole Brunson, P180

Associate General Counsel of Litigation

Ingersoll Rand

Mary Burrelle, P58

Senior Director of Global Legal Operations

McDonald’s Corporation

Dorothy Capers, P90 EVP and Global General Counsel National Express Group

Paul Cho, P16 General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

SK hynix

Susan Comparato, P176 SVP and US General Counsel

Argo Group

Gretchen Dahlberg, P218 General Counsel

Merrill Corporation

Robin Elkowitz, P124 EVP, Deputy General Counsel, and Secretary

Citizens Financial Group

Michelle Fang, P52 VP and Chief Legal Officer

Turo

Carol Gilden, P156

Managing Partner

Cohen Milstein

Jana Gouchev, P118

Managing Partner

Gouchev Law, PLLC

Sirisha Gummaregula, P95

Chief Operating Officer

QuisLex

Keri Halperin, P229

Assistant General Counsel

CapGemini

Todd Hanna, P173

VP and General Counsel

Sovos

Marcia Hatch, P232

Partner

Gunderson Dettmer

Denise Horne, P58

VP of Corporate Legal

McDonald’s Corporation

Mahrukh Hussain, P58

VP and US General Counsel

McDonald’s Corporation

Nicolas Jafarieh, P47

SVP and General Counsel

Sallie Mae

Amber Kagan, P78

VP, Chief Ethics Compliance Officer, and Global Head of Labor & Employment

GE

Amy Kovalan, P58

VP and Chief Compliance Officer McDonald’s Corporation

Sharon Lepping-Pool, P58 VP of Global Labor & Employment Law

McDonald’s Corporation

Marilyn McClure-Demers, P98 VP and Associate General Counsel

Nationwide Seamus McDonnell, P40 SVP of Legal Dell Inc.

John Menicucci, P22

Senior General Attorney of Corporate Union Pacific

Anna Oliveira, P130

Counsel of Global Corporate Compliance & Transactions

The Kraft Heinz Company

Michele Page, P184

Deputy General Counsel

Nielsen

Anna Paglia, P24 Head of Legal, US ETFs Invesco

Joshua Pearson, P224

VP of Legal and Associate General Counsel

EDF Renewables

Su-Jin Lee, P104

VP and General Counsel

PopSugar

Ivan Gaviria Partner

Gunderson Dettmer

650.321.2400

igaviria@gunder.com

Ivan has helped venture-backed technology companies navigate through thousands of financings and exit transactions, and leverages that experience to give creative, pragmatic, and cost-effective advice.

Lorrie Leonard, P167

VP, Associate General Counsel, and Chief Litigation Counsel

Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, North America

Gerald Meyer, P206 Partner MoloLamken LLP

Lyudmila Napoé, P86

Associate General Counsel, Americas Mars Wrigley Confectionery

Meaghan Nelson, P108

Associate General Counsel, Corporate and Assistant Corporate Secretary

Veeva

Brian C. Patterson

Partner

Gunderson Dettmer 415.801.4950

bpatterson@gunder.com

Brian’s business law practice focuses on representing venture-backed companies throughout their lifecycles, as well as venture capital and growth equity funds in their investment activities.

Leah Perry, P70

Former Associate General Counsel

Facebook

Brenda R. Sharton

Partner, Chair Privacy + Cybersecurity Goodwin Procter 617.570.1214

bsharton@goodwinlaw.com

Brenda Sharton, a Legal 500 “Leading Lawyer” in Cyber Law, is Chair of Goodwin’s Privacy + Cybersecurity practice and has handled hundreds of data breach investigations.

McCray Pettway, P160

VP and Associate General Counsel

Expeditors

Craig Proctor, P142

VP and Associate General Counsel

Altria

Katie Gates Calderon

Partner, Product Liability Litigation Practice Group

Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP

816.474.6550

kgcalderon@shb.com

Katie is a partner in the Kansas City office and focuses her practice on the defense of corporations in individual and complex tort, product liability and consumer protection matters.

Walt Cofer

Partner, Co-Chair, Product Liability Litigation Practice Group

Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP

816.474.6550

wcofer@shb.com

Walt is a partner in the Kansas City office and the co-chair of Shook’s Product Liability Litigation Practice. Walt is nationally known as an accomplished trial lawyer and for his experience as a skilled client counselor and litigator.

John P. Wunderli

Partner

Ray Quinney & Nebeker P.C.

801.532.1500

jwunderli@rqn.com

A highly experienced litigator, Mr. Wunderli has unique nationwide trial expertise developing and integrating case strategy with jury selection and trial presentation.

Susan Rosenfeld, P215

Intellectual Property Expert

Chris Schafer, P163

Associate General Counsel Komatsu America Corp.

Christie Schmieder, P136

VP and Senior Counsel, Litigation

Charter Communications

Lisa Schroeder, P37

Associate General Counsel of Intellectual Property BASF Corporation

Mehri Shadman, P153

VP and Managing Counsel of Corporate Affairs

Under Armour

Hannah Sholl, P114

Senior Counsel of Global Litigation & Competition

Visa Rod Smith, P10

Associate General Counsel Anadarko

April Snyder, P170

Construction Materials Laboratory Manager and Senior Scientist

RJ Lee

Michele Totonis, P18

Director of Legal Affairs

The LEGO Group

Ted Tywang, P43

VP and General Counsel

Haslam Sports Group

Elizabeth Weathers-Nguyen, P188

Associate General Counsel

MoneyGram International

Lindsay White, P32

Director of Global Litigation & Investigations

Applied Materials

Gregory Zarin, P211

Cofounder and President

SubroSmart

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