Modern Counsel #29

Strike a Better Balance

Raising a son with autism has demanded a commitment from Danette L. Alfonso that starts at home and carries through to her work at Lennar Corporation P46

Maintaining a work/life balance is about much more than effectively splitting time—it’s about focusing on being your true self every day P45

Implement

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Sam Olive relies on his tech background to facilitate crossbusiness collaboration at Splunk, where he oversees projects like the company’s transition to cloud-based technology

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Susan Dunnings has spent more than a decade working to make Lockheed Martin a more diverse organization while promoting mentorship and sponsorship

Feature: Balance

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For Beth Weinstein, litigation is about more than just disputes and vendor contracts—it’s a balancing act that requires an adaptable mindset

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Kamau Coar of Heidrick & Struggles turned members of his legal staff into global decision-makers

Lead

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Bill Foster draws inspiration from USAA’s inventors, but his vision for legal services extends far beyond the company

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Raven Moore has always wanted to be a lawyer. But as managing counsel at McDonald’s, she’s finally found where she’s meant to be.

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Lydia, San Francisco/Flytographers (Olive), Courtesy of Heidrick & Struggles (Coar), Janelle Jaqueline (Moore)

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Pivot

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Ava Hahn fortifies Lam Research against outside disruptors, from industry competitors to the COVID-19 pandemic

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Early lessons in the value of public service eventually led Manav Kumar to AECOM, where he’s working to improve cities and communities around the world

Focus: Global

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Paul Liu has always had a knack for finding innovative solutions to complex problems. Today, he puts that passion to good use as a go-to leader in IP law.

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Hiro Oshima works to preserve the unique cultural identity of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and SMBC Group via the legal department

Evaluate

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Mark Snyder often spends years working on a single case at Qualcomm. But no matter how long it takes, he sees nothing but potential in the company’s innovations.

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Shanée Nelson keeps an eye on the horizon for two reasons: the need for Synopsys to maintain a competitive edge and the need for diversity in the next generation of engineers

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Celebrating legal leaders’ latest efforts and achievements, including transactions, expansions, negotiations, and inclusion initiatives

A Champion of Collaboration and Inclusion

Dolores DiBella makes meaningful contributions to the National Football League’s legal culture as well as the sports law landscape

By Natalie Kochanov

FOR DOLORES DIBELLA, A CAREER IN law has always meant working alongside smart and talented women. Her very first experience in a legal environment—an undergraduate student position at Georgetown University’s female-majority in-house counsel office—was no exception.

“I loved seeing the work that those women were accomplishing and helping them—in my junior capacity— as much as I could,” DiBella recalls. “They inspired me to look toward a career in law.”

In the two decades since then, DiBella has made a name for herself in a perhaps unexpected place: the National

Football League (NFL), where she serves as vice president of legal affairs. Over the past nine years, she has helped the organization navigate complex legal issues running the gamut from intellectual property (IP) enforcement and consumer protection to litigation and risk management. Furthermore, she leads a team that is mostly women: a quality that she considers as indicative of the NFL’s legal culture as it is of the more broadly changing face of sports law.

Inspired by her interactions with female attorneys at Georgetown, DiBella enrolled in Columbia University Law School after completing her

undergraduate degree in government. Courses about the law’s practical applications in entertainment and consumer products piqued her interest—and laid the groundwork for the associate role at international law firm Proskauer Rose that she accepted out of law school.

When DiBella joined Proskauer in 2006, her assigned partner mentor happened to be the head of Proskauer’s trademark, advertising, and entertainment law group. As a result, DiBella received an exciting litigation docket that saw her tackle cases involving global brands, music labels, and high-profile performers in the industry. “That role was where I built the

foundation of my litigation and IP experience,” she says.

Despite her passion for her cases at Proskauer, DiBella began to feel the pull of in-house work by her fifth year as an associate. An opening at the NFL immediately stood out to her. “I didn’t have much experience with the sports industry, but it was naturally adjacent to industries that I had worked in for years,” she explains. “I was also excited by the idea of working at a company where there was a very lean team and the opportunity for growth.”

Between the industry, the lean team, and the opportunity to explore multiple areas of law from an in-house perspective, the role fit DiBella to a tee. That’s still the case today, as her responsibilities have evolved significantly since she first started at the NFL back in 2012.

Fortunately, the dynamic nature of DiBella’s role adds to its appeal. “The past nine years have flown by because I work on different matters every week and every year,” she says. Whereas she focused primarily on litigation and IP at first, her purview has expanded over time to encompass risk management and diverse employment matters spanning the organization’s national and global offices. “One of Dolores’s many strengths is her ability to engage quickly on any matter, and bring her team together to solve the problem,” says Derek Ludwin, antitrust partner at Covington & Burling. “She is an effective leader across a remarkably wide range of areas.”

As an example of what has kept her role so engaging, DiBella points to an ongoing consolidated antitrust class action lawsuit pertaining to the NFL’s distribution of live game broadcasts. “The opportunity to work on businessminded cases like these is one of

Dolores DiBella VP of Legal Affairs National Football League

Expertise Spotlight

Kirkland & Ellis is an international law firm with approximately 2,900 attorneys in offices in fifteen cities across the world. Collaborations among Kirkland attorneys in various disciplines produce innovative legal solutions for our clients. We work together across offices and practice areas as integrated, multidisciplinary teams to provide the capabilities necessary to generate great results for our clients.

Our intellectual property practice protects the ideas, technology, products, and brands of global clients in wide-ranging industries, who engage us on complex IP litigation, transactions, and counseling matters. From market leaders to dynamic start-ups, we help clients protect their market position and maximize their intellectual property. With decades of experience, our IP litigation attorneys have achieved extraordinary results in patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret misappropriation, and advertising matters, and they excel in large-scale, bet-the-company cases.

Our practice is widely recognized as one of the best in the industry.

Chambers & Partners has ranked us as a top-tier firm for intellectual property for fourteen consecutive years, and we were honored to be named Intellectual Property Litigation Law Firm of the Year by US News & World Report in 2020.

We are grateful to our clients for their trust and partnership on their most challenging matters.

the most engaging aspects of in-house work,” DiBella explains. “Not only does it allow me to collaborate with internal NFL colleagues, but working with outside counsel keeps me connected to the broader legal industry in a way that I truly enjoy.”

The VP has worked on an array of other projects and initiatives in her near-decade at the NFL, but her efforts to build up the League’s antipiracy and anticounterfeiting programs have remained constant. Those efforts have not only required her to team up with internal parties on IP enforcement and consumer protection issues, but also afforded her a platform to work closely with government representatives and industry coalitions.

Throughout all of this work, DiBella has consistently exhibited an impressive level of expertise and leadership. As Elise M. Bloom, a partner at Proskauer, remarks, “Dolores personifies the rare combination of a super smart yet practical lawyer, who never loses sight of the human aspect to any legal issue. When dealing with her, you are always motivated to bring your A game because you know that she will.”

Another constant for DiBella has been the positive and engaging culture in the legal department. “We have a great team of dedicated and longstanding employees, which speaks to our culture of genuine collaboration and partnership,” she says. “On my team specifically, I foster that culture by making sure that whenever someone has a question or a concern, they don’t hesitate to bring it forward.”

DiBella’s partners have taken note of her leadership abilities. “Dolores simply knows her stuff. She knows the law, she knows the business, and she makes great strategic decisions. I love working with her,” says Dale Cendali, partner at Kirkland & Ellis.

With a strong sense of openness and camaraderie already permeating the team, DiBella found the transition to remote work at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to be a smooth one. The mutual trust and respect that defined her team motivated everyone to stay connected when apart and eliminated any risk of projects getting derailed.

In DiBella’s eyes, the NFL’s commitment to diversity further contributes to its inclusive culture. She takes particular pride in the number of women on her team—and at sports organizations in general. “I love to see other women working—and as importantly, advancing—in sports,” she enthuses. “The NFL champions diversity, especially in the

Expertise Spotlight

Composed of more than 150 lawyers, Proskauer’s labor and employment team is one of the largest and strongest labor and employment law departments; we have handled virtually every type of issue for the largest companies for more than seventy-five years. From our handling of complex matters to our work in shaping new laws, we are trusted advisors on everything impacting the workplace. Our prowess in the field consistently earns our team the highest accolades. Our team has a broad practice—we represent clients in litigation and arbitration (including class action and wage and hour matters), labormanagement relations, and general employment counseling and trainings. The breadth and depth of our practice allows us to represent clients in a vast range of sectors, including sports, financial services, arts and entertainment, luxury goods, real estate and construction, the public sector, higher education, healthcare, consumer products and manufacturing, communications, and the law.

legal department. We want to show that everyone has a place in sports.”

DiBella is most recently proud of leading the NFL’s participation in a 2020 amicus brief supporting the Equal Rights Amendment. She views the brief as a testament to the progress made by the NFL and the sports industry at large in fostering the growth and advancement of women in the field. As further evidence of that progress, aspiring female attorneys often contact her to discuss a career in sports law. It’s a conversation that she’s more than willing to have.

“I’m seeing more women entering the sports industry and rising to leadership positions every year, and that trajectory is exactly what we want to foster,” DiBella says. Hopeful, she envisions a future in which gender diversity in sports advances so intrinsically that it will no longer be a remarkable talking point. “That will be such a great place to find ourselves, and we are very much working toward it.”

Wilkinson Stekloff:

“Dolores is thoughtful and strategic. She brings a wealth of knowledge to every matter based on her extensive experience in the sports industry and as a litigator. She deserves this recognition for her excellence!”

–Brian Stekloff, Founding Partner

“We have a great team of dedicated and longstanding employees, which speaks to our culture of genuine collaboration and partnership.”

His Way

Before joining Tyson Foods, Brice White started his own practice and prosecuted federal crimes. Now, he leverages his atypical background to make

By Zach Baliva

TIMOTHY JOHNSON RAISED HIS RIGHT HAND triumphantly as he walked out of the Columbia County Justice and Detention Facility. After more than a year, Arkansas had dropped its case against Johnson. He was a free man. Brice White was among the many people who celebrated the good news.

Today, White is corporate counsel of global litigation and investigations at Tyson Foods, but he took a nontraditional route to the role. Before going in-house, he spent more than three years litigating federal crimes as an assistant US attorney. Prior to his prosecutor days, he opened his own firm to defend underrepresented people in southern Arkansas, where he’s from. Johnson was one of his first clients.

White graduated from the University of Arkansas School of Law, got licensed in multiple states, and took a job at a boutique firm, Sellers & Associates in Jackson, Mississippi, with the dream of one day hanging his own shingle in the tristate area. Four years later, he turned that dream into reality by returning to Arkansas and opening the Law Offices of Brice R. White.

A decade before starting his own firm, White spent a summer volunteering at a mentoring program his father offered at a local community college. There, he met Johnson, who years later would be accused of murdering a man shot during a fight at a college party. White was convinced of Johnson’s innocence. “There was no doubt in my mind,” he says. “And I wanted to help this young man because people like him deserve good representation that they don’t always get.”

Although Johnson’s defense was strong and the evidence pointed to other possible suspects, the state remained aggressive. White plotted a solid defense and laid a good foundation. In 2015, when he joined the US Attorney’s office, he recruited respected attorney Lott Rolfe IV to take over on Johnson’s behalf.

Johnson eventually pled to a terroristic threat charge offered to him in the middle of trial. He was released that same day with a sentence of time served and the opportunity for future expungement of the charge. Although White was pleased to see Johnson released, he still points to this case as an example of how individuals can end up with

a difference in the corporate world.

criminal records due to unfair charges and the accompanying risk that leads many to plea agreements.

For White, who has a history of promoting diversity, the case was important for several reasons. “Fairness and justice are the basis of our legal system. Everyone is entitled to those things,” he explains. Further, White wanted to provide a strong defense for Johnson, whose status as a gay Black man was used against him in witnesses’ statements.

The pursuit of fairness and justice, coupled with the importance of diversity and inclusion, continued to motivate White during his time in the US Attorney’s office. In Fayetteville, White served on the diversity committee and prosecuted federal white-collar crimes. He also worked as lead counsel in Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force investigations. White was known as a very good trial attorney with an ability to simplify complex issues and connect with jurors.

In 2018, White joined Tyson Foods to litigate commercial matters and conduct investigations regarding possible violations of internal policies and procedures as well as state and federal laws. A year later, he started developing and implementing important data privacy actions to keep the business compliant with various international and state laws.

As White interacts with his peers in other companies and observes those in his own department, he notices that his background sets him apart. “I didn’t take the normal path to the in-house role,” he says. “I didn’t go to a top-twenty law school, and I don’t have the big firm pedigree. But I’ve made my unusual experience an asset.”

Thanks to his time as a federal prosecutor, White conducts excellent internal investigations. Thanks to his experience representing clients in rural Arkansas, he can relate to Tyson’s blue-collar

Brice White Corporate Counsel of Global Litigation & Investigations Tyson Foods

Kerri McMahon

employees. Even in his focus on privacy, White credits his ability to adapt and learn different areas of the law to his unique legal background and his desire to continue growing as an attorney.

Perhaps most notably, White’s background as a Black attorney advocating for underrepresented clients has made him a strong voice for diversity in corporate America. He says diverse thought and diverse leaders give Tyson a competitive edge by helping the company connect with its customers. “I’ve had good opportunities in my career. Some of those were undoubtedly assisted by my network and relationships I’ve build over the years, but more so, they were earned,” he says. “And now that I’m at the table, I have to use my influence to give those same opportunities to people of color. It’s no doubt we have the legal acumen. We just need the opportunities.”

In the day-to-day, White finds many ways to add value as he eyes compliance and works with internal audit. “Most people assume investigations are always meant to uncover illegal activity, but good corporate investigations can increase efficiencies,” he says. Some of White’s investigations have ensured that Tyson follows processes and procedures for capital investments. This accuracy reduces financial waste.

White represented clients and prosecuted crimes because he wanted to make an impact. He believes effective in-house lawyers also contribute to the greater good. Whether utilizing the litigation and trial skills he garnered in private practice or the investigative skills he further developed at the US Attorney’s office, he helps Tyson thrive, and Tyson helps feed the world. The company has 140,000 employees and facilities in one hundred communities. Each year, Tyson donates cash and food to fight hunger and food insecurity in the United States. Many of these efforts reach the rural communities, similar to the community White identifies with and cares most about—and he’s proud to know he’s played a significant role in making that happen.

Editor’s note: At time of press, Brice White was no longer with Tyson Foods.

Quattlebaum,

“Brice

–Steven W. Quattlebaum, Founding Partner

Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull congratulates Brice White, Corporate Counsel-Global Litigation and Investigations, on his outstanding achievements. He is the consummate trial team partner with a solid voice of reason backed by smart and con dent lawyering. We are honored to have the opportunity to work with Brice in the representation of Tyson Foods.

Grooms & Tull PLLC:

distinguishes himself from many clients by his savvy trial acumen. He identifies the obstacles to persuasion and thinks creatively about how to overcome them. He is a great asset to the trial team.”

The Proof Is in the Numbers

Sam Olive of Splunk factors data analysis into legal decisions, such as how to argue for patents more effectively or smooth the company’s transition to cloud-based technology

By Shira Vickar-Fox

Sam Olive Director of IP Splunk Inc.

WHILE SAM OLIVE, DIRECTOR OF intellectual property at Splunk Inc., might feel a twinge of envy when a developer draws up an innovative solution on a whiteboard, he knows that his seat at the decision-making table has value. Based in San Francisco, Splunk develops and sells products designed to investigate, monitor, analyze, and act on data at any scale. Olive joined the company three years ago, after spending the prior twelve years at law firms in Washington, DC, and Seattle.

“The highest compliment I’ve been paid since I started here was from one of the business leaders. He came to me and said how much his engineers enjoyed meeting with our team and talking,” says Olive, adding, “I really want the business to see us as an ally,

not as an impediment. Because once you’re viewed as an impediment, that’s when they stop talking to you.”

The conversation between Olive and software engineers is unencumbered because he understands them. He was once one of them. As a child, he loved building Construx and LEGO sets, and as an undergraduate at the University of Notre Dame, he studied computer science. Shortly after graduation, he attended William & Mary Law School.

As it turns out, his engineering background has benefited his legal career. “I can speak their language,” he says about developers, programmers, and other members of Splunk’s patent team. “And that lack of a need for translation means one, I get more honest answers. And two, it burns fewer cycles. I don’t have to

have someone with their foot in both worlds, translating their answers.”

In addition to relating to colleagues, Olive sees problem-solving parallels between engineering and the law. “Being an engineer turned out to be great prep for law school and being a lawyer,” he says. “No matter what kind of lawyer you’re going to be, being an engineer forces you to think analytically, sift through a bunch of data, pick out what’s important, and then make decisions based on the important data.”

Data analysis was an impetus for his move to an in-house position where “data and metrics are part of my everyday world.” Data-driven decisionmaking aids in increasing transparency and developing efficiencies, both for short-term results and long-term strategies. For example, data has changed

TECHNICAL ACUMEN LEGAL SOPHISTICATION

how his team argues for patents before an examiner from the US Patent and Trademark Office. They track which arguments work in front of which examiners and then use that to shape future responses.

The downside of being numbers-driven is the risk of losing “your way in the weeds” of data collection and analysis, which, in turn, can slow down processes.

“You have to be able to move quickly with the business, and you’re not giving your in-house clients good service if you’re constantly waiting on more data or afraid to make decisions on incomplete data,” he says. “The temptation to wait on just one more metric, report, or data point is seductive. But you can’t be afraid to make decisions once you have enough data, even if there’s more out there that could be collected.”

In addition to metrics, a key point of emphasis during Olive’s time at Splunk is the company’s transition to cloud-based technology and the mass adoption of that technology by its customers—or, as Splunk puts it, the move to go “all in on cloud.”

“The thing that surprised all of us was how quickly this boulder started rolling once we nudged it,” he says. “We thought the pivot to cloud would take years. And then once we gave that option to our customers, the speed of adoption and how quickly they wanted to transition to cloud surprised even us.”

Artegis Law Group is a specialty patent law firm based in the heart of Silicon Valley. Our clients rely on us to provide strategic legal advice and deliver e ective solutions to complex patent problems to protect their intellectual property.

Previously, the majority of customers used Splunk’s enterprise products on their internal networks. Now, by transitioning to Splunk’s cloud-based offerings, customers have “fewer things to worry about,” according to Olive. Gone are the dedicated server rooms and hard reboots following a quarterly update. Updates happen frequently, with some Splunk products updating several times a week. That way, “we can deliver a better experience and a faster experience,” Olive explains.

Olive credits mentors with teaching him that an attorney’s goal is to make life easier for the client; legal should provide answers, not more questions. A lesson he practices is that every communication and interaction should carry momentum toward a solution.

“If you’re not bringing people closer to a solution, if you’re not bringing people closer to an actionable thing that they can work on, then you’re not servicing them,” he says. “You’re not helping.”

We deliver complex patent solutions with passion, decisiveness, and edge.

Good Stewardship Means Good Business

Throughout nearly four decades with PepsiCo, David Patrick has helped the company appeal to consumers while maintaining an edge in sustainability

By Donald Liebenson

PEPSICO WAS SUSTAINABLE BEFORE sustainability was cool.

David Patrick had been at PepsiCo for twenty years when, in 2006, the company embarked on a forward-thinking initiative that balanced delivering robust financial returns with developing best practices for environmental responsibility. Today the company is known for its industry-leading commitments in sustainable agriculture, water stewardship, carbon footprint reduction, and health and wellness.

It’s been a long and deliberate process to foster a company-wide mindset, and Patrick played a pivotal role in influencing hearts and minds as an early champion of the notion that good environmental practices and stewardship means good business.

“I came to the company in 1986 and started supporting our bottling

network in 1989 when we were still trying to decide as an organization how much of a role we should play in the sustainability arena,” Patrick says. “Some of the early initiatives had to have some level of a financial return to prove these initiatives were good business. It was a process that played out over a decade for the company to advance to the next level of commitment.”

Among the company’s milestones in the green arena: In 2009, PepsiCo’s Naked Juice product was the first beverage in America packaged in a 100 percent recycled-content bottle. The next year, the company’s delivery truck fleet began using electric vehicles for the first time. In 2012, PepsiCo was awarded the Stockholm Industry Water Award and in 2016, the company achieved a 25 percent water-use efficiency goal ahead of its target date. In 2019 alone, PepsiCo delivered safe water

access to 44 million people, up from 22 million the previous year, according to its sustainability performance metrics.

Patrick says that he was originally attracted to joining PepsiCo because “it had the reputation of having a fast-paced culture that rewards hard work and promotes from within.” His career is emblematic of that philosophy. “PepsiCo has allowed me to reinvent myself several times during my nearly thirty-five-year career,” he says. Starting as an instrumental chemist in the company’s Technical Center while attending law school in the evenings, Patrick’s role evolved to process chemist, which

gave him a firsthand look at the different ways in which engineers approach manufacturing their products while minimizing the environmental impact.

Patrick’s current title is legal senior director of operations, which has afforded him the opportunity to become involved in conservation programs for water and electricity and other initiatives designed to help meet PepsiCo’s long-term sustainability goals.

Patrick credits his “humble upbringing” in Bridgeport, Connecticut, for shaping his attitudes toward sound environmental practices. His father was a national sales representative for Blue Cross/Blue Shield and his mother did procurement work for a local manufacturing company’s accounting department. “I learned the value of a hard-earned dollar from them,” he says. “I was expected to make the most out of what we had. For example, we combined errands to save on fuel, turned out the lights when leaving a room, and kept the thermostat low during the winter months.

“I was also taught to take care of my things,” he continues. “Keeping my car tuned was more than a hobby. I was doing my small part to minimize my carbon footprint without fully realizing it.”

These life lessons have served him well in his role at PepsiCo. “When you work for a very large organization,” he offers, “it’s easy to lose track of the value of a dollar because there are a lot of dollars around. I try to stay grounded by spending company money as if it were my own, and by remembering that a lot of my colleagues had to sell a lot of cases of beverages to make those dollars.”

Most recently, PepsiCo’s strategy has challenged the organization to

Courtesy of PepsiCo Beverages North America

David Patrick

Legal Senior Director of Operations

PepsiCo Beverages North America

constantly evolve and grow, including advancing its sustainability efforts, Patrick says. One of the company’s goals is for its consumer brands to take more of a leadership role in this space.

“I have always viewed much of my role as overcoming barriers to implement ideas and focusing on how all the pieces fit together,” he says. “Departments are usually focused upon completing their own task in a project. My job is to bring a broader view. This attention to detail and staying focused on the big picture touches upon some of the critical traits a lawyer needs to possess: know the business, know the company’s strategic goals, and have skin in the game.”

One of the biggest journeys Patrick has experienced in his almost four decades with PepsiCo is offering product alternatives that evolve with the changing tastes and forward-thinking dietary concerns of its consumer base. This goes beyond offering low-calorie versions of its popular sodas and other beverages. In January of this year, for example, PepsiCo announced a partnership deal with Beyond Meat, a plant-based food group. “We’re always trying to keep an open ear to the consumer and stay relevant,” he notes.

“I get to work with a client base of some of the most talented professionals in the food and beverage industry, who come up with ideas that would test any attorney’s ability to draft the requisite agreements that protect our interests, state clear performance indicators of the parties involved, and equitably apportion risk,” Patrick says. “If I’m not learning something new every week, then I’m not trying hard enough. And if that doesn’t engage an individual, nothing will. I can honestly say that no two days here are the same, and that’s what drives me.”

Taft Law:

“David’s vision, thought leadership, and adaptability are essential to PepsiCo’s growth and commitment to sustainability. His passion for environmental responsibility is incredibly admirable. We look forward to continuing to support David in these efforts.”

–Kodi J. Verhalen, Partner

“We’re always trying to keep an open ear to the consumer and stay relevant.”

Enhance Life

the midst of a pandemic, Neurocrine

By Will Grant

IN APRIL 2020, THE US FOOD AND Drug Administration (FDA) approved Ogentys as an add-on levodopa/carbidopa treatment of “off” episodes for Parkinson’s patients. The once-daily catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) inhibitor from Neurocrine Biosciences demonstrably reduced symptoms as part of larger therapies for patients with Parkinson’s Disease with motor fluctuations. It is the first once-daily inhibitor to receive FDA approval in the US.

The treatment has also given patients more “on” time, free from dyskinesia issues, during the day. Rebecca Gilbert, vice president and chief scientific officer at the American Parkinson Disease Association, stated in a BioPharma Journal article that an additional medication option allows Parkinson’s disease patients to more easily manage the wide-ranging and

difficult symptoms of the neurodegenerative disorder.

The biosciences company also partnered with Xenon Pharmaceuticals to create a sodium channel inhibitor for the treatment of developmental and epileptic encephalopathy syndrome, a rare form of pediatric epilepsy. In October 2020, half a year after the FDA OK’d Ogentys for the market, the federal agency provided feedback to the two companies on the Investigational New Drug application. Specifically, the FDA requested additional nonclinical data to help support dose justification in the study. The ultimate goal is to initiate a Phase II clinical trial for the treatment in 2021.

“We expect to engage with the FDA in the near term to discuss their request for additional non -

clinical data to enable a pediatric trial in SCN8A-DEE patients,” said Eiry W. Roberts, chief medical officer for Neurocine, in a prepared statement. “In parallel, we are continuing to develop plans to study NBI-921352 in patients with adult focal epilepsy. We are committed to working with the FDA to address their feedback in a timely manner.”

While not on the front lines of Neurocrine’s FDA trials, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel Darin Lippoldt has been supporting the neuroscience-focused biopharmaceutical company since 2014. The CLO’s developmental and commercial biotechnology experience runs deep. He came to Neurocrine Biosciences with extensive leadership experience in both developmental and commercial biotechnology. In his current position, he

In

Biosciences still finds a way to bring new drugs to market and to support its wider patient population

oversees all corporate legal matters, intellectual property, and compliance.

Kevin Gorman, president and chief executive officer of Neurocrine Biosciences, spoke highly of Lippoldt’s acumen upon the GC’s joining in 2014: “Darin’s breadth of experience in both developmental and commercial biotechnology companies will be of critical importance as Neurocrine evolves into a fully integrated pharmaceutical company.”

And while Neurocrine has increased its market share substantially since 2014, it’s also found novel ways of connecting and supporting its community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Neurocrine commissioned an original music score by Me2/Orchestra, a performance ensemble composed of musicians who have a mental illness and those who support them. The original score was inspired by the experiences of the orchestra members’ first six months of the pandemic, battling the isolation, economic insecurity, and health concerns (both mental and physical) that can increase hardship for who are already suffering.

“This ability to collaborate with them so uniquely in this virtual and online way—seems like a perfect fit,” Dave Boyer, Neurocrine’s chief corporate affairs officer, said in a prepared statement. The piece debuted on October 28, 2020.

As part of its support, Neurocrine will donate to a variety of mental health organizations, including the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, the International Bipolar Foundation, Mental Health America, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the National Council for Behavioral Health, the National Organization for Tardive Dyskinesia, and the Schizophrenia and Related Disorders Alliance of America.

“We don’t just aspire to develop drugs for patients with mental health conditions—we want to earn the trust and the privilege of being a trusted partner in the mental health community every single day. And I think that that aligns a lot with the ‘why’ behind Monumental Moments,” Boyer said.

King & Spalding proudly supports Darin Lippoldt and the Neurocrine Biosciences legal team for their vision and industry leadership.

Growth That Promotes Growing

Each year, Syngenta invests more than $1.3 billion to develop products that help farmers feed America and the world. Mark Smith protects that investment.

By Zach Baliva

EACH DAY WHEN THE SUN RISES, American farmers are already hard at work in their fields. The nation is home to about two million farms, and a vast majority of those are family operations. The people who run these farms make up less than two percent of our population, yet they feed millions of people at home and abroad. And with populations growing, demand on American agriculture will only increase.

The days of simply turning the soil, planting a seed, and reaping a harvest are long gone. American agriculture is a competitive big money game with a lot on the line. Farmers who battle nature and the elements need the best crop protection and seed products in their arsenal, and creating those products requires top levels of R&D, innovation, and investment.

Syngenta has been instrumental in developing genetically modified crops since the 1990s. Today, it is one of many innovators leveraging gene editing technologies and other methods to develop favorable traits that will help farmers be more productive and profitable. These products,

which increase yields and decrease costs, require a substantial financial investment. Once they’re developed, they require a strong defense.

Mark Smith, senior assistant general counsel, helps provide that defense at Syngenta. The global company, based in Switzerland, operates in ninety countries and generates more than $13 billion in annual revenue. Its parent company is the Syngenta Group.

The company provides two main products: crop protection pesticides and seeds for the world’s major crops, as well as vegetables and flowers. Syngenta’s scientists monitor how crops develop resistance to products that protect them from insects, weeds, and diseases. They then screen thousands of new compounds, run countless trials, pursue regulatory approval, complete independent reviews, study health and environmental impacts, measure efficacy, and pursue new innovations. The process includes hundreds of studies, and each country where a product will be used has its own regulatory standards. Authorities regularly reevaluate the data.

Smith says bringing just one new crop protection product to the market can take more than a decade and can require more than a $280 million investment. As one of the company’s key litigation managers, he stands ready to defend its products and IP. When customers, competitors, or others challenge the safety or efficacy of Syngenta’s products in legal actions, Smith relies on the wealth of information available to him.

“My colleagues have gone through all the complex review steps in a multiyear process and there is a lot of precise science behind the creation of these products,” he says, adding that he works with numerous internal departments, regulators, and strong outside defense partners to respond to each and every dispute.

Unlike many of his colleagues at Syngenta, Smith didn’t grow up on a farm. He was born in Texas, went to college and law school at Georgetown, and started his career as a litigation associate at a large firm. That role gave him wide exposure to a variety of cases in construction, IP, contracts, and other areas. As Smith progressed in his career, he assisted on some agriculture cases but grew frustrated as a junior-level associate with bigger aspirations.

“I wanted more collaboration and a greater strategic role over case strategy,” he recalls. He started looking to move

in-house. When a rare litigation position opened at Syngenta, Smith seized the opportunity.

The transition helped Smith realize both of his goals. “Not only am I shaping strategy, but I also have an important role to play in a company that works to provide the safe and effective products that farmers want and the world needs,” he says.

He’s also collaborating more with other departments and across borders. Smith has volunteered to participate on various teams, including one that analyzed costs and consequences associated with shutting down a production facility.

He also served as legal’s sole representative on the crop protection production and supply leadership team. The important group helps Syngenta get its products to its customers in the most efficient way possible. Smith handled legal matters including logistics and warehouse agreements, supply contracts with third-party vendors, and tolling agreements with manufacturers. He also offered insight on issues related to environmental remediation requirements and other key health and safety issues.

These activities add value and help build legal’s credibility. “I want people to know that we’re a service function. We’re here to help the business responsibly achieve its goals and execute its plan,” Smith says. As Syngenta enters

“Not only am I shaping strategy, but I also have an important role to play in a company that works to provide the safe and effective products that farmers want and the world needs.”

“I want people to know that we’re a service function. We’re here to help the business achieve its goals and execute its plan.”

the fast-growing biologicals market, leaders in marketing, product safety, and other key departments are coming to his team for ideas, advice, and input.

Syngenta is also increasing its commitment to sustainability and sharpening its focus on helping farmers mitigate the increasing impacts of climate change. The company hired a chief sustainability officer and is executing a “Good Growth Plan” to help lower agriculture’s carbon footprint and help farmers navigate extreme weather associated with climate change.

The company, the customer, the competitors, the crops, and the category are all changing. The job is unpredictable—but that’s one of the things Smith likes about his work. “No two days are the same, and I never know exactly what tomorrow will bring. It’s fun,” he says. “I have to stay sharp.”

There are indeed a lot of unknowns, but a few things are certain. The sun will rise, and farmers will plant their crops. Syngenta will produce the products that help those farmers feed the world, and Smith’s team will help protect the company as it grows.

Striving to Achieve Equity

Susan Dunnings has spent more than a decade working to make Lockheed Martin a more diverse organization while promoting mentorship and sponsorship

By Billy Yost

WHEN SUSAN DUNNINGS DECIDED TO leave her position as deputy general counsel at National Public Radio (NPR) after working there for a decade, she says, many around her couldn’t understand why she would leave. The focus on diversity at the esteemed news organization had been an inspiration to Dunnings, whose father had handled school desegregation cases for the NAACP early in his own law career. Dunnings herself had been part of a leadership transformation at NPR, one that included hiring a Black CEO and CHRO. The future of public radio was staked on the importance of diversity in the newsroom and the value that different voices “on air” provide in expanding a conversation.

Dunnings says that when she made the decision to join Lockheed Martin in 2007, she understood the questions from those in her circle. While it was one of the largest aerospace and defense companies in the world, the industry was not known for being particularly diverse at the time—quite the opposite, in fact.

As the vice president of employment/ labor law and litigation at Lockheed Martin, Dunnings says that the diversity among senior leadership at the company was one reason she took the role.

“When I joined, there were four African American senior executive leaders, which signaled to me that it was a corporation which valued diverse perspectives at the table,” she says. “I believe we were able to lay the groundwork for difficult conversations many corporations have had to engage in with employees in the last year much earlier in our journey because of that commitment. I’m not going to say it’s been easy, but I think our record will show that this is a journey we’ve been on for quite some time.”

Susan Dunnings VP and General Counsel of Employment & Litigation Lockheed Martin

Committing to Wider Representation

Dunnings says that Lockheed Martin set a precedent for committing to diversity by creating a program to ensure that employees with disabilities were provided with meaningful accommodations and with opportunities for advancement. “I think Lockheed was able to become a thought leader in that space, and that program was a great place to start,” she explains.

And that was just the beginning. In partnership with the Lockheed Martin HR leadership team, Dunnings has advised on the strategy to reframe the company’s business resource groups. Along with groups for people of color, women, LGBTQ employees, veterans, and people with disabilities, there is also opportunity to participate as an ally to the groups, which allows employees at all levels of the organization to support Lockheed Martin’s broader commitment to diversity, inclusion, and belonging. Dunnings herself sits on the executive board for the Black Excellence Council at the company.

She also serves on the executive inclusion council (EIC), chaired by Lockheed’s CEO, which includes other executives from each business area of the company. “The EIC has oversight of our global diversity and inclusion strategic priorities across the enterprise while ensuring business culture and diversity strategy priorities align with the broader strategic goals at Lockheed,” she says.

When it comes to the outside counsel that Lockheed Martin retains, its general counsel, Maryanne Lavan, has led and supported efforts by Dunnings and others on the legal team to make representation a major focus. “I personally wanted to ensure that when

we moved to a consolidated list of preferred firms to handle employment/ labor litigation, the firms we considered for the program were willing to demonstrate their commitment to diversity and inclusion,” she says.

And when presented with the idea of creating a diversity assessment process for outside counsel by Lockheed Martin’s general counsel, Dunnings and a colleague met the challenge head-on. “With the support of two managers that did the heavy lifting developing the survey, we started surveying in 2015, and I can say that all firms invited to participate welcomed and embraced it,” she says. “We have received feedback that the survey process and our follow up each year has helped firms sharpen their commit to diversity and inclusion, not just as an idea but as a priority.”

Dunnings says representation is important with outside counsel, but equally important are the roles involved. “We are focused on consistently bringing a diverse set of lawyers to the forefront. Let them lead cases, let them be the face of your firm, let them be the future of your firm,” she says. Lockheed has even taken steps with its own legal internship program to partner with its outside firms to give young lawyers more experience in a corporate setting.

The Value of Seeing Someone Who Looks Like You

Mentorship is an issue close to Dunnings’s heart. She still remembers the first time she came to Washington, DC, for the Lockheed Martin Black Excellence Council. “There weren’t a lot of people that looked like me at corporate headquarters when I joined,” she says. “I just remember walking into the annual conference and being overwhelmed with positivity and feeling

“When I joined, there were four African American senior executive leaders, which signaled to me that it was a corporation which valued diverse perspectives at the table.”

part of something larger. I realize that people sometimes try and downplay the idea that it matters to see someone who looks like them in an organization, but I believe it does matter.”

At Lockheed Martin, that idea of mentorship has played out with partnerships and support for historically Black colleges, minority serving institutions, and STEM-focused organizations, on behalf of business resource groups and other parts of the organization.

More broadly, Dunnings encourages those starting out in their careers to find a role model in their organization. “It’s important to find the person who can help you understand the unspoken rules, because every organization has them,” she says. “For me, that person was the former Deputy General Counsel Scott MacKay. I tell people I’m not sure I would have stayed here had it not been for his open door, introductions to the leads of my new client group, and leadership commitment to my success right when I started.”

Dunnings also encourages younger lawyers to actively seek out informal mentoring, even if it’s just a single meeting. “People in leadership roles usually welcome the opportunity to talk to someone who’s looking to build their career,” she says. “Just find ways to stay connected to those who will support you in your journey.”

GLOBAL COUNSEL

Proud

–Pallavi Mehta Wahi, Co-US Managing Partner

to provide Lockheed Martin with strategic, integrated solutions that help them manage business issues across the globe.

K&L Gates LLP:

“Susan is an innovative leader and delivers clear strategy when addressing complex, dynamic global challenges at Lockheed Martin. K&L Gates is a proud partner and celebrates Susan’s unwavering commitment to excellence and results.”

The Kind of Case You Live For

After years in the public sector, David Markowitz is applying his litigation expertise to tackling some of the most intensive, high-profile cases at Goldman Sachs—and is happy to do so

By Will Grant

WHEN DAVE MARKOITZ TALKS ABOUT HIS old job “working for Andrew,” he’s referring to the current New York governor and potential future presidential contender, Andrew Cuomo. When Cuomo was New York’s attorney general, Markowitz served as Cuomo’s special deputy attorney general for investor protection, capping an eleven-year government career that came to an end when Markowitz’s boss was elected governor.

“I was the only person who left the SEC to work for less money,” Markowitz says, laughing. “But running the investor protection bureau was well worth it. This was during the financial crisis, and there was so much going on.”

On Behalf of John Q. Public Markowitz, who has been managing director and cohead of Americas litigation

at Goldman Sachs for the last decade (the latter role added in the last year), participated in the investigation and prosecution of some of New York’s, and therefore the world’s, most high-profile financial cases prior to leaving the public sector.

You can even catch Markowitz in an episode of CNBC’s American Greed , detailing the cases of Wall Street exploitation perpetuated by traders David Pajcin and Eugene Plotkin—or, as American Greed elected to title the case, “A Scam Exposed: Strippers and Insider Trading.” Markowitz agreed to be interviewed for the show, but only for the amount of time it took the film crew to follow him to Starbucks for a coffee. He was working on too many other cases.

Over the course of his days at the SEC, and later the New York attorney general’s office, Markowitz would help further

David Markowitz Managing Director and Cohead of Americas Litigation Goldman Sachs

cases against Ezra Merkin, whose Gabriel Capital ran a feeder fund for Bernie Madoff. Markowitz would also open the case that ultimately led to the indictment of Galleons’ Raj Rajaratnam for insider trading and the hedge fund insider trader scandal that followed. As the financial crisis set in and the auction-rate securities market froze, Markowitz’s team obtained $61 billion in buy-back obligations for investors.

While investigating the highly controversial Merrill Lynch/Bank of America merger, the team joked that the small room they were using for testimonies should have a sort of wall of fame created in its honor. “It just seemed like every major player in the industry came into that room at one point or another,” Markowitz says. “It was a fascinating moment in time.”

When Cuomo moved on to the governor’s mansion, Markowitz decided that it was time to try something else. “I thought about going on to work for Governor Cuomo, but my focus had been as a financial services attorney, even though I had this interesting spot in the AG’s office,” he notes. Markowitz wound

up at Goldman in 2011, and he’s been there ever since.

“My experience working with Dave spans his career in the federal government, state government, and the private sector,” says Giovanni P. Prezioso, partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. “He’s set the standard in each of these roles. He always demonstrates deep integrity, sharp intellect, and pragmatic problem-solving abilities while maintaining a balanced perspective and dry wit—even in the most highpressure and stressful situations.”

“The Kind of Case You Live For”

Coming to work for one of the most famous financial institutions in the world wasn’t exactly a way for Markowitz to lower the stress level of his job. In 2013, a series of erroneous trades was sent to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. A software glitch inadvertently converted Goldman Sachs’ contingent orders for various options series into some sixteen thousand live orders.

“That was an event I definitely reflect on a lot,” Markowitz says. “There was a real moment of crisis, and the subsequent investigations, but we were able to come to a fairly good landing point with the resolution. At

“Being able to stay steady through a storm is invaluable. . . . It’s been incredibly important to remain calm and manage those differences to the best of my ability.”

an organization as dynamic as this one, there are always going to be interesting matters to take on.”

According to Markowitz, the most serious case of his career involves 1MDB, a Malaysian development fund, and former Goldman Partner Tim Leissner, who pled guilty to bribery charges.

“There has really been no case bigger than this one,” Markowitz says. “[When] we came across an unauthorized letter, which triggered an investigation from our side, we interviewed Tim Leisner within twenty-four hours. I conducted the interview, and I helped escort him from the building.”

The complex case, Markowitz says, is not one he wishes had occurred, but he also has not shied away from it. “If you do what I do, it’s the kind of case you want to be on, irrespective of whatever stress or other challenges may come with it,” Markowitz says. “As a litigator, it’s the kind of case that you really live for, and I’ve had the opportunity to be part of it since the beginning.”

The sheer scale of the litigation occupied a significant portion of Markowitz’s time the last few years. “It’s about

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as complicated as it gets,” Markowitz admits. “Not just factually, but functionally—all of the regulators and countries involved, and different law firms and institutions. This past year, we had two milestones—our resolution with Malaysia and resolutions with the Department of Justice and other regulators globally—that have been very important for us.”

Due to ongoing litigation, Markowitz isn’t able to get into the details of the case, but he says, more generally, that he’s learned some personal lessons from his global litigation work. “I think I’ve learned the importance of staying calm,” Markowitz says. “Being able to stay steady through a storm is invaluable. This was an incredibly challenging matter with international components and not just differences of law, but of culture. It’s been incredibly important to remain calm and manage those differences to the best of my ability.”

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“I have been lucky to have labored in the trenches with Dave for many years on matters with regulators around the world,” says Victor Hou, partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. “Dave is a special combination of client and colleague. He wades into the thick of every case and is a relentless advocate, leading negotiations on the most difficult issues and cases. He has unique credibility with regulators—

We are proud to recognize David Markowitz for his leadership and exceptional career.

difference

“At an organization as dynamic as this one, there are always going to be interesting matters to take on.”

credibility that he earned from his extensive experience and success in government—and at the same time, he commands the respect of his internal clients who trust his judgment, leadership, and commitment to excellence.”

Goldman Sachs reached a deal to resolve regulatory investigations into the matter in October 2020, but there is likely to be considerable litigation for some time to come. But with a career filled with high-profile cases, this doesn’t seem to rattle Markowitz. It’s just another chance to do what he does best.

Akin Gump:

“It’s a pleasure to work with Dave. He is an exemplary colleague with deep experience, excellent judgment, and an abiding sense of fairness.”

–James Benjamin, Partner

Sidley Austin:

“David’s keen insight, excellent judgment, and wealth of experience make him a remarkable lawyer. We have had the pleasure of working with him on many important matters, and we look forward to continuing or relationship with him in the future.”

–Susan Merrill, Partner

The Light Inside

Bobby Simpson’s resolve to create his own career path is what has kept his inner light shining bright at GE Current, a Daintree company

By Billy Yost

Bobby Simpson

Executive Senior Counsel for Compliance, Litigation, and Labor & Employment

GE Current, a Daintree company

Courtesy of the Louisville Bar Association

AT FIRST GLANCE, BOBBY SIMPSON’S résumé doesn’t quite add up. He began his career in a public defender’s office, moved to a law firm, then went back to government service on behalf of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [EEOC], and is now executive senior counsel for compliance, litigation, and labor and employment at GE Current, a Daintree company. The journey is an unusual one, but it’s clear that Simpson knows what he values, what he wants, and where he wants to spend his time.

“I think some people coming out of law school straitjacket themselves about what they can or should do,” Simpson says. “I hope young lawyers will be open to taking calculated risks that are true to who they are.”

Simpson himself attended law school at Vanderbilt, thinking he would be the next Johnnie Cochran. Neither a clerkship nor a firm job made sense to him after he graduated, even though everyone around him was telling him that taking a traditional path was the best plan. Instead, he took a public defender job with the Commonwealth of Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy.

After two years as a public defender, Simpson spent four years at a firm in Louisville, Kentucky, building out a client list, billing hours, and building relationships. He had honed his legal writing while serving as an appellate lawyer within the public defender’s office—working to get cases overturned in Kentucky’s Court of Appeals and Supreme Court. He’d accumulated extensive court experience in the same venues. And his years at a firm gave him experience outside criminal law.

While his firm work introduced Simpson to employment law, which

would eventually become one of his main areas of concentration, there was still an entrepreneurial itch that needed to be scratched. “I’ve always had an entrepreneurial streak, tempered with a healthy dose of riskadversity,” he says. “The EEOC was opening up trial offices in their area offices, and this was a chance to informally open up my own shop without having to hang my own shingle.”

Leaving private practice for the federal government was, again, something that many people in his life advised against. “Leaving the firm wasn’t easy, and I had a lot of people asking me if I’d lost my mind,” Simpson confirms. “But this would be a chance to captain my own ship and develop a program that really spoke to me.”

Simpson says he never looked back. “We were provided a steady diet of complaints about things that people believed may have been discriminatory or inappropriate in the workplace,” he says. “It was our job to work with investigators and determine if there was probable cause.”

Far too often, Simpson says, there was reason to be concerned: “From a modern perspective, there were just things that you simply could not accept were happening in a workplace.” While he was grateful to work for an institution that was responsible for righting those wrongs, he couldn’t help but think that businesses could avoid many of the pitfalls he came across if they had legal help in-house that could address issues before they were allowed to metastasize into a larger problem.

“The idea of training and prevention was an ever-present part of so many of those cases,” Simpson says. “Many times, people just didn’t know the law and needed someone to help reframe the

Giving Back

Bobby Simpson remains active outside the office: he served on the Kentucky State Bar Association Board of Governors, has served on committees of the American Bar Association, and is active in a variety of civic organizations. He also takes on pro bono cases for clients unable to pay for adequate representation. “I don’t get to do that as much as I’d like,” Simpson says. “But I like to help out as much as I can.”

legal landscape with a wider emphasis on compliance and enforcement.”

Simpson would spend the next fourteen years doing just that on behalf of GE. He’d be promoted repeatedly, taking on an array of increasing responsibilities during the various permutations of the business and eventually handling all aspects of global labor and employment matters for the company’s iconic lighting division. It would be easy to think that a company of GE’s size and 128-year history would be fairly stagnant, Simpson says, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth: “A business like GE is so dynamic. They’re always expanding and contracting here and there. For an in-house lawyer, it’s a phenomenal opportunity to get your hands on all sorts of different things.”

The senior counsel’s entrepreneurial spirit would be called on yet again when GE elected to spin off GE Current, a Daintree company, into its own entity in 2019. As a result, a world-class legal department that had been refined over decades was to be partially transplanted and forced to grow on its own.

“We’re talking about transitioning from a three hundred thousand-person global conglomerate to a small fraction of that number spread across the planet,” Simpson says. “The legal team had to retrofit itself to both address the

Bobby Simpson has thrived because he has remained true to himself. His own guiding principles might help other lawyers on their own journeys:

1

Take well-thought-out risks to move your legal career forward. Never mistake stagnation for security.

2

Very early on, develop a strong sense of right and wrong in matters of the law.

3

Be careful what you sell of yourself in pursuit of success.

4

Resilience is the secret to a long legal career.

5

The law is a service profession— always be in service mode.

6

Learn something positive from everything, and never stop doing so.

“I hope young lawyers will be open to taking calculated risks that are true to who they are.”

fact that there weren’t that many of us and also make sure that we got the critical practice areas up and running immediately.”

The divested legal team took account of their respective practice areas, brought in outside counsel help to fill gaps, and adjusted as the business leaned into certain products or regions more heavily than others. “This might be a bit cavalier,” Simpson says, “but I think every lawyer should be involved in a transaction, whether they are stepping out to help create the infrastructure of a new business or are on the other side of it.”

Simpson attributes much of Current’s success in standing on its own to an important element forged through once being a part of GE. “Resiliency is such a strong part of the General Electric company,” he says. “When you go through a divestiture, you really do find out who your resilient people are, and Current is definitely stocked full of them.”

Robinson+Cole:

“It was a pleasure working with Bobby on a complex matter involving constructionrelated issues. Though outside his normal area of practice, Bobby was thoughtful, challenging, and quickly grasped the issues, all with the utmost professionalism.”

–Gregory R. Faulkner, Partner

For these twelve in-house counsel, maintaining a work/life balance is about much more than effectively splitting time—it’s about focusing on being their true selves every day

Parental Defense

Lennar Corporation’s Danette L. Alfonso reflects on how raising a son with autism has made her a better lawyer— and how being a lawyer has made her a better parent

By Dan Caffrey

Portraits by Amanda Julca

One way to look at the concept of work/life balance is through the lens of separation—the idea of devoting equal amounts of time to two very different halves of one’s life. But for Deputy General Counsel Danette L. Alfonso of Lennar Corporation, work and life are inseparable.

That’s not to say she’s a workaholic who spends all her waking hours at the Florida-based real estate and home construction company. Rather, her work as a lawyer has informed her life as a mother and vice versa. Indeed, Alfonso’s professional and personal lives have moved in tandem from the earliest days of her legal career: when she enrolled in the University of Miami School of Law in 2000, she already had a two-year-old son named Daniel.

“He was my little partner in crime,” she remembers. “People considered him the class mascot. I wasn’t on the yearbook staff, but he’s all over the law school yearbook.” Alfonso credits Daniel with keeping her focused while she was earning her JD.

“Everyone freaks out in law school, but I couldn’t because I had a child I had to come home and take care of,” she says. “Everything had to be mediated by that. I knew that I just had to do really, really well. And that sounds kind of silly, right? How can you just make a decision to do

well? But I did. I said, ‘I just have to be at the top of my class.’ I knew if I did really, really well at UM, I would have a lot of options when I graduated.”

To succeed, Alfonso had to adjust her academic routine so that she could properly care for Daniel. For instance, when her colleagues wanted her to join their late-night study sessions at the library, she would convince them to change the location to her house. How? With food, of course. Alfonso found that it was hard for overworked law students to turn down home-cooked Cuban dishes and chicken nuggets made from scratch.

In 2003, shortly after Alfonso became an associate at international law firm Holland & Knight, five-year-old Daniel began exhibiting behavioral issues at school. Over the next six years, Alfonso took him from doctor to doctor to doctor, all of who misdiagnosed him with everything from early onset dysthymia to schizophrenia. By the time Daniel turned eleven, he had cycled through several private schools, eventually ending up in public school.

“When he switched from elementary to middle school, that’s when it got worse,” Alfonso remembers. Desperate to get Daniel the help he needed, she turned to her professional network.

“I started scheduling lunches with other parents of children who I heard

might be like mine,” Alfonso explains. And although this wasn’t her intent at the time, she now realizes that her quest to help her son ended up expanding her professional network.

“Here I am—a third-year lawyer asking to take a judge out to lunch and asking to take partners at big law firms out to lunch. They all said yes because they had kids like mine and understood what I was trying to do. They provided me with the names of the right doctors and pointed me in the right direction for treatment.”

These referrals prompted Alfonso to take Daniel to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, where he was diagnosed with autism. Subsequent visits to the Nicklaus Children’s Dan Marino Outpatient Center and the Center for Autism and Related Disorders, both in Miami, confirmed the diagnosis. Alfonso finally had her answer. But it was still an uphill battle to get Daniel an education that would suit his needs.

“His school basically told me that they did not believe my son was autistic, even though I had brought them an evaluation from NIH,” Alfonso says. “One of the judges I had spoken to urged me to write a letter to the school board. Nothing.” After the school denied Alfonso’s request for a behavioral modification

“Everyone freaks out in law school, but I couldn’t because I had a child I had to come home and take care of.”

Danette L. Alfonso Deputy General Counsel

Lennar Corporation

plan, she sued the board to secure the additional services Daniel needed. The school then countersued, resulting in two lawsuits going on at the same time.

As difficult as this period was, Alfonso firmly believes that it made her a better lawyer and provided her with essential legal experience she may not have otherwise gotten.

“There was so much strategy that went into the way we dealt with my son’s case,” she says. “This was all before an administrative law judge. I would have never been before an ALJ in my regular life as a lawyer. That was pretty fascinating.”

According to Alfonso, 85 percent of parents involved in lawsuits with the Miami–Dade County school board at the time lost their cases.

Alfonso won.

From then on, she met face-to-face with the school board once a year to

ensure that Daniel continued to receive the mandated services. He went on to transfer to a regular high school and graduate on time with a regular diploma. Best of all, his school began implementing more autism-specific training and working harder to identify students who are on the spectrum.

Today at Lennar, Alfonso handles everything from policymaking to providing counsel to the mortgage company and several of the company’s homebuilding divisions. She also does most of the drafting for Lennar’s associate reference guide and was recently appointed to the Residential Board of Governors for the Mortgage Bankers Association.

“That’s what makes an excellent in-house attorney,” she says. “We can help with everything.” And it’s her experience fighting for Daniel that’s given her the ability to multitask and foster an ever-expanding net of

“It’s been so wonderful, how this whole network of parents has helped each other. Every once in a while, I get a phone call from a parent who heard that I have a kid like theirs.”

Danette L. Alfonso battled to get her son, Daniel, the education that best suited his needs.

professional relationships. She hopes that she can be a resource to others who have found themselves in a similar situation.

“It’s been so wonderful, how this whole network of parents has helped each other,” she says. “Every once in a while, I get a phone call from a parent who heard that I have a kid like theirs.”

Baker McKenzie:

“Danette is a thoughtfully inquisitive proactive leader. Her smarts and good judgment, along with her remarkable persistence, have made her a trusted advisor to senior leadership.”

–Michael Brewer, Partner

Blank Rome:

“Danette is extraordinarily bright and creative, and truly partners with Lennar’s outside counsel to bring about businessbased solutions to legal challenges.”

–Ted Meyer, Partner

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani:

“Danette is a truly excellent lawyer who thinks outside the box, approaching problems from both an offensive and defensive perspective. And, when it comes to mediation, there is none better. That said, her most endearing qualities are that she is, at her core, forthright and she sincerely cares about people.”

–Judge David M. Gersten (Ret.), Partner

Parker Poe:

“Parker Poe has been honored to work with Danette Alfonso for over a decade. Danette’s gift for finding out-of-the box solutions is extraordinary, and our firm has benefitted greatly from her insights over the years. We look forward to continuing our long-standing relationship with Lennar and congratulate Danette on the well-deserved recognition of her talents.”

–Russell Killen, Partner, Construction Law

On the Right Track

Bosnian immigrant and erstwhile Team USA bobsled competitor

Ajla Glavasevic of Quaker Houghton shares how life outside the courtroom has informed her legal career

By Dan Caffrey

Quaker Houghton Associate General Counsel Ajla Glavasevic is talking about what it takes to be a successful bobsledder, but she might as well be talking about what it takes to be a successful lawyer. After all, she’s both.

As one of only three lawyers for the entire organization, Glavasevic’s duties vary wildly from day to day, covering everything from M&A projects and regulatory implementations to tariffs, sanctions, and the global streamlining of cybersecurity. Since 2017, she’s also been instrumental in the combination of Quaker Chemical Corporation and Houghton International, which resulted in the current organization and new moniker. Much of this work has involved ensuring workplace transparency, affirming employees’ worth, and easing the convergence of two company cultures.

“When we represented Quaker Houghton in its $1.6 billion combination, we saw Ajla in action,” says Faegre Drinker partner Jill Bronson. “She’s focused and efficient, working tirelessly with the Quaker legal team for the best legal solutions.”

But just a few years before coming to Quaker Houghton, Glavasevic was a proud member of the Team USA bobsled team. After joining the team in November 2014, she resided and trained at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, New York, traveling to Park City, Utah, for occasional training and competitions. Competitions for the Bobsleigh World Cup eventually took her to Canada, Russia, Germany, France, Switzerland, and Austria.

Although Glavasevic wasn’t practicing law while winding down the sides of icy pathways throughout the world, she

Ajla Glavasevic Associate General Counsel Quaker Houghton

Courtesy of Quaker Houghton

“ You have to be really fast and really strong.”

did train for both her legal and athletic professions at the same time. In fact, she had been doing so ever since she was an undergraduate at the University of Buffalo, where she balanced a track and field career with a bachelor of science in financial analysis.

“It was a Division I school, and I ranked nationally, which got the attention of the USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation,” she remembers. “A lot of bobsled athletes come from a track and field background. It’s that combination of strength and speed. The sled is really heavy, and you’re lifting it and running it through the cold. You train like both a sprinter and a weight lifter.”

Glavasevic seriously contemplated the invitation to compete for the national team, weighing it against another enticing option that set her on a different path: she had gotten into the University of Cincinnati College of Law. She ultimately decided to decline the invitation and focus on law school. Following a series

of injuries, she was also looking forward to taking a break from sports. But as the rigor of her juris doctor degree picked up, she realized that athletics weren’t an additional source of stress—they were a source of respite.

“I really started to miss competing,” she says. “Sports had always been my outlet for stress release, clearing my head, and just feeling good both physically and mentally. I started doing some half marathons, 5Ks, 10Ks. Then, toward the end of law school, I decided that I was going to give bobsledding a shot.”

In her final year at the University of Cincinnati, Glavasevic sat down with her strength and sprint coaches so they could develop a training program that, schedule wise, would dovetail nicely with her legal studies. She found out that she had passed the bar examination and gotten onto Team USA in the course of one week.

While there are plenty of distinct differences between bobsledding and

practicing law, Glavasevic has found that the former still conditioned her for the latter.

“One of the main aspects of both is time management,” she says. “You have a lot of training to get through and a lot of different responsibilities to balance out. Bobsledding and law are both very competitive. Prior to going in-house at Quaker Houghton, I was at a general practice firm called Jones, Gregg, Creehan & Gerace. I litigated and was in court regularly. Like bobsledding, it’s that same process of gearing up, going in there, and feeling like it’s your time to shine.”

Her bobsledding experiences aren’t the only life events that have substantially shaped Glavasevic’s professional journey. Just as she’s drawn strength from bobsledding and athletics in general, she’s found inspiration in the sacrifices her parents made. In 1995, her mother and father emigrated their family from Croatia to the United

States after their home country of Bosnia declared its independence from Yugoslavia, which led to a violent four-year conflict. Glavasevic can still remember what it was like to live in a war-torn nation as a child.

“I remember sitting in the basement of our apartment building in Croatia and hearing the bomb sirens go off,” she says. “You hear explosions, and you’re down there for a little while, until you’re told it’s safe to come out. Our family lost a total of eight people, including my uncle and my cousin. It was a really traumatic experience that impacts me daily.”

Glavasevic’s parents managed to get her and her sister to Erie, Pennsylvania, where they still reside today.

“I didn’t want their sacrifices to be in vain,” she explains. “I wanted to make them proud through the things I was doing, both in law and in athletics.”

Glavasevic’s experiences as a child have also resulted in an abiding passion for immigration law as well as social justice in general. In law school, she served as the editor in chief of the Immigration and Nationality Law Review, a widely respected law journal, while interning at the Legal Aid Society’s Immigration Law Unit in New York City. She also worked with social justice organizations, including the Children’s Law Center, which focuses on juvenile justice for children and youth in Kentucky and Ohio, and the Ohio Justice & Policy Center in Cincinnati, which advocates for prisoners’ rights.

Rising to the Occasion

Ajla Glavasevic and the terrific Quaker team are renowned for skillfully and effectively meeting issues head-on — and the herculean efforts in planning and executing the successful acquisition of Houghton International and the integration of the two companies into the great Quaker Houghton enterprise are no exception.

Faegre Drinker is proud to join Modern Counsel in recognizing Ajla, whose agility in the face of challenges is an example to us all.

“We worked on all kinds of cases: deportation, asylum, juvenile cases, processing for entry,” she says. “And at Jones Gregg, the partners decided that was something I could develop and grow for the firm—an additional practice area. Going in-house at Quaker Houghton has obviously changed that landscape a bit, but as a global organization, we do deal with immigration issues, whether it’s from a visa perspective for employment or some sort of [Department of] Homeland Security perspective, just based on our industry.

“As an overarching background for me, I am very social justice oriented,” she continues. “Even now, I sit on the board of AAUW [American Association of University Women] Pennsylvania, which is focused on gender equality for women in the workplace— including pay equity and economic security, education equality, leadership opportunities, and sustainability.”

Much like a bobsled track, Glavasevic’s career path has involved twists, turns, and sharp slopes, as well as new heights of success. She’s found that staying flexible and keeping an open mind tend to lead to good places.

That, and being really fast. And really strong.

Partner Ferdie Franklin and the Walsworth team would like to recognize Quaker Houghton’s Associate General Counsel, Ajla Glavasevic, for her accomplishments as a legal leader.

“Ajla is very knowledgeable and her approaches to key decisions are always well informed and pragmatic. She is a joy to work with. Congratulations from all of us at Walsworth.”

-Ferdie Franklin

“I didn’t want [my family’s] sacrifices to be in vain. I wanted to make them proud through the things I was doing, both in law and in athletics.”

AConsidered Career

At Olin, Angela Castle has built a career by leaning into change and leaning on her family

By Dan Caffrey

When Angela Castle joined Olin Corporation in 2017, she left behind a job as a senior counsel at a larger chemical company because of the potential for continued growth and development at Olin.

Olin was established more than 125 years ago as a small blasting powder supplier in Illinois. Through organic growth and thoughtful acquisitions, Olin exists today as a global leader in chlor-alkali and epoxy products, in addition to serving as a leading US manufacturer of small-caliber ammunition.

While the initial role Castle took at Olin wasn’t what others might consider an advancement in position, it offered an opportunity to broaden her expertise, which would eventually prepare Castle for her current role and responsibilities. Olin established its Houston office in 2015 following its successful acquisition of Dow’s US Gulf Coast chlor-alkali and vinyl, global chlorinated organics, and global epoxy business segments. Castle was interested in working in an environment where she would be one of the first lawyers to support the Houston office.

“There were so many rewards to being with Olin in Houston, but the most meaningful was the daily guidance I could offer—my legal support

was palpable and tangible,” Castle says. “The clients appreciated being able to just come into my office, rather than picking up a phone or sending an email.”

Castle’s transition in 2017 to Olin embodies an adaptive philosophy that she has developed during her time as a lawyer—the idea that everyone’s life and career look different, and what works for your own trajectory may not work for others.

“Oftentimes, young lawyers envision a career trajectory as a diagonal, forty-five-degree straight line from the bottom left corner to the top right,” Castle says. “It wasn’t like that for me. I experienced some years where I hit a plateau, a horizontal line. An example of this, beyond the initial move to Olin in 2017, was lateraling among a few law firms while focusing on growing myself as a lawyer.

“These parallel moves set me up for greater success later,” she continues.

“When you are in private practice, you are managing several clients at the same time or moving from one client to the next. I wanted to practice law in a setting that offered long-lasting value creation and consistency with respect to the development of professional relationships. I knew I would thrive more and that I would naturally feel more comfortable in an environment in which I could build and then cultivate relationships with the same company employees.”

Having discovered that at Olin, Castle made another significant pivot in June 2020. After she was promoted from managing counsel of integrated supply chain and operations to associate general counsel of integrated supply chain and operations, she and her family moved from Houston to St. Louis so she could be stationed at Olin’s headquarters in Clayton, Missouri. In addition to previous responsibilities in supply chain, operations, and real estate matters, her

focus now included building more experience in electric regulatory matters.

The move was also accompanied by two very different changes that had nothing to do with work: the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the birth of Castle’s third child after secondary infertility struggles. As much as Castle prides herself on embracing transition, 2020 was suddenly calling for some semblance of stability. Placing family first, Castle’s husband, Brian, embarked on a career change of his own, resigning from his job as an elementary school guidance counselor in Houston to become the primary caregiver for the family’s children.

“It was a series of discussions with Brian and then a critical decision we made together for us to feel comfortable relocating our family,” Castle remembers. “No matter what else changed in our lives, on a macro and micro level, we would be there for our kids. That means being at home to wake them

Angela Castle Associate General Counsel of Integrated Supply Chain & Operations Olin Corporation

up for school in the morning, making sure they have combed their hair and brushed their teeth, packing lunches and snacks, and dropping off and picking them up at school.”

The most mundane childcare tasks became the most important and nostalgic. With Brian assuming the role of primary caregiver along with Castle’s mother relocating to St. Louis, the family was as prepared as it could be for the move. Castle takes pride in knowing that her children will grow up in a household that does not conform to traditional gender roles.

“We want our children to recognize that a family can flourish with parents in nontraditional roles,” she says. “We raise our children to be kind, respectful, and well-adjusted.”

For Castle, the roles of mother and lawyer share the same core value: there is no such thing as perfection, only progression.

“At work and at home, I have made and will continue to make mistakes,” Castle says. “Despite this, I make it a point to tell my girls that when you make a mistake, it demonstrates that you are trying. All you can do is do your best, and that is and always should be enough.”

This mindset keeps her flexible, humble, and open to change—and has served Castle well as both a lawyer and a human being.

“I make it a point to tell my girls that when you make a mistake, it demonstrates that you are trying. All you can do is do your best, and that is and always should be enough.”

The Spirit of Advocacy

For Beth Weinstein, litigation is about more than just disputes and vendor contracts—it’s a balancing act that demands an adaptable mindset

By Russ Klettke

Beth Weinstein Senior Counsel, Litigation Raytheon Intelligence & Space

Patrick McIntyre

Beth Weinstein serves as a good example for aspirant lawyers on how studying doesn’t end with the bar exam.

“I literally work with rocket scientists,” says the senior counsel for litigation with Raytheon Intelligence & Space (RI&S), a business of Raytheon Technologies, one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world. Weinstein emphasizes that she herself is not a scientist, having earned her undergraduate degree in accounting before working as an auditor for three years until she attended law school. But an academic mind and no small degree of curiosity are characteristic of her fourteen-year legal career.

Other characteristics are to be adaptable, be an advocate, and be balanced, she says. Each of these qualities proved useful in her firm years with Kirkland & Ellis and became even more beneficial once she joined Raytheon Technologies.

Despite the size of RI&S—$14 billion in revenue in 2020 and 35,700 employees working at 500 locations in more than 40 countries—the business works with a very small set of customers, the US government among them. The company also has dual customer-supplier relationships with a handful of companies in its industry, some of them being competitors. In her role as the lead in-house litigator,

Weinstein handles disputes with people and entities they will almost certainly continue to work with over time.

Weinstein notes that most often challenges to the procurement process are simply when guidelines aren’t followed. “When you encounter potential disputes with your single biggest customer, you have to walk a fine line and think bigger picture in terms of the company’s business goals and the impact on customer relationships.”

It’s a different scenario from her former role as outside counsel. There, advocacy was a clear-cut matter of knowing the law, knowing the facts of the case, and pursuing the client’s interest with unrelenting vigor. Here, advocacy takes on this more nuanced meaning.

Also, Weinstein’s mentor at Raytheon Technologies explained to her that, unlike in a firm where accumulating three thousand billable hours in a year was considered a measure of success, going in-house meant she was a line item in the cost column.

So she adapted—in several ways. Barely six months after Weinstein joined the company, a merger with United Technologies (forming Raytheon Technologies) led to a subsequent restructuring. Given this new environment, Weinstein engaged with her supervisors to redefine her role as the internal head of litigation,

managing a function that, prior to the merger, was largely outsourced.

Which creates value for the company before litigation ever becomes necessary. “Litigators think differently,” Weinstein says. “For example, I look at the negative spaces for an illogical set of connections. What would a reasonable person have done if they had the intentions they now claim to have? Thinking about the actions or positions not taken can be insightful in terms of understanding another’s behavior and developing an effective strategy for a dispute or negotiation.”

This mindset can help guide the transaction attorneys in writing better contracts—a more strategic approach that comes naturally to her.

The senior counsel intermingles strategy with a probing, academic approach to being a lawyer, because they really both have to do with understanding the broader context. It also helps that she worked in accounting and auditing for a few years before becoming a lawyer, which for her was a conscious choice before she applied to law schools.

Should everyone do that? “It depends on the person,” Weinstein says, relaying how, in her case, she knew law school would be an all-encompassing chase for top grades, making law review, summer associate positions, and plum clerkships.

“I tell my children my work has to do with national security, which can save soldiers’ lives. But it’s important for my children to know how important they are too.”

She wanted time to prepare. Some prospective law students know what their goals are and where their passions lie, but others might not. “Any experience in life is important. But know that many of the people you’re competing with have been strategically planning their careers for a long time.”

For Weinstein, knowing when to walk away comes naturally. She shares a story of how when she was three, she went shoe shopping with her mother. She was unhappy with the shoes her mother was offering—styles “more appropriate for older girls.” Dissatisfied, she told her mother that since they could not agree, she would do without new shoes.

When she was very close to giving birth to her own first child about ten years ago, she was working on a case that was going to trial. Her accounting background was critical to the case, and she didn’t want to miss this opportunity to argue it.

“I was pulling all-nighters during the trial. My ankles were so swollen I had to elevate my feet while sitting in court,” she recalls. “People talk a lot about the challenges of being working parents. But many women have to make difficult choices between family and career before their babies are even born.”

Since then, she’s become a mother of two children and an advocate for work/life balance. Over time she found more ways to work from home and says she can now engage with her children during the day and work late at night when needed. And she credits Raytheon Technologies for being generous about family-friendly policies, allowing every other Friday off when employees fit eighty hours into nine days instead of ten.

“I tell my children my work has to do with national security, which can save soldiers’ lives,” she says. “But it’s important for my children to know how important they are too.”

Kirkland & Ellis LLP:

“Beth has been a colleague and friend for many years. She is a strong team leader committed to excellence and a determined and passionate advocate for her clients. We enjoy collaborating with her and everyone at Raytheon.”

–Mark Holscher, Partner

Connections Well Built

Dawn Blume prioritizes transparency and inclusion in her approach to labor and employment law at Zebra Technologies

By Lucy Cavanagh

“

In my career, I have seen so many situations where people aren’t successful because they’re not comfortable at work—because of a lifestyle choice or a disability, for example—and they’re trying to overcome perceptions or stereotypes based on qualities or choices that have nothing to do with their job,” says Dawn Blume, senior employment counsel at Zebra Technologies.

“We need to remove barriers so people can feel comfortable being themselves. Feeling like you belong is important to everybody, whether you’re four years old or seventy-five.”

This philosophy has guided Blume’s long and varied career as a labor and employment attorney. Over the years, she has had many opportunities to be employee facing and learn about workers’ concerns firsthand.

“Usually, you hear about the issues from HR. But dealing directly with employees has given me the perspective to be more practical,” Blume notes. “So, when I’m giving employment law advice, I can understand how certain decisions will be perceived by the employees.”

Blume always knew that she wanted to be a corporate lawyer, but after graduating from college at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Blume was hesitant to immediately take on debt to go to law school. She decided instead to gain some experience at a plaintiff’s personal injury firm, which solidified her passion for law and confirmed for her that this was the direction she wanted to pursue.

Blume earned a scholarship at DePaul University and went on to work at the National Labor Relations

Dawn Blume Senior Employment Counsel Zebra Technologies

Board (NLRB). There, she learned a lot about labor law and honed her trial and investigation expertise. “The best skill I took away from this position was how to conduct an investigation and learning the facts and details that are most important to the government in deciding whether to dismiss or prosecute a case,” she says.

After the NLRB, Blume got experience at Meckler Bulger Tilson Marick & Pearson, where she was responsible for management-side labor and employment defense. Eventually, she moved back to Chicago and built her in-house experience at several corporations, including Caterpillar Inc., where she managed a variety of labor and employment legal functions.

“I had exposure to the labor and employment practice in ways I never dreamed of. I assisted with employment-side diligence and integration efforts in the company’s largest billion-dollar acquisition,” Blume says. All of these experiences have helped shape her approach to employment law. She believes in a multifaceted and transparent strategy to ensure that employees feel involved and valued.

“Most times, there is just no way to make everyone involved in a situation happy,” Blume states. “The key is to get everyone to accept the outcome, which is best achieved by working on a solution that doesn’t surprise, consistently upholds the company’s policies, and accomplishes the most important objectives.”

When the opportunity to join Zebra Technologies arose in 2018, Blume quickly snagged it. Zebra is an industry leader in rugged computing, bar code printing and scanning, and asset tracking technologies and solutions. In her role as senior employment counsel,

Blume handles a variety of responsibilities, including partnering with business leaders across the organization to advise on risk containment strategies in workforce matters and achieve operational goals. Blume has also managed employment litigation, global workforce mobility, and employee benefit matters, and partners with outside counsel on various projects to contain costs and drive desired outcomes.

Blume’s passion for securing the well-being of the labor force extends to her dedication to diversity and inclusion in the workplace—an effort that has a personal connection for her. “My mother came to the mainland US from Puerto Rico and could not speak English, and her parents spent their lives in the US without learning how to read or write in English,” she explains. “She overcame many obstacles to graduate from university, and then went on to get an accounting degree and start a career.” Blume notes that this perspective allows her to see how unjust barriers can hold people back from professional advancement.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, one barrier specifically targeting

working parents has been the increasingly muddled line between work and life. As a mother of young children, Blume has felt the pressures this unique time caused firsthand.

“It was a double whammy for me because I had just lost my father in January 2020,” she explains. “There were many weeks when I felt like leaving my job because I felt stretched to the limit. Somehow, I just kept going. I am lucky to have an engaged manager, empathic colleagues, and trusted outside counsel who are a tremendous support to me, not to mention my newest coworker, my husband.

“It’s an ever-changing process,” Blume continues. “The pandemic has been so fluid, and there have been times when my days have started at 6:00 a.m. and didn’t finish until well after my children had all gone to bed. This support network keeps me engaged and going even now, during times when new challenges arise—like during periods of quarantine for my children, who are thankfully doing in-person learning now.”

The support of her team not only helped Blume survive this tumultuous

“There’s not always that connection. So, I think it’s my job and our goal to help build those connections.”

time but also allowed her to be there for others in a more empathetic and meaningful way. Blume never underestimates how the actions she takes in her role have the ability to drive change and impact her company’s workforce.

“When I’m giving advice, I do my best to remember what kind of trickle-down effect it will have on the frontline workers,” Blume states. “There’s not always that connection. So, I think it’s my job and our goal to help build those connections.”

the way

Polsinelli congratulates Dawn Blume, Senior Employment Counsel for Zebra Technologies.

We are honored to partner with Dawn and Zebra Technologies in helping to achieve their business objectives. Leaders stand out.

Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP:

“As outside counsel, I have worked with Dawn on a wide variety of projects over the years. She is always prepared, insightful, and knowledgeable. Dawn is enthusiastic and working with her is delightful.”

–Cara Crotty, Partner

Polsinelli PC:

“Dawn brings passion to her work and delivers practical solutions in even the most challenging situations. She is a great partner and her recognition by Modern Counsel is well-deserved.”

–Andrew Cripe, Chair of the Polsinelli Employment Counseling, Compliance & Investigations Practice Group

We are proud of our collaboration with Dawn Blume and Zebra Technologies who trust us to provide employment law counsel.

Positioned to Go Further

Kamau Coar, chief legal officer and chief inclusion officer of Heidrick & Struggles, successfully integrated his legal team into the firm’s business planning

By Shira Vickar-Fox

Chief Legal Officer and Chief Inclusion Officer Heidrick &

Courtesy of Heidrick & Struggles

Kamau Coar

Struggles

Not many children argue in front of a judge for their allowance, but that’s how Kamau Coar was raised. Coar’s father was a bankruptcy judge who later sat on the federal court in the Northern District of Illinois.

“The way that he ran his courtroom was a lot like how he raised his kids,” says Coar, now the chief legal officer and chief inclusion officer of Heidrick & Struggles, a global executive search and leadership advisory firm.

As a judge, his father gave attorneys a generous amount of time for the discovery phase of a trial, but they weren’t allowed to ask for an extension. Similarly, the young Coar negotiated a monthly allowance with his father that was more generous than his weekly request, but he was then prohibited from asking for more for unanticipated expenses, such as new basketball shoes.

“I would sit in the back of the courtroom and see my life playing out, just on a different plane,” Coar remembers about visiting his father at work. “It was the exact same arguments, just dealing with different assets.”

Coar inherited his father’s philosophy, which emphasized listening and establishing clear expectations. This approach informs his professional practice to this day. When he joined Heidrick & Struggles as associate general counsel in 2012, he sought to make the legal team better partners to the business side. By all accounts, he has successfully accomplished that goal, in part by decentralizing the legal practice in Chicago.

“A good legal department answers questions they are asked,” Coar says. “A great legal department listens more intently and builds proactive solutions.”

This proactive style is beneficial when handling diverse issues all over the world. Heidrick & Struggles maintains fifty

offices in more than twenty-five countries, and Coar understands the importance of respecting a client’s culture. “I sit in on as many of our office calls and meetings as possible,” he explains. “I try to have an open dialogue, an open understanding, and an open mind with our consultants, because they tell me the things they face.”

Sometimes that information gathering happens firsthand, such as when he and his family moved from Chicago to Singapore for two years in 2016. At the time, the entire legal team was based in Chicago. Coar volunteered to be a “guinea pig” and moved operations to Asia to see if a legal presence outside the United States would help the business.

His experiment resulted in the placement of four lawyers in cities where leaders in the Asia-Pacific and European regions are based: Hong Kong and London.

“What it’s really done is take Heidrick & Struggles at its best and spread it across the organization instead of being inaccessible in certain parts of the world,” Coar says.

The temporary move also put him in the trenches of the consulting and executive placement firm. “The closer you are to the business and listening to the totality of the issues they face, the more it drives you to build meaningful solutions to those issues instead of just providing legal answers,” he says.

For Coar, a point of leadership pride is bringing the legal team into the decision-making process from the start instead of solely at the end, to grant final approvals. Making that happen takes an investment of time and lots of give-andtake between the legal team, Heidrick & Struggles’ executives, and more than four hundred consultants worldwide.

“I probably spend as much time working on legal issues for the firm as I

“Nobody cares about the reasons as to why you didn’t get things done. They care about whether you got it done or not.”

Top of the Class

Kamau Coar considers time with his children, ten-year-old Jackson and seven-year-old Harper, a “refresher” to his day. His own professional career shares parallels with his kids’ lives, such as how doing homework requires the same attention as giving a board room presentation. “The key is to focus on the similarities and not the differences.”

do talking to our CEO and board practice, or our legal, risk, compliance, and government affairs practice, as well as a host of others—about what they’re seeing or what I’m seeing so we can have that information exchange.”

Coar sees tremendous value in getting to know stakeholders because the core of his legal practice is establishing transparency, trust, and firm-wide integrity. Since a global company must establish these aspirations in a culturally sensitive manner, he relies on the firm’s consultants to share what clients are saying and how they’re experiencing Heidrick & Struggles’ legal processes.

“We have a lot of terms that we could insist on from a technical standpoint but don’t advance us in terms of getting to a partnership with our clients,” Coar says. “My team spends a lot of time trying to strike the right balance between trying to find what is a must-have on a global scale, to protect the business, and what’s a nice-to-have” for a specific country or situation.

After all, Coar says his father always told him, “Nobody cares about the reasons as to why you didn’t get things done. They care about whether you got it done or not.”

A Valued Partnership

We congratulate Nixon Peabody alumnus Kamau Coar on his recognition by Modern Counsel. Kamau’s talent and dedication are well known, and we’re proud to call him a colleague, client, and friend.

70 West Madison St. | Chicago Nixonpeabody.com

Growing at Google

As senior litigation counsel at one of the most prominent corporations on the planet, Makesha Patterson strives to improve herself as both an attorney and a leader

By Lindsey Lubowitz

Don McChesney

Makesha Patterson Senior Litigation Counsel Google

Makesha Patterson has always dreamed big. At different times throughout her childhood, she declared she would be an architect, an engineer, and a lawyer. And somehow, she has managed to combine all three of those passions in the course of becoming a senior litigation counsel for Google.

During her undergraduate years, Patterson majored in architectural engineering. When she decided to pursue law, she planned to specialize in construction law. In fact, she sees a distinct link between engineering and litigation.

“With litigation, each case is like a problem, and you have to think about how you are going to solve that problem or that case,” Patterson says. “And there usually is more than one way to resolve a case or solve for that problem. It’s similar to an engineering problem, because you have to think, ‘What’s the best way to solve this?’”

After law school, Patterson built up her experience in litigation at the law firm of Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis in San Francisco. She did work in construction litigation, as she had hoped, but primarily focused on general business, real estate, and environmental litigation.

Patterson enjoyed her work at the law firm—so much so that her decision to leave was almost unintentional. “My path to Google was a bit unexpected,” she explains. “I wasn’t actually looking

to leave the firm, and I wasn’t looking to go to Google. It was an opportunity that presented itself.”

But when the leadership at Allen Matkins approached her in 2010 and asked if she was interested in doing a secondment at Google, which would essentially mean she would be “loaned out” to the tech giant, Patterson recognized the opportunity for what it was. It took her only one night to decide to accept.

Patterson had never worked in the tech space, but once she began working as in-house counsel, she appreciated the position more and more.

“At the firm, I had responsibility, but I didn’t have the same level of responsibility and autonomy as I had when I came to Google,” she says. Starting out at Google, Patterson had fewer people directly overseeing her work, and she appreciated that element of trust.

But it is not only her increased independence that she appreciates about her current role. Because she works for such a large and complex corporation, her work varies from day to day—and from case to case.

“I’m constantly learning about new products, new features, and different areas of litigation. Each case is different, so that makes it exciting and interesting,” she says. Google has multiple core products and platforms, each with more than one billion monthly active users— and the legal team spreads itself across all of them. Patterson often works as the

sole litigator on cases that arise from different products.

As a mother of three, Patterson also appreciates the flexibility of her role and Google’s commitment to a sustainable work/life balance. Despite the company’s size and prominence, Patterson says, its culture has remained true to its roots.

“Google started off as a small start-up. It was homegrown. There’s a certain mentality that comes with a small start-up, and even though we’re not that anymore, some of that culture still exists,” she explains.

But most importantly, Patterson’s transition to Google has helped her grow as a leader. She considers herself to be thoughtful, inclusive, and approachable—she wants everyone to feel comfortable coming to her to talk. “If you’re working with me or on my team, I always want to hear what you have to say,” she says. “Even if I may not agree with you, I’m still going to listen to you and consider what you have to say.”

This attitude and her skill set are celebrated by her partners. “Makesha is an exceptional lawyer and partner to outside counsel. She has a unique ability to develop practical solutions to complex problems that put her

Bravo. Well Done.

PERKINS COIE is proud to partner with Google’s legal team. We applaud Senior Litigation Counsel Makesha Patterson for her leadership and accomplishments.

PerkinsCoie.com

Well Done!

Mayer Brown congratulates our colleague and friend Makesha Patterson on this well-deserved recognition and her achievements as senior litigation counsel at Google LLC. Mayer Brown is proud to be one of Google’s partners, working with Makesha and her team on a variety of matters—from from copyright to international arbitrations to class actions.

Making Time for Music

In addition to dreaming of pursuing a career in engineering, architecture, and the law, Makesha Patterson had a passion for the piano as a child. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced everyone to work remotely, she decided it would be a good time to pick that interest back up, so she started taking lessons. In fact, Patterson says, taking up a non-workrelated hobby like piano has been an excellent way for her to improve her overall productivity and has also provided much-needed stress relief. She hopes to one day be able to teach her children how to play.

internal clients in the best position for success,” says Sunita Bali and Bobbie Wilson, partners at Perkins Coie. “In addition to being a superb litigator and strategic thinker, she is an absolute joy to work with. Google is lucky to have her on their team.”

Google has brought out the best in her, Patterson emphasizes, and she cannot wait to see what else is in store for her legal career.

Mayer Brown LLP:

“Makesha is an inspiring and creative team leader who brings out the best in the lawyers she works with. Her wide range of experience, collegiality, and insight, straight to the heart of any given matter, make her a tremendous asset to Google.”

–Ward Johnson, Partner

Out in Front

Litigator and triathlete Rebecca Lombard is discovering how her two passions go hand in hand at Kimberly-Clark

By Zach Baliva

That’s what Rebecca Lombard says in a lot of meetings at global consumer products leader Kimberly-Clark, the company behind iconic brands such as Huggies, Kleenex, Kotex, and Cottonelle. For the associate general counsel of commercial and IP litigation, triathlon training is more than a hobby; it’s a passion. When the lifelong swimmer took up running and cycling, she made a surprising discovery—becoming a triathlete made her a better lawyer, and vice versa.

Lombard grew up in New England and graduated cum laude from the American University Washington College of Law, where she edited articles for the Administrative Law Review and served as a judicial extern for a chief administrative law judge at the US Department of Labor. She started her career working on high-stakes litigation in the technology division of Venable’s Washington, DC, office. Lombard climbed the ranks from associate to partner to vice chair of Venable’s intellectual property (IP) litigation group. In those foundational years, she says she honed the leadership skills she now uses at Kimberly-Clark.

“I had terrific mentors who gave me an opportunity for client interaction early on,” she explains. “I had a great model for how strong client partnerships work and the time to deepen those important relationships.”

In 2011, after more than a decade of building an IP enforcement function and team at Venable, Lombard dove into managing medical devices litigation and associated IP issues for Kimberly-Clark. That’s when a friend and KimberlyClark legal colleague introduced her

to a local chapter of She Runs This Town/Moms Run This Town, an inclusive women’s running club. With the support and encouragement of other working professionals, Lombard took her training to the next level. Soon, she was increasing her mileage and signing up for half marathons.

Lombard eventually added cycling to her repertoire, and although she had to balance the competing demands of work and sport, she found that each passion fueled the other. “Being disciplined at work teaches me to set goals for races

and attack my training in a smart and methodical way,” she says. “And athletics take me away from my computer, give me balance and a fresh perspective, and help me be more focused and present when I’m at work.”

That perspective is important for Lombard’s role at Kimberly-Clark, where she forges links between litigation and various business teams. “We’re not satisfied with being great lawyers. We want to be key strategic partners who can unlock complexities and drive the best results possible,” she says.

“ I had an idea while I was out riding this morning.”

“My running group keeps me motivated during those challenging long runs, and I appreciate the support of strong teammates and leaders around me at work too.”

Training with a committed group and entering several races each year keeps Lombard accountable and motivates her to track her progress and metrics. Navigating a seasonal training schedule and dealing with inevitable injuries also teaches her to remain adaptable. “In racing, I focus on sharpening my skills and breaking a complex challenge into manageable pieces,” she says.

She tries to do the same in her professional life. An IP litigation background propelled Lombard to success during her early years at Kimberly-Clark, especially

as her initial role expanded. In 2014, she took on additional responsibility for complex litigation, including product liability, personal injury, and regulatory matters. Now, as associate general counsel, she helps global leaders craft business strategies.

Although Lombard races as an individual, group training has shown her the value of a strong team. “My running group keeps me motivated during those challenging long runs, and I appreciate the support of strong teammates and leaders around me at work too,” she says.

Kimberly-Clark’s litigation team also values its relationships with key outside counsel, collaborating closely on legal projects and cases. That focus aligns well with the company’s goal of leveraging diverse teams and ideas across the company to drive the best results, as well as its ongoing commitment to advancing women in senior leadership roles.

Throughout her tenure at KimberlyClark, Lombard has earned the respect of her peers by meeting new challenges head-on and steadfastly pressing forward toward shared goals. Her efforts have brought invitations to participate in regional leadership development and global legal strategy programs. Career development, Lombard has discovered, is more of a marathon than a sprint.

Lombard’s dual identity as a litigator and triathlete fits well at Kimberly-Clark. The company launched its first comprehensive health and wellness program in the US in 1977. Over its forty-four-year span, Kimberly-Clark has offered stateof-the-art on-site exercise options, global cycling challenges, on-site sports fields, walking paths, and lunch-and-learn sessions with local practitioners.

Rebecca Lombard

Associate General Counsel of Commercial & IP Litigation

Kimberly-Clark

Rebecca Goldsmith Lombard for her outstanding career contributions to the legal profession

www.gibsondunn.com

Beijing  Brussels  Century City

Dallas  Denver  Dubai  Frankfurt

Hong Kong  Houston  London

Los Angeles  Munich  New York

Orange County  Palo Alto  Paris

San Francisco  São Paulo

Singapore  Washington, D.C.

Although Kimberly-Clark’s corporate offices remain closed due to COVID-19, Kimberly-Clark continues to provide online engagement and other opportunities for personal well-being, and senior leaders actively encourage all Kimberly-Clark employees to take advantage of these resources. They also openly support their team members’ activities and goals, both inside and outside the company.

In 2021, Lombard relocated from Kimberly-Clark’s North America offices in Neenah, Wisconsin, to the company’s global headquarters in Dallas to help shape strategy alongside key global stakeholders. It’s a big step, but Lombard is confident that she has put in the training to succeed. Besides, triathlon season is considerably longer in Texas. She has already connected with a new running group—and is looking forward to meeting new challenges with that team.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher is thrilled to celebrate Rebecca Lombard’s success. Rebecca is a talented lawyer and she is beyond deserving of this recognition. Her commitment to helping others find a path to success in the legal profession and her dedication to diversity and inclusion is admirable. We congratulate her on this well-earned accolade for her contributions to the legal community and beyond.

“Athletics take me away from my computer, give me balance and a fresh perspective, and help me be more focused and present when I’m at work.”

Hitting Inchstones

How Dell Senior Counsel Lauren Hoffer is pushing for therapeutic breakthroughs on behalf of her son and others with Angelman syndrome

By Billy Yost

For Lauren Hoffer, work is often the most relaxing time of her day—and as senior litigation counsel for Dell, she doesn’t have an easy job. “It’s a place where if I have a question, I can find someone with a definitive answer,” she says. “Work has actually kept me sane.”

Hoffer and her husband Greg, also a Dell employee, don’t have the luxury of certainty or definitive answers at the end of their workdays. When he was just ten months old, their son Ben was diagnosed with Angelman syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that affects nearly every aspect of his life. Symptoms include severe cognitive impairment, developmental delays, and seizures. People with Angelman are nonverbal, as they are unable to manipulate the necessary face muscles to make words.

When Ben was ten months, an age when milestones would usually include sitting up, crawling, and standing, Hoffer learned that she would never speak with her son verbally and that he would need supervision for the rest of his life. He took his first steps on his second birthday, which for most kids would be late but for Ben was amazing; some kids with Angelman are never able to walk.

Hoffer and her husband, along with the community of those who care for people with Angelman, believe that diagnosis is just a place to begin. She points to matching contributions from Dell, the generosity and kindness of her colleagues and other law family, and her own work on the board of the Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics (FAST) as reasons she’s confident

that therapeutic breakthroughs will not just alleviate the symptoms of Angelman, but eventually reverse them.

Dell has been an important community for Hoffer during Ben’s journey. “When colleagues were asking how they could help, I asked someone to set up the matching contributions for the foundation,” she remembers. “Five minutes later, he came back and said it had already been set up. Someone else at Dell had a child with Angelman.”

It turned out the employee lived in Oklahoma, a state away from Dell’s Round Rock, Texas, headquarters and wasn’t regularly onsite. But serendipitously, the day he received Hoffer’s email, he was there. Hoffer and her husband met him in the lobby. Ben has a rare mutation in an already rare

condition; the other Dell employee’s child had the same mutation. The odds are exceedingly low, but they were both under the same roof.

“I can’t tell you how lucky I feel to work at Dell and to have the kinds of friends and colleagues that I do both within the corporation and within the legal world as a whole,” Hoffer says.

FAST is the largest nongovernmental funder of Angelman syndrome research. Hoffer estimates that Dell alone has given more than $50,000 to FAST through its matching program. “That is money to pay for a study,” Hoffer says. “I’m incredibly grateful to Dell for that matching benefit and, obviously, to all of our colleagues who have been so generous donating their own money.”

The all-volunteer board at FAST is made up of Angelman syndrome parents and professionals and has helped fund research for multiple clinical trials that seek to replace an active copy of the gene that those with Angelman are missing. “The foundation is doing incredible work, and I’m hopeful that this is going to be able to happen for my son,” Hoffer says.

Hoffer says her law career has been invaluable in providing her with a helpful skill—contracting with researchers receiving FAST grants to further Angelman translational science. And when she doesn’t have the answer, Hoffer has help. “Lawyers are amazing,” Hoffer says. “There are many friends and colleagues who have gotten me answers or resources when I need them.”

Hoffer says that Ben, now four, lights up any room that he enters. Between his speech, physical and occupational therapy, applied behavior analysis, and work at the Rise School of Austin (of which Hoffer speaks glowingly and gratefully), Ben spends forty hours a week working to

overcome his diagnosis. “Anyone that meets him just says he is the hardestworking kid,” Hoffer notes.

Ben is also a big brother. Hoffer was already pregnant with Ben’s brother, Charlie, when Ben was diagnosed with Angelman. Seeing Charlie hit neurotypical milestones can sometimes be bittersweet as Ben works to hit “inchstones”—those smaller, though equally hard-fought, victories for people with special needs. Though he’s just two and a half years old, Charlie somehow knows

that his brother can’t speak, and will request a drink not only for himself, but for his brother too.

Hoffer says she once wanted her son to go to Harvard, but now she’d be content if he could communicate his thoughts, participate in the world, and be happy. It’s a challenge every day, but Hoffer doesn’t believe she’s special. “I’m just doing what I truly believe any parent would do,” she says. “Any lawyer reading this would do the same. We’re lawyers. We fight.”

Lauren Hoffer Senior Litigation Counsel Dell Inc.

Opening the Gate

Anne Brooksher-Yen was the beneficiary of a client who sought diverse counsel, and she has brought the same focus to her role at Celanese

By Billy Yost

When she was six years old, Anne Brooksher-Yen’s Halloween costume was a professional business get-up accompanied by her mother’s briefcase. She was dressed as a lawyer for a career she already knew she wanted. Her hometown of Yuma, Arizona, was far from New York—where she’d attend law school and spend her first decade as an attorney—but it was close to the Mexican border, a connection that would later motivate her to do pro bono work for asylum seekers.

Brooksher-Yen is now the chief compliance officer and chief counsel for litigation, environmental law, and quality at global chemical and specialty materials company Celanese. A litigator by background, Brooksher-Yen leads a number of different specialty areas within her legal department. “That’s one of the things that drew me to Celanese—they’ve encouraged me to stretch and try new, hard things,” she says. “It’s dynamic and challenging. And really, really fun.”

Making It Up as You Go

She was hired at DLA Piper in 2006, a job Brooksher-Yen says was particularly appealing to her because the firm had a strong female partner (who would later become a mentor). The young attorney worked on contractual matters pertaining to the landmark Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, which essentially rewrote the rules for cigarette advertising and established compensation to states for cigarette-related illnesses.

“I loved that work,” Brooksher-Yen says. “I got to work for some of the smartest people I’ve ever met in my life, and it gave me the opportunity to build my career on a great foundation.”

Part of her fascination with the work was that the arbitration wasn’t governed

“Part of getting on my feet as a trial lawyer was the fact that the client encouraged their firms to field a team of diverse people.”

under any particular set of regulations. “It was ad hoc, which meant that a lot of it was stuff we made up as we went along,” Brooksher-Yen says. “We had brilliant arbiters who were former federal judges and a general counsel who really valued diversity. Part of getting on my feet as a trial lawyer was the fact that the client encouraged their firms to field a team of diverse people.”

Brooksher-Yen was a beneficiary of that client’s push for a more representative field of attorneys, and she is continually looking to push for diversity now that she’s in her own executive roles. “I had the opportunity to get a seat at the table very early in my

career in a billion-dollar arbitration,” she says.

“It formed a lot of the way I thought about both how you manage and try cases as well as how you manage your outside counsel roster,” she continues.

“It made me very conscious of how to encourage your outside counsel to reflect the kind of world you want to see more broadly in the legal profession.”

Brooksher-Yen says there are dozens of studies that illustrate her point—but she is also a living, breathing example of what a focus on diversity can accomplish.

“There are fairness components to this and the fact that everybody deserves a shot at the table,” she explains. “But it’s

also results driven. I truly, deeply believe that people who come from a diversity of backgrounds are going to give me the best result for my client, my organization, and that I am a better lawyer for being challenged by a wide variety of perspectives and opinions.”

A Passion for Pro Bono

In elevating Brooksher-Yen to the executive suite, Celanese has also engaged a lawyer deeply committed to helping others outside of her day-to-day responsibilities. She helped found Celanese’s first formal pro bono program in 2019.

“My hope is to really deepen and expand the program next year, especially

Courtesy of Celanese

Anne Brooksher-Yen Chief Compliance Officer and Chief Counsel for Litigation, EHS & Quality Celanese

with our partners in the community like Paul Quinn College [the oldest historically Black college west of the Mississippi],” Brooksher-Yen says. “They have an incredible message and program, and I look forward to deepening both my personal and our organizational relationship with them.”

Brooksher-Yen’s most well-known pro bono victory is a story that made national headlines. After the end of the government’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy in 2011, thousands of veterans were able to appeal to have their dismissals reclassified as honorable—including Hal Faulkner, who had been dishonorably discharged from the Marine Corps in 1956 for being gay.

“Those are the moments you live for, but also the ones you die for.”

CONGRATULATES ANNE BROOKSHERYEN

When his case came to Brooksher-Yen, Faulker had terminal cancer and his doctors had given him just weeks to live. His dying wish was to have his discharge changed to an honorable one, but the process usually took six months or more. Brooksher-Yen asked the military to expedite the process and succeeded; the Marines sent an official letter to Faulkner in just two weeks.

Brooksher-Yen flew to Fort Lauderdale, her first night away from her six-month-old son, to attend a small service at Faulkner’s home celebrating his honorable discharge. “I just remember sitting with Hal at dinner the night before the ceremony; he was so close to the end of his life, but he reached across the table to thank me,” Brooksher-Yen says. “Those are the moments you live for, but also the ones you die for. The legal work wasn’t the challenging part. It was telling his story and getting enough people to care about it to get the job done.”

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP:

“Anne skillfully and thoughtfully represents her company’s business interests. She is a “doer” and her track record speaks volumes. We are proud to partner with and support her efforts to improve the legal profession.”

–Paul R. Genender, Litigation Partner

Weil congratulates our friend and client Anne Brooksher-Yen of Celanese

her accomplishments and well-deserved recognition in Modern Counsel.

Leadership Lessons from Ancient History

Mark Pasko has applied lessons gleaned from Greek history to his leadership of the legal team at QBE during the pandemic

By Dan Caffrey

Like many people around the world, Mark Pasko of QBE North America found his schedule upended in 2020. While his work as chief legal officer for the global insurance leader certainly kept him busy, the COVID-19 pandemic meant he would be working from home, thus eliminating his ninety-minute commute to the company’s New York office every day, as well as business travel and trips with his family. Most of the extra hours went back into his work. And some of them went into catching up on reading.

“I had stacks of books that had been piling up for years—most of them about ancient history,” Pasko says. Of the twenty-odd historical texts he read in 2020, he cites the Anabasis as his favorite. Penned by the soldier/philosopher Xenophon of Athens in 370 BC, its seven volumes chronicle Cyrus the Younger’s attempt to wrest the Persian throne from his brother Artaxerxes II.

“Cyrus didn’t have an army, so he hired ten thousand Greek mercenary soldiers from the various city states,” Pasko explains. “Then he died in the first battle. The Greeks were winning but they had lost their leader. So, the book is about how they got out, which took them about two years as they fought their way through modern Syria, Iraq, and Turkey until they hit the Black Sea. Imagine being a thousand miles from home. They had no food, no water. Despite overwhelming odds, these soldiers managed to overcome and fight their way out.”

Although Pasko notes that the current pandemic is a bit different than the Greek army’s plight (“We don’t have it quite as bad as Xenophon,” he says with a laugh), he also recognizes that, in a challenging year for himself and his legal team at QBE, the Anabasis holds relevant lessons in how to persevere.

“What was striking about the story was the importance of teamwork, communication, and technical expertise,” he says. “These were excellent soldiers who showed great leadership, resiliency, and poise in the pocket.”

Pasko sees similar strengths in his own team, and the onset of COVID meant making strategic adjustments so everyone could still thrive in the new remote environment. The first goal was maintaining connectivity. Normally, he holds meetings with his leadership team every few weeks and individual meetings with his direct reports every week. During the pandemic, he increased the frequency of meetings with his department and held individual meetings with most of his team.

“A lot of people will say, ‘I’m doing fine, I’m doing fine’ when that isn’t always the case,” Pasko says. “I wanted to make sure my managers and I were confirming what the reality was. So, I connected with my leaders on how they were personally doing and how their teams were doing.”

Pasko also held recurring town halls with his entire team. “The content of our town halls is targeted, calibrated toward what our employees want,” he says. “I wanted to make sure the meetings weren’t just me talking at them but actually responding to their questions. They shaped the format and content. I think everyone really appreciated that.”

Pasko says that another vital component to the overall health and efficiency of his team is maintaining traditions in the company culture—with necessary adjustments, of course. The most prominent example of this is an annual offsite team summit, usually held at QBE’s location in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. Employees always look forward to the event, which consists of team-building exercises, team dinners, and presentations

“I want my managers to understand the needs of our colleagues. . . . I don’t want to ask everyone to do the same amount of additional work and expect the same results from everyone.”

from both in-house and outside counsel where team members can earn legal education credits. But when COVID hit, the leadership at QBE wasn’t sure if they should have the event at all.

“I was a big believer in keeping the team summit,” Pasko says, pointing out the importance of maintaining continuity. QBE ended up moving forward with the event in a virtual format, with the team receiving presentations from members of the executive committee, fellow colleagues in their department, and presentations from outside counsel that enabled the attorneys to earn legal education credits. There were even some advantages to holding the event remotely, such as easily being able to accommodate

Mark Pasko Chief Legal Officer QBE North America

everyone’s schedule and saving on travel expenses for flights and hotels.

Pasko also acknowledges that, for every tradition that’s been kept in place during COVID, it’s also important to balance it with flexibility. That’s especially true when it comes to the mental well-being of QBE’s employees.

“For some members of my team, they can have ten things on their plate, and if you give them that additional two or three, they can handle it,” Pasko says. “But that is difficult for other members of my team who have extra responsibilities as a result of COVID, such as caring for elderly family members or homeschooling their children. That’s where it goes back to connectivity and commu-

nication. I want my managers to understand the needs of our colleagues. It is absolutely OK to raise your hand and say, ‘I have a question’ or ‘I need help with this.’ I don’t want to ask everyone to do the same amount of additional work and expect the same results from everyone. That’s unrealistic.”

For Pasko’s part, keeping a personal routine has helped him stay focused and efficient during the pandemic, whether it’s reading about ancient history or running (he completed his fiftieth half-marathon last November). Having a good leader to look up to himself helps too.

“Our CEO, Todd Jones, has been terrific,” Pasko says. “He’s been a very calm, steadying influence throughout

the year—compassionate, honest, knowledgeable, and authentic. I hope I have those same communication styles.”

As Xenophon of Athens might have attested, it’s often the most challenging times that put these skills—strong communication, adaptability, and empathy—to the test. In fact, Pasko remembers stressing exactly that idea when he interviewed for the chief legal officer position back in 2019.

“I wanted to be CLO when things were tough,” he says. “I think I thrive in those high-leverage, difficult, stressful situations because that’s when we can be our most impactful.” He may not have realized at the time just how soon he’d have to lead during tough times—but despite the challenges of the pandemic, he’s still managing to thrive.

Dentons US LLP:

“Mark Pasko is a mission-focused, thoughtful, and forward-looking leader. His exemplary service to QBE North America and commitment to the greater good make Mark one of the finest CLOs in the insurance industry today.”

–Jack Vales, Partner

Locke Lord LLP:

“We are honored to have worked with Mark for many years on transactional, regulatory and compliance, and litigation matters, and admire his knowledge, tenacity, and great disposition.”

–Alan Levin, Partner

Norton Rose Fulbright:

“Mark is an effective leader who inspires his team and gets results. It has been a delight working with Mark, who haws such deep insurance industry expertise, and the QBE team on interesting and challenging transactions.”

–Scarlet McNellie, Head of Corporate, M&A and Securities, US

On the Move While the World Stands Still

When the world shut down, Schneider’s trucks couldn’t. Justin Bauer discusses legal’s role in keeping the company’s drivers safe, secure, and on the go.

By Dan Caffrey

When describing the function of the legal department at his workplace, Schneider Associate General Counsel Justin Bauer turns to sled dogs.

“We—the business, departments, drivers, and other support functions—are like one cohesive sled dog team moving toward the finish line. The business and, ultimately, our professional drivers are the lead dogs on the team. They dictate direction and goal,” Bauer says.

“Legal is one of the dogs in the back providing the support. We’re going to weigh in, and if we find something that’s too risky or if we think we’re going astray, we’re going to put our paws down and figure this out. We don’t drive what’s going on. We do what we can to say yes and support everyone else.”

Maybe sled dogs are on Bauer’s brain during his December 2020 Modern Counsel interview because Schneider is headquartered in icy Green Bay, Wisconsin. Maybe it’s because he’s been watching a lot of Life Below Zero on National Geographic. Whatever the case, the COVID-19 pandemic has put Bauer’s canine comparison to the test. While the rest of the world shut down, he and his legal team had to think creatively to keep the company’s fleet of nine thousand company tractors—not to mention its ten thousand drivers—on the road.

On the one hand, Bauer describes truck driving as “the ultimate social distancing job.” But he also explains how constantly traveling across country— sometimes for days or weeks at a time— makes it difficult for Schneider’s drivers to protect themselves from COVID-19.

“Driver’s don’t have sinks in their trucks,” Bauer explains. “Most people

Betsy Giffin/Courtesy of Schneider

Justin Bauer

Associate General Counsel Schneider

get to go home and wash their clothes or their masks. Drivers can’t do that every day.” Another complication was that, in certain states, many truck stops and public rest stops were closed at the onset of COVID-19. The irony, of course, is that Schneider’s vehicles—or that of any trucking company, for that matter—are often delivering goods that make other lives easier during a pandemic.

To ensure the safety of the company’s drivers, Schneider formed a coronavirus task force of forty employees, with Bauer and one of his colleagues representing the legal department. First and foremost was securing personal protective equipment (PPE) for everyone on the road.

“It took a massive coordination effort because frankly, when we first started, everything was sold out,” Bauer remembers. “You couldn’t get anything. So we had to try to get it where we could, compile it, get it out to all these different locations. We purchased about 1.3 million masks, about a million disposable gloves, and about eight thousand gallons of hand sanitizer. The number of masks we landed on surprised me at first, but if you think about how often a driver can wash a mask, the masks have to be disposable.”

For the hand sanitizer, the task force had initially sourced the liquid from local distilleries.

“We actually bought big drums and big gallon packs,” Bauer continues. “We put the sanitizer into little bottles and put the bottles in our operating centers and operating points so our drivers could take a couple with them when they go on the road. There was a lot of effort put in by our team—particularly our driver

services team—and I’ve got to give kudos to them for doing it.”

In addition to coordinating the more tangible acquisitions of PPE and hand sanitizer, Bauer and the rest of the legal department were tasked with having to navigate a constantly evolving slate of COVID regulations. And not just for Wisconsin—Schneider has drivers in every single state of the continental US as well as in Canada.

“At the beginning of this, every single day, there were new regulations and new orders coming out that had to be digested,” Bauer explains. “The legal department ended up communicating to the business folks what needed to be done, and from time to time, we’d have to assess what our obligations were.”

Legal sifted through this byzantine web of regulatory matters behind the scenes—electronic registrations for out-of-staters, mask mandates that vary from state to state, etc.—with the goal of creating the smoothest work experience for everyone else. Once again, Bauer’s department is the dog in the back, providing the support necessary for the business to press toward its goals.

“It’s about getting the truck drivers to the point where they don’t have to worry about what they’re doing,” he says. “If they need to know about something, we let them know. If they don’t need to know, we don’t want to bother them with it. Let them do their jobs. They’re the ones on the front lines.”

This solicitude has not gone unnoticed by Schneider’s partners. “Justin is one of the most pragmatic and thoughtful inside counsel with whom we work,” says Mike Phillips, partner at McGuireWoods. “His attention to

“It’s about getting the truck drivers to the point where they don’t have to worry about what they’re doing. . . . Let them do their jobs. They’re the ones on the front lines.”

detail, combined with his deep knowledge and understanding of the transportation industry, help set him apart.”

Obviously, the legal department looks out for others at Schneider partly because it’s in their job description. But Bauer also feels a kinship with everyone at the company that goes beyond his workplace responsibilities. He’s been at Schneider for twelve years now, and he originally came to the company so he and his wife—also a Schneider employee in the regulatory department— could be closer to family and their hometown of Menominee, Michigan, just across the Wisconsin state line at the bottom of the Upper Peninsula.

“There are just a lot of good, down-home Midwestern people here at Schneider,” Bauer says. “I know it sounds like a cliché, but there are great people, it’s a great company, and it’s interesting work.”

McGuireWoods helps clients gain and maintain a competitive edge.

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

Innovation, In-House and IndustryWide

Bill Foster draws inspiration from USAA’s inventors, but his vision for legal services extends far beyond the company

By Natalie Kochanov

Bill Foster Executive Director in Enterprise Litigation and Lead for IP, Class & Mass Action Litigation

USAA

BILL FOSTER CAN PINPOINT HIS INITIAL INSPIRATION for a career in law in two seconds. He grew up watching The Cosby Show and admired the show’s matriarch, Clair Huxtable—a practicing attorney known for advocating for her clients.

“It was my first glimpse of what lawyers could accomplish,” Foster says.

Still, Foster didn’t pursue law right away. The first in his family to graduate from a university, he focused on economics and spent a year in Japan studying the Japanese economy—that is, until conducting research on attorneys in Japan for an article reawakened his interest in the legal industry.

Since then, Foster has made a name for himself as an attorney, primarily at financial services company USAA, where he serves as executive director in enterprise litigation, leading intellectual property as well as class and mass action litigation. From helping to shape USAA’s enterprise litigation department to collaborating with the company’s world-class inventors, he has created an environment that encourages excellence and innovation—qualities that he hopes to extend to the legal services community at large.

Leading the Way

After graduating from the Boston University School of Law in 2000, Foster accepted an offer from prestigious international law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. During his time at Akin Gump, he gained a substantial background in class action lawsuits and securities litigation. This laid the foundation for Foster to succeed at USAA, where he began working in 2007.

Likewise key to Foster’s success is the strength of USAA’s enterprise litigation department, which he has been a key contributor to since joining the company. When selecting new team members, he concentrates on identifying creative attorneys with an appropriate degree of experience. “Our first belief in enterprise litigation is that the department operates at its best when staffed with career litigators who have come in-house after years of practice,” he explains. “We have former prosecutors, accomplished civil trial lawyers, and former partners in big law firms, among others. Everyone has something to contribute, and we all benefit from the experience of the team.”

Foster finds that more experienced team members are better equipped to evaluate recommendations from outside counsel. “Much of the time, what outside counsel says is spot-on in terms of harmonizing effective and efficient litigation strategy with the goals of the company,” he says. “But other times, the recommendations need tweaking. It can be hard to know exactly what to do unless you’ve been practicing for a while.”

The same goes for deciding whether to accept recommendations about litigation tactics. “It matters how litigation is handled,” says Foster, whose own ability to make those calls comes from his deep understanding of how those decisions historically pan out. He looks for a similar understanding in prospective team members in order to bring maximum value to internal clients.

Importantly, the enterprise litigation department’s collective skill level allows them to remain nimble and to outrun competitors. Equally important to the department’s success and agility, Foster says, are USAA’s diversity and inclusion (D&I) efforts.

“I’m grateful that USAA values my military service as part of its D&I efforts,” he says. “We have a culture of seeking out diverse perspectives.”

And those perspectives don’t have to come from inside the company. Foster has worked to broaden his team’s viewpoint by convincing a litigation rival to stresstest enterprise litigation’s case assessment capabilities—a relationship that both sides were initially reluctant to enter. Although it was difficult at first to receive feedback from the opposition, the exercise paid off, Foster says, as seen in several recent, highstakes trial victories.

“We realized how much we could learn about our blind spots by challenging our assumptions. When you feel tremendous

discomfort, you can—and should—trust in that discomfort because it signals an opportunity for real learning,” Foster explains. “Otherwise, you are just patting yourself on the back.”

The executive director is always searching for learning opportunities at USAA, including by coordinating with the company’s inventors on IP matters. “I’m incredibly fortunate in my position to be able to advocate on behalf of the brilliant inventors at USAA,” he says. “Working with those inventors is the most inspirational thing that I do.”

Foster’s enthusiasm for working with USAA’s inventors is clear even to his external partners. As Jason Sheasby, a partner at Irell & Manella remarks, “Bill’s passion for innovation and working with USAA inventors is contagious. He also stands apart for his deep understanding of litigation strategy and desire for diverse perspectives. He is an inspiring leader.”

Foster’s high opinion of USAA’s inventors stems from the strength of their innovations, which he and the IP counsel department strive to protect by securing, defending, and asserting patents for new technologies. He highlights remote deposit capture—technology developed to enable USAA members worldwide to deposit checks from any location—as one of the most significant such advancements to come out of USAA.

“Innovation has always been an imperative at USAA, but I think we really started to get noticed for it after we invented and patented that technology,” Foster says. “I can’t think of another recent innovation that revolutionized the banking industry more than ours did.”

A Look to the Future

But Foster’s commitment to innovation doesn’t stop at IP. He recently drafted a legal client bill of rights for a “Pitching

“When you feel tremendous discomfort, you can—and should—trust in that discomfort because it signals an opportunity for real learning.”

Actionable Advice. Purposeful Execution. Flawless Timing.

Be Certain.

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Best Practices” panel sponsored by the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL) that outlines his fresh perspective on where the legal industry should head moving forward: away from the traditional approach of companies hiring large law firms based on historical reputation alone and toward a new model centering on the good judgment and efficient practices of individual attorneys.

“I envisioned the client bill of rights as something that NAWL lawyers can use to differentiate themselves and their firms,” Foster says. “I hope it will allow some nontraditional lawyers to break into the Fortune 500 client space.”

In addition to his goals for legal services more broadly, Foster hopes to keep enhancing the output of USAA’s enterprise litigation department. “We’re constantly reexamining our structure and our processes so that we can become as efficient and as successful as possible for our clients,” he says.

To that end, Foster will continue to prioritize finding the right people for the team. He will also encourage further internal and external collaborations to diversify USAA’s legal mindset, to the benefit of the company and its clients alike.

For Foster, this mission of constant improvement all comes back to innovation. “In the spirit of our inventors at USAA,” he says, “we never rest on what we’ve already done.”

“I’m incredibly fortunate in my position to be able to advocate on behalf of the brilliant inventors at USAA. Working with those inventors is the most inspirational thing that I do.”

Spencer Fane congratulates USAA’s Bill Foster on this well-deserved recognition.

Laying the Tracks for a Fast-Paced Future

How Ben Odom leans on a culture of solid relationships to fortify NASCAR’s future

By Courtney Ryan

“I POUR MY HEART INTO THIS PLACE,” says Ben Odom, NASCAR’s vice president of business and legal affairs. “I have invested in this place, and they have invested in me. I feel fortunate to have that relationship with the people in this company and this sport.”

Though he has only officially been with NASCAR since the beginning of 2020, Odom spent the bulk of his career with the International Speedway Corporation (ISC). ISC was not only established by NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., but it also owned the motorsports racetracks until it was purchased by NASCAR in 2019.

Odom, who joined ISC in 2006, worked a great deal on the organization’s acquisition by NASCAR, through which the auto racing company purchased ISC’s publicly traded shares. The two sister companies formally merged into one over the course of this yearlong transaction, and by the end of it, Odom—who had spent years managing ISC’s day-to-day legal operations—found his position completely transformed.

“For a good bit of the previous year, my primary responsibility was working on the merger from the ISC side,” Odom says. “But as we got toward the end of the finish line and the merger was going to end, we started looking at where I fit in with that. I don’t think we really knew. We set out for one thing and it’s evolved into a role where now I do a lot of special projects.”

Ben Odom VP of Business & Legal Affairs NASCAR

Odom now operates along what he refers to as “the line where the business blends and overlaps with the legal.” This means working on special projects such as a partnership with retailer Urban Outfitters to design vintage racing tees and jackets, including a line that benefits NASCAR racer Bubba Wallace’s Live to Be Different Foundation.

The complexity of Odom’s current work stems partly from the complexity of NASCAR itself. “It’s a family-owned company that’s generations deep, so there’s some overlap between family business and the NASCAR business,” Odom explains.

“I spend some time in that space, and since I worked a long time for the tracks, I understand how the track business works. I understand how NASCAR works, and I understand the ownership structure. One of my responsibilities is

to make sure that all stays congruent. If there’s a special project on the development side, I dive in. If there’s an acquisition opportunity, I dive in and work on that.”

As his tasks, teams, and even official company banner have shifted over the years, Odom has remained nimble and ready for whatever comes. This goes way back to his early career as a coach in a very different arena: college football.

“One of the best qualities you could have in any profession is resilience,” Odom says. “There will be days when it goes really well and days when there are challenges . . . and some of it is outside your control.

“What you can control, work as hard as you can on it, and what you can’t control, just make sure to roll with that punch and come back tomorrow and do the best you can with it,”

he continues. “And lean on the support and resources that you’ve got, especially the people around you.”

Even during law school, Odom split his time between studying and serving as an assistant coach for Florida State University’s football team. He even considered a career as a professional or collegiate coach. “I really wasn’t going the front office route, although people [thought] that I would, with a law degree,” he says. “But I was an on-the-field coach and enjoyed it.”

Odom also enjoyed living in Florida and wanted to be near its beaches. “Every now and then, the universe aligns for you,” he says, recalling how his job at the ISC was based in Daytona Beach, not far from where he grew up. “The planets aligned for that. I came over and interviewed and just got a really high comfort level with the people I met.”

Fifteen years later, Odom is still enjoying the blend of working with great people in an atmosphere that suits his interests. “My favorite thing about this place is the people—in this building and in our tracks across the country and the values we have as a company,” he says of NASCAR. “I don’t ever have a concern about asking for what I think is necessary to get the job done or to do the right thing and feeling like I’m going to get pushback. They really do encourage us to do what we feel is the right thing for the business and the sport, which makes it feel like we’re all in this together.”

That cohesion, coupled with the recent merger, also allows Odom to feel optimistic about the future. “Where we sit today in 2021, we continue to evolve as a sport to thrive,” he says. “Our products have gotten more relevant and continues to get more relevant. We’ve got to appeal to a new fan base through new technology without upsetting our core fans—these are things that all sports face, maybe even all businesses face. The merger was one giant step toward getting the company positioned to do all that.”

“We’ve got to appeal to a new fan base through technology without upsetting our core fans.”

Specialized and Energized

How Todd Strother reimagined EMC Insurance Companies’ legal team to better serve the business

By Billy Yost

AFTER TWENTY-ONE YEARS IN PRIVATE practice, Todd Strother didn’t think he’d ever leave. A native of Ankeny, Iowa, he’d met his wife—another Ankeny original—in Chicago. After starting his career at Foley & Lardner, Strother and his wife returned to their hometown to raise a family. Strother joined the Des Moines firm Bradshaw, Fowler, Proctor & Fairgrave in 1999.

One of the firm’s largest clients, EMC Insurance Companies, was a company Strother had come to know well, and when their longtime general counsel announced his intention to retire, an opportunity to move in-house presented itself. “I jumped at the opportunity simply because I knew what EMC stood for, how it treated its people, and its reputation in the community,” Strother says.

Strother was hired as general counsel in 2016 and has since been promoted to executive vice president and chief legal officer. He now oversees not only legal but also corporate office claims, compliance, government relations, governance, vendor management, enterprise development, administration, and facilities. But even before his latest promotion, he worked to realign and refocus the legal department, a move that has benefited the company in various ways—especially when they decided to go private in 2019.

NEW BEGINNINGS

“When I took over the legal department, there was budget for a general counsel and four lawyers,” Strother explains. “Both the general counsel and the senior-most attorney, with twentyplus years of experience each, were retiring at the same time. Two younger

Todd Strother EVP and Chief Legal Officer EMC Insurance Companies

lawyers remained, and another young lawyer was hired at the exact time I was, so we had all this institutional knowledge heading out the door.”

Fortunately, the young lawyers who remained proved to be the bedrock for a legal team that has evolved considerably since Strother’s first day. “We worked together to figure out what we had, in terms of our knowledge and expertise, and where we might have some gaps,” Strother says. “We’ve built a team of absolutely amazing, fantastic lawyers with the kind of can-do attitude that is so important to this role.”

As Strother has risen at EMC, he says he’s been continually impressed by the growth of his legal team into new areas and parts of the business. “At least initially, we had lawyers who were all acting as generalists, and we decided that we could provide more value to the organization if we could get our team out in front of people with some specialization,” he says.

Strother feels it’s important to acknowledge the attorneys and other professionals currently on his legal team by name because he credits them with the success of the department. Each attorney handles multiple areas, he explains, but also specializes in certain matters. Doug Van Zanten accrued regulatory expertise while assisting with board of director matters. Lee Henderson became the in-house expert for privacy and insuretech investment, partnering with EMC’s innovation department, senior executives, and finance team. Maggie White, hired in 2017, is the team’s employment law expert, tasked with partnering with HR for EMC’s 2,400 employees. Caroline Valentine, hired in 2019, has assumed purview over legal issues for the company’s assumed reinsurance business. And Michelle Leitch, hired just weeks before the pandemic began, assists with software contracts, insurtech investments, and other matters.

Strother also commends one of the young attorneys who helped him build the team, Barnes Kelley, who has since been promoted to lead the company’s Vendor Management Department. The team is supported by Tina Cornelius, paralegal, and Lauri Bloss, administrative assistant, who Strother said are also critical to the success of the department.

Strother has pushed his legal team to work on cross-functional teams and take a more active role in the nonlegal parts of the business that can still benefit from face time with a trusted advisor. The legal function invited department heads to meetings to get to know the team better. The evolution has been significant and meaningful, and Strother expresses great admiration for his team’s ability to stretch.

“These are all young people,” Strother says. “That’s what’s amazing to me. They’ve really had to take on leadership roles, and I can’t believe how fearlessly and successfully they have done so.”

“These are all young people. That’s what’s amazing to me. They’ve really had to take on leadership roles, and I can’t believe how fearlessly and successfully they have done so.”

Going Private

When EMC Insurance made the decision to go private in 2019, the legal team realized it could use additional expertise. Strother says the legal team had two options: take the easier route of farming out most of the work to more experienced outside counsel or double down on its efforts to be a more proactive business partner to the organization.

Strother says he didn’t just want to be a legal department that only handles legal matters and that outsources everything to outside law firms. Instead, he says, he felt it was important for the company’s board and executives to see the legal department taking a leadership role in terms of helping get this process established and the company ready to go down the path.

According to Strother, the attitude his team has demonstrated throughout the process was exactly what he envisioned when assuming the general counsel position in 2016. “That whole process showed me the teamwork that we were working to build here had paid off,” he says. “Everybody came with an attitude of wanting to add significant value to the process.”

Strother also knew that it was necessary to bring in the outside expertise that was needed for a project of this scope, so he helped the EMC board of directors retain the national law firm Foley & Lardner to represent the parent company in the transaction. Strother credits the Foley team with helping the board and company through this process. “The Foley team was incredible and really helped the board understand the process and their duties,” he says. “The board was very happy with their work, and I would highly recommend them to others.”

With more responsibility on his plate, Strother now has multiple teams reporting to him—but his leadership approach has remained consistent. “Not to sound like a book, but I work very hard to practice servant leadership,” Strother says. “I mean, to truly practice it. This is something our CEO Scott Jean and our executive team take very seriously. As a leader, you work for your teams, not the other way around.”

Strother says that EMC’s “why statement” of “Improving Lives” is one that he takes to heart. “It’s such a great statement for a leader, and all team members, because if you keep that in mind and strive to improve the lives of your team members, your agents, your policyholders, and your community, you’re going to accomplish some amazing things.”

Foley & Lardner, LLP:

“Todd is not ‘just a lawyer’, he is truly a valueadded trusted advisor to EMC’s management and board. He seamlessly marries his knowledge of the company, its history, culture, and people, its unique constituencies as a mutual insurance company, and the insurance industry, with his legal acumen and big picture judgment to provide strategic and practical approaches to problem avoidance and solving.”

–Steve Barth, Partner

Nyemaster Goode, P.C.:

“The guidance and support Todd provided to his team and our firm throughout EMC’s going private transaction was critical to its success. We are proud to have been a part of such a transformative event in the company’s history.”

–Mark Dickinson, Shareholder

Bradshaw, Fowler, Proctor & Fairgrave, P.C.:

“Todd helped lead our law firm before heading EMC’s legal department. I’m certain he will be just as measured as EVP to one of Des Moines’s most respected businesses in our largest industry.”

–Sean O’Brien, *Past President, Bradshaw Law *December 31, 2020: Sean completed three years on the Bradshaw management team. He was the law firm president in 2020.

When Relationships Are the Reason

Raven Moore thrives on the connections she makes with both her clients and her colleagues at McDonald’s

By Billy Yost

RAVEN MOORE, MANAGING COUNSEL OF COMMERcial litigation at McDonald’s, is incredibly passionate about what she does—but she can’t pinpoint the exact reason she entered the profession. “I always knew I wanted to be a lawyer, but the best inspiration I can come up with is watching Harry Hamlin on LA Law,” Moore says, laughing. “I just got fixated on the idea. My mom will tell you it started when I was ten years old.”

Unfortunately, Hollywood doesn’t provide a clear set of instructions for thriving in the legal sector. On top of that, Moore had no family in law, and none of her mentors were legal professionals. She had only her curiosity, drive, and a willingness to figure it out as she went along.

Discovering the Reason

Moore was tapped for a prestigious internship during college, and the president of the company where she worked shared some wisdom that still echoes in her head to this day. “He wasn’t one to sugarcoat things,” Moore recalls. “He said that most people spend their whole career figuring out what they don’t want to do.” By already knowing exactly what she wanted to do, Moore was one step ahead.

Unfortunately, that president was one of the few individuals Moore could look to for guidance during the early years of her career. She made her choice of law school, for example, without the benefit of advice from mentors in the legal field. Many people attend law school in the cities or regions where they hope to one day practice, Moore explains, but she attended Tulane simply because New Orleans seemed like a beautiful place to visit for a few years. “Some of the most significant decisions I’ve made in my life, I’ve made based on my instinct in the moment,” she says.

That same instinct provided the push Moore needed later on in her career. Over the course of nearly ten years in private practice, the lawyer had built out extensive litigation and IP experience, become a partner, and found herself comfortable in just about any professional context imaginable. Moore had discovered the real reason she loved her job: the relationships she has built with colleagues.

But the attorney wanted to cultivate those same relationships with her clients, and—compared to the segmented nature of private practice work—have the

“There is a common purpose focused on building relationships and working together here. It just feels different. It’s more satisfying. And the relationships here make me excited about work every day.”

opportunity to see a case to completion. The time had come for her to make a decisive move.

Happily, an in-house position had recently opened up at McDonald’s, and a colleague reached out to Moore to see if she knew anyone who might be interested.

Moore had just made partner; she hadn’t interviewed for a job in many years. She didn’t have a résumé. But she knew she had to make her move. “I just knew that this was one of those moments,” she says. “I wanted a challenge that would really stretch me, and that’s how I came to McDonald’s.”

A Million Little Reasons

It’s clear that Moore has found a home on the McDonald’s legal team. “There is a common purpose focused on building relationships and working together here,” she says. “It just feels different. It’s more satisfying. And the relationships here make me excited about work every day.”

The incredible culture that pervades the McDonald’s legal team is well documented, and Moore has felt that culture on a very personal level. While working remote throughout 2020, Moore and several of her female colleagues had regular check-ins to talk about professional, family, and personal issues that they and their teams were balancing in response to the pandemic. During one of the check-ins, Moore shared the struggles of virtual learning with her school-age kids.

“My colleagues responded with stories that brought humor and perspective, which is just what I needed during that particularly challenging time.” Moore says. “It’s a million little things like that that make this team what it is.”

Beyond the legal department, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski has been working to refresh the culture across the corporation. By Moore’s estimation, this means that the legal team could be the flag bearer for what it means to feel connected, understood, and in sync with one’s team.

“This is a place where people ask you if you feel like you’re getting the experience that you need,” Moore remarks. “One of our values as a company is our community and the service that we provide to others. Those values resonate because it’s what we try to do as a department every day: make sure that we’re supporting each other, both professionally and personally.”

Raven Moore Managing Counsel, Commercial Litigation McDonald’s Corporation

A Thank You with Fries

In addition to safely serving McDonald’s customers affordable and hot food throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the company leveraged its supply chain to get supplies and food to those who need it most.

McDonald’s donated one million protective face masks for Chicago and Illinois healthcare providers alone and has sourced more than 111 million masks for its crew. The company also served more than ten million free “Thank You” meals to frontline healthcare workers and provided crew members who have worked to keep restaurants open with appreciation bonuses.

It’s a support also felt by Moore’s partners outside of McDonald’s. “Raven brings an extraordinary commitment to her work for McDonald’s and its values. She is creative, strategic, and business-minded in finding legal solutions to complex problems,” says Michael Gray, global coclient affairs partner at Jones Day. “She also cares immensely about supporting the communities McDonald’s’ serves and the success of her colleagues.”

“Raven is a great, proven leader,” says Liz McRee, global copractice leader of the labor and employment practice at Jones Day. “Building great relationships requires commitment and ongoing investment in people, and I have always admired her emphasis on both.”

According to Moore, working from home has actually brought her McDonald’s team closer together. Everyone is keenly aware of the need to place a premium on maintaining meaningful connections—so much so that the legal team has committed in writing to making sure to sustain that connection once everyone returns to the office.

“We’ve found a way to share, on a personal and professional level, in a way that I don’t think we ever did before,” Moore says. “It’s counter to the way I thought it would be when I went home in March [2020]. But that’s what I mean when I say this is a special place to be.”

Greenberg Traurig, LLP:

“Raven is a meticulous lawyer with wise judgment and a tireless work ethic. She’s an authentic leader who cares about issues of inclusion and creating opportunities for others. Raven is the best of our profession.”

–Peter Wahby, Shareholder

Intellectual Property Gets Technical

DAVID ERAMIAN’S EXPERIENCE WITH intellectual property (IP) attorneys dates back to his days as a Brown University undergraduate student. Despite that early introduction, Eramian didn’t start to consider a career in IP law until years later. As he continued to interact with IP attorneys, the discipline-bridging nature of their work appealed to him—but it was their willingness to discuss their work that cemented his interest.

innovations—a task that he approaches with an understanding of how it feels to be on the other side of the table.

While at Brown, Eramian took advantage of the institution’s flexible curriculum to explore subjects ranging from computer science and biology to philosophy and entrepreneurship. Even so, he remained uncertain of his longterm career goals after graduating.

By Natalie Kochanov

“People within the IP community are very giving of their time,” explains Eramian, now managing director and global head of IP at leading asset management corporation BlackRock. “I still find it fruitful to come together with colleagues and counterparts to share best practices and lessons learned.”

In addition to embracing the conversational openness of his peers, Eramian draws on a set of diverse passions in his work at BlackRock. His cumulative knowledge and technical background inform his efforts to protect the firm’s

When he realized that advanced technical training could open doors outside of research or academia, Eramian decided to pursue a PhD in biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco. “I took my PhD as an opportunity to explore,” he says. “I did a lot of informational interviews with folks who had taken different paths.”

Of those paths, IP law resonated most deeply with Eramian. From the outset, he saw the field as an opportunity to follow the latest advancements across disciplines while generating realworld value.

With a PhD in biophysics and eighteen patents to his name, David Eramian brings an inventor’s perspective to BlackRock’s intellectual property program

Eramian obtained a law degree from Santa Clara University and got his start in IP at UCSF’s technology transfer office, where he evaluated university researchers’ inventions for potential protection or licensing. When applicable, he secured IP protection for the inventions, marketed them to companies, and negotiated and executed licenses.

“It was a fascinating process. I got a complete picture of the life cycle of those innovations,” Eramian recalls.

After UCSF, Eramian enhanced his protection expertise by delving into bio-, pharma-, and software-related patents at local IP boutique Bozicevic, Field & Francis. He then spent several years as innovation and IP counsel at online financial services provider

David Eramian Managing Director and Global Head of IP BlackRock

PayPal before joining online payment processing company Stripe during a period of rapid growth.

“My ultimate aspiration had always been to be a head of IP and to build out a program,” Eramian says. His experience doing exactly that at Stripe primed him to make the jump to BlackRock in October 2019.

In his current role, Eramian leads a team that sets an IP strategy covering everything from patents, trademarks, and copyrights to trade secrets and open-source software. “My team’s work is unique in that it truly touches all corners of the firm and all levels of the business,” he says.

Beyond identifying protectable innovations, Eramian’s team manages BlackRock’s license agreements and

defends against IP infringement. The policies that they implement help to ensure the firm’s freedom to operate as it grows both its technology footprint and overall business.

On top of his legal knowledge, Eramian leverages hi background in the hard sciences. As a former researcher, Eramian readily identifies and empathizes with the firm’s innovators. His technical training also grants him the necessary perspective to ask the right questions about new technologies and anticipate issues before they arise.

“I believe I can put myself in the shoes of the technologists, developers, and data scientists that I’m interacting with because I have been in their shoes,” Eramian explains, alluding to his status as an inventor on eighteen US patents

“I believe I can put myself in the shoes of the technologists, developers, and data scientists that I’m interacting with because I have been in their shoes.”

of his own. “That helps me build relationships with the inventors and understand and appreciate some of the pain points that they may be feeling.”

Building and maintaining relationships with his fellow IP professionals is just as important to Eramian. He regularly connects with mentors and other IP attorneys to network and to stay up-to-date on practices in each area of IP.

At BlackRock itself, Eramian takes pride in the sense of camaraderie that permeates his team. In fact, he views this camaraderie as a key component of the foundation that he has laid for future growth, especially given his team’s function as an intermediary between disparate sectors of the firm.

Serving as an intermediary is, by this point, second nature for Eramian. His career to date has revolved around unlikely intersections, from translating technical concepts to nonexperts to finding roles that unite his diverse personal passions.

“My unique mix of experiences has prepared me for this role,” Eramian admits. Indeed, it is by leaning into that very mix that he has found success.

“David identifies and elevates the best in each individual with whom he works, resulting in a dedicated, sophisticated, and high performing legal team. David’s collaborative and integrative approach to our partnership inspires excellence at every turn.”

–Carrie Webb

Olson,

Partner

We congratulate our client and friend, David Eramian. Managing Director and Global Head of IP, BlackRock, for his well-deserved recognition in Modern Counsel.

Day Pitney LLP:

Creating Connections

Leslie Yuan leverages the power of connection to forge partnerships and build bridges

By Lindsey Lubowitz

IF THERE’S ONE THEME THAT’S CONsistent throughout Leslie Yuan’s career, it’s the power of connection—both her interest in connecting with others, and her talent for connecting other people. It’s not a coincidence that she majored in sociology as an undergrad at UC Berkeley and originally planned to become a psychologist after graduating. “I’ve always had an acute interest in people—getting to know them, understanding their unique circumstances, and creating relationships,” she says.

Yuan didn’t end up going into psychology, instead finding her place at Varian Medical Systems as senior director, assistant general counsel, and head of global litigation and employment law. Her transition to a career in law was inspired by working as a paralegal for a medical malpractice firm and at the district attorney’s office, and observing first-hand how the power of a lawyer’s advocacy could make a material difference to a person’s life.

At UCLA School of Law, she found herself intrigued by a presentation where an employment lawyer informed the audience that her next stop was to interview individuals in an industry she knew nothing about (in this case, animal trainers at a theme park) to get to the bottom of a harassment claim. “I was fascinated that she was able to turn talking to different people about their unique experiences into a career,” Yuan recalls. “What I love about employment law is that I am always talking to new people from various walks of life and hearing their perspectives.”

Employment law was a natural fit for Yuan, and she spent nearly two decades making it the primary focus of her career, gaining international employment law, litigation, compliance, and M&A experience along the

Leslie Yuan

Senior Director, Assistant General Counsel, and Head of Global Litigation & Employment Law Varian Medical Systems

way before landing at Varian Medical Systems in 2019. She’d wanted to work in the medical field since high school when she volunteered at a hospital, which made the position at Varian especially enticing. At Varian she has also expanded her role into corporate governance with board committee duties.

Yuan attributes some of her success to the connections that she made in law school, at law firms where she has worked, and through local and national Asian American bar associations, where she found mentors. In fact, one of her mentors later offered Yuan her first in-house counsel role.

“I strongly believe in creating intentional luck, that what you put forth in the world has a way of finding its way

vices critical to the daily care of cancer patients worldwide. Because it’s an essential business with manufacturing operations, not all of its employees could work from home. Sending people to work required instituting safety processes like temperature checks and health questionnaires, which involved around-the-clock collaboration with global groups across the organization. She further spearheaded drafting policy and advising senior leaders on the proper protocol in the event of employee exposure to COVID.

In the face of the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic, Yuan strives to make sure team members feel valued and included. For example, she recently designed an exercise

back to you,” Yuan says. “That’s why getting to know people, helping others, and staying connected is important.”

At her last job, in fact, Yuan won a “connector award.” “I may not always know the answer to something or be able to personally help, but I know who to contact to get things done either for myself, my team, or my network,” she explains.

That quality is not only useful in her usual day-to-day work life, but also turned out to be essential during the COVID-19 pandemic. “This was an unprecedented situation, where laws and regulations were being made in real time to address health issues,” she explains. Varian, as a medical device company, delivers technology and ser-

among the legal leadership team in which she asked everyone to come prepared to highlight noteworthy accomplishments of individuals within the broader legal team. She then asked legal leadership to reach out to the individuals identified to let them know that they’d been recognized, which led to a positivity boost all around. “Sometimes it’s the little things like a meaningful ‘thank you’ and gratitude that go a long way,” she says.

Yuan was hired in part to help with Varian’s transformation as a global radiotherapy leader, a process that began not long before her arrival and is now culminating in Varian being acquired by Siemens Healthineers. Yuan is looking to build connections

“I strongly believe in intentional luck, that what you put forth in the world has a way of finding its way back to you. That’s why getting to know people and staying connected is important.”

to help the two companies combine as seamlessly as possible and grow in the same direction. “I think that synergy will be important as we further our vision of a world without fear of cancer,” she says.

She points out that the merger will create a multidisciplinary global healthcare leader that is even better equipped to serve customers and define cancer care for millions of patients annually. Together with Siemens Healthineers, Varian will offer an integrated platform of end-to-end oncology solutions to address the entire continuum of cancer care, from screening and diagnosis to care delivery and post-treatment survivorship. “The more we can collaborate and bring synergies together to the combined company, the better we can empower our customers and their patients in their fight against cancer, so that patients can achieve a higher quality of life,” she explains.

As an Asian American, Yuan also believes strongly in supporting diversity and inclusion, and makes an active effort to connect with and mentor others. She joined the board of directors for the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Silicon Valley, where she cochaired the Diversity and Inclusion Committee. One event she cocreated was a career development and mentoring conference for high school students. One student who she met during the conference was so inspired by Yuan’s guidance and mentorship that she decided to pursue law as a career. The student later wrote a meaningful letter to Yuan, thanking her for her kindness and for showing that a successful lawyer could look like her. The two keep in touch to this day.

“If my outreach and mentorship can help even one person,” Yuan says, “it will have been worth it.”

Duane Morris LLP:

“Leslie Yuan is a thoughtful, creative, and strategic leader in risk management, cost mitigation, and company mission. She collaborates with her counsel driving results and balancing business and legal concerns. D&I is woven into her DNA as she makes impactful decisions on behalf of a public company.”

–Cyndie Chang, Managing Partner, Los Angeles

King & Spalding LLP:

“Leslie Yuan is a dedicated and talented lawyer who makes strong contributions to Varian Medical Systems, and who also meaningfully promotes diversity and inclusion. We are proud to work with Leslie and Varian.”

–Quyen Ta, Vanessa Yen, and Sarah Borders, Partners

The Future of Steel

Mark Furry helps steer the trajectory of U. S. Steel’s next century, as it pivots pivots into a faster, more sustainable future

By Billy Yost

EARLY INTO 2021, U. S. STEEL COMpleted its $774 million acquisition of Big River Steel (BRS), ushering in a new era for one of the most well-known steel producers in the country. The integration of BRS’s electric arc furnace (EAF) technology—more colloquially known as “mini mills”—along with U. S. Steel’s existing steelmaking assets, is seen by many as the future of steel production.

Whereas traditional steel production blends a litany of raw materials like coke, iron ore, limestone, and other alloys in a labor- and capital-intensive process, EAFs only require one main raw material: scrap steel. Instead of massive blast furnaces, scrap steel is reduced to liquid steel by means of elec-

tric charge. The process is much faster, easier to turn off and on, easier to maintain, requires less capital, and produces fewer emissions.

“It checks every available box,” says U. S. Steel Associate General Counsel Mark Furry. “It’s more environmentally friendly. It’s faster, and it’s cheaper. We think that soon we will be able to create the same grades of advanced highstrength steel that we make in our blast furnaces. It’s one of the biggest changes that’s occurred since I’ve been here.”

That’s no small chunk of time. Furry has called U. S. Steel home for twenty years. He progressed through increasingly complex roles in the legal department before being named to his current

role, in which he manages a team of attorneys that provides M&A, capital markets, real estate, intellectual property, and commercial legal advice to the company. While it may seem a short stint for U. S. Steel’s 120-year history, a lot has evolved on the AGC’s watch.

“When I started here in 2000, I dictated absolutely everything into a handheld tape recorder,” Furry remembers, laughing. “Phone calls and in-person meetings were the way we handled most everything. Technology has just quickened the pace of transacting business for us and our decision-making.”

In an industry that may be as traditional as they come, Furry says the latest and greatest tech wasn’t always a huge point of focus for a company whose steel practices have remained in many ways the same for a hundred years. Under the leadership of U. S. Steel’s Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer Duane Holloway, the department has embraced working remotely and plans to move to a more digitized approach to document retention and contract management.

As technological efficiencies have been implemented, the U. S. Steel legal team has contracted. It can create challenges. As a cost center, the legal team is constantly trying to reduce costs, including its outside counsel spend. “That means you have to bring in specialists as opposed to generalists,” Furry explains. “If I’m going to reduce my IP budget, I need to bring in an IP lawyer.”

But with in-house teams becoming ever-more specialized, there still has to be agility among U. S. Steel’s legal department. “You want to make sure that people don’t feel disconnected from the team, just working in their little niche,” Furry says. “I try to incorporate everyone in the bigger projects, so there are things we can all work on together. This can be difficult given the breadth of topics my team handles, but collaboration fosters camaraderie.”

The Big River Steel acquisition wasn’t just a “bigger project” for Furry. He says it’s perhaps the most sophisticated deal he’s been associated with in his tenure. Every member of his team played a role in the transformational transaction along with outside firm Milbank. “There were complexities that made this deal a little bit different

Mark Furry

Associate General Counsel

U. S. Steel

than anything we’d ever done before,” Furry says.

For starters, the sellers ran the gamut from private equity to a teacher’s pension fund, along with a slew of other stakeholders. “You’re dealing with multiple owners and entities and attempting to ensure that everyone is getting what they want,” Furry explains.

The stakes were high. In essence, the deal would create a “best of both” integrated and mini mill steel company. The list of hundred-year-old companies is short enough, but ones who have successfully built out an entirely new business and reporting segment is even shorter.

“Our customers now have access to a truly sustainable source of the most advanced high strength steels,” U. S. Steel President and CEO David Burritt offered in a statement following the completion of the deal. “Our customer-centric organization will provide customers, employees, communities, and investors with the world competitive advantages from the most advanced process technology and the intellectual capital necessary to produce the most advanced products.”

With a landmark deal under his team’s belt, one that will literally shift the trajectory of a steel giant, it’s a good moment to ask Furry what has kept him successful for two decades. He’s seen a lot, including what he describes as a “Band Aid-rip” digital commitment to working from home resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic that has proven to be far more successful than anyone could have imagined.

“Everything here sounds like a cliché, but it’s true,” Furry begins. “Work hard.

Treat people with respect, no matter what their role is. You cannot survive at one place for twenty years without adapting, but the key to productive longevity is adapting without relinquishing your core values. I’ve been fortunate to have been mentored by some great people who taught me these lessons and never forced me to compromise those values.”

Furry’s outside partners can attest to the growth they’ve seen in him throughout his career. “In 2001, Mark and I tried a complex five-week trial to conclusion and obtained verdicts in favor of U. S. Steel in all twenty-three of the lawsuits consolidated against the company,” says Paul Cavender, partner at Burr & Forman.

He continues, “Having shown his litigation ability, he then moved over to the corporate section of the law department and has successfully handled a wide variety of domestic and international corporate, trade, and transactional assignments, and responsibilities wherein he consistently advances the company’s interests. Mark’s professionalism, range of legal capabilities, and deep allegiance to U. S. Steel always impresses me and others at Burr Forman.”

Furry is preparing for an entirely different landmark moment, as of late. His kids will both be out of the house soon. It’s allowed him to grow a bit into his own home. Due to COVID he jokes that his free time is spent like a troglodyte, but post-COVID he hopes to travel with his wife without the tether of kids. Given Furry’s evolution over twenty years at U. S. Steel, he’s earned it.

“You cannot survive at one place for twenty years without adapting, but the key to productive longevity is adapting without relinquishing your core values.”

Congratulations, Mark.

From its founding in 1901 until the present day, we value our 120 year relationship with U.S. Steel.

LITIGATION

RESTRUCTURING

This includes obtaining:

the first pre-filing stay of proceedings in a restructuring proceeding in Canada

the first CCAA restructuring of a publicly-funded university in Canada

a ground-breaking pro rata allocation of US$7.3 billion global proceeds of sale among Nortel Networks' 40 international insolvency estates

One location. One purpose. Our results speak for themselves.

reedsmith.com

We set precedents rather than follow trends.

Revitalization and Representation

Over the past twenty years, John Zecca has continually found new ways for his legal department to aid Nasdaq’s evolution

By Billy Yost

THE CELEBRATION OF

NASDAQ’S

FIFtieth anniversary in 2021 provided the opportunity for a retrospective look at one of the most influential market indices in the world. The highs and lows of the market technology company have ebbed and flowed with great events in history, a barometer of economic impact dating back to the Nixon administration. No matter how bearish or bullish the markets, Nasdaq has been there to see it through, utilizing groundbreaking technology to enhance those capabilities all along the way.

John Zecca, executive vice president and chief legal and regulatory officer for Nasdaq, has been around for many of the company’s most important moments: his tenure dates back twenty years, and he’s covered a great deal of

ground in that time. Not satisfied with being a generalist, Zecca has continued to build out both his own expertise and areas of specialization for his multiple teams. Nor is he content with just looking back at his organization’s past accomplishments. Instead, he’s helping Nasdaq empower more companies to go public and making sure that there is more diversity both in-house and on the legal teams representing Nasdaq abroad.

Zecca’s résumé covers everything Nasdaq could want in an executive vice president. The lawyer served as legal counsel to SEC Commissioner Norman S. Johnson and in the SEC's Office of General Counsel. He practiced corporate securities law at the firms Hogan Lovells and Kaye Scholer.

His most memorable job before Nasdaq was clerking for the Honorable John H. Pratt of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. “When you factor in years of seniority and responsibility, I think that job really takes the cake,” Zecca says, laughing. “You’re right out of law school and suddenly you’re working for the judge responsible for writing the law. It was a pretty exciting time.”

Zecca saw real entrepreneurial spirit on the West Coast while in private practice “Having the opportunity to see these smaller West Coast companies was very valuable,” he says. “It gave great insight as to how capital formation works. One of our roles at Nasdaq is to guide the listing and trading activities of all kinds of com-

John Zecca EVP and Chief Legal & Regulatory Officer Nasdaq

panies, so it was important to learn about how they need capital and how various companies are structured.”

A Plan to Revitalize

Over the course of Zecca’s career, Nasdaq has identified two major factors that have negatively impacted both companies and investors: fewer companies were going public in their early stages, and investors were missing the chance to invest in innovation. “You want to be able to get in early and take advantage of the explosive growth opportunities,” he noted.

Nasdaq’s Blueprint to Revitalize Capital Markets was a chance to address outdated regulation, streamline potential efficiencies, and promote a new path for how companies can access the

Libby Greene

full life cycle of capital formation, from private to public markets. “We looked at everything from tax policy to litigation reform,” Zecca explains. “The goal was to address what we viewed as impediments to companies going public.”

The plan caught on. Public policy was impacted, the SEC took significant action, and most importantly, there has been in uptick in IPOs since Nasdaq launched its blueprint.

Zecca’s colleagues outside the company have also recognized his contributions. “Nasdaq plays a unique role as both a global technology company and the owner of regulated securities exchanges,” says David Lam, a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. “John has the keen ability to examine issues within this larger framework and to understand how they may affect the company’s different stakeholders.”

Evolution In-House

In December 2020, Nasdaq filed a proposal with the SEC to seek more disclosure on the diversity of company boards for companies whose size exceeds certain thresholds. “We frequently heard from investors that this was an important factor,” Zecca explains. “But it was hard for them to find the information because there is no standardization for this practice.”

That same focus has been implemented in-house. “We have made it clear that we’re disclosing more information publicly about our diversity and inclusion statistics, and we continue to focus on improving those numbers, particularly in management,” Zecca says.

Zecca’s legal and regulatory group is ahead of the pack here. “It just makes sense for us, because I think candidates feel more comfortable with

an organization that takes diversity and inclusion seriously,” Zecca says. His team is nearing gender parity, and developing a wider ecosystem of talent has led to a much wider candidate selection on his teams.

The Nasdaq legal and regulatory group has also signed on to the American Bar Association’s Pledge for Change, a commitment to making workforces more diverse. Additionally, Zecca expects Nasdaq’s outside counsel to be transparent about their own diversity statistics, both at the associate and partner levels.

Nasdaq has evolved many times over its fifty years, and Zecca says that ability to change is one that has also served him well. “You just have to wake up every day asking: How are you going to evolve and change to make the world around you a better place?” he explains. “Nasdaq is clearly becoming more tech-focused and more entrepreneurial, and we see many opportunities. I feel great about where we’re going, and I want to make sure that our team’s skill sets continue to evolve to help support that growth.”

“One of our roles at Nasdaq is to guide the listing and trading activities of all kinds of companies, so it was important to learn about how they need capital and how various companies are structured.”

A Public Network for a Privacy Expert

Seasoned AAA Club Alliance attorney Debra L. Bromson works to connect—and advocate for— other professionals from all over the world

By Billy Yost

Assistant General Counsel

PART OF THE DIFFICULTY OF INTERviewing Debra L. Bromson is exactly the reason why her story appears here in Modern Counsel . Currently an assistant general counsel at the AAA Club Alliance, she has spent her entire career interacting with other attorneys, and it is those individuals she focuses on when telling “her story.” Indeed, by the end of her interview, she has recommended at least eleven lawyers who she believes deserve to have their own stories told. But Bromson doesn’t merely recommend talent. She documents people’s careers, their widening skill sets, recent additions to their families, and what good friends they have been along the way.

Bromson doesn’t so much provide a narrative journey as she does identify the links in the chain of her career that have been especially meaningful—and those are all people.

Expertise by Accident

Bromson has cultivated strong IT and privacy experience over the course of her career, but it wasn’t her initial area of interest. While attending Georgetown Law, she so impressed Professor Martin D. Ginsberg—the late husband of recently departed Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and, at the time, the lead professor of taxation at Georgetown—that he petitioned NYU to allow Bromson to pursue her LLM in tax law.

Courtesy of the Association of Corporate Counsel

Debra L. Bromson

AAA Club Alliance

Today, though, the AGC happily lends a hand on legal matters related to data privacy and security (including insurance cybersecurity), tech contracts, websites and social media, product development, the management of records for public and government affairs, and more. In actuality, the areas Bromson hasn’t helped out on might be a shorter list.

The AGC’s IT and tech specialty, an area that put her on the cutting edge of internet and technological privacy issues for decades, was born from less than ideal circumstances. When she accepted an associate position at a law firm, she thought she was coming in to do corporate law, with the possibility of related work on corporate tax issues. But that was not the case.

“The things they had me focus on were the things the other corporate lawyers (all men) didn’t do,” Bromson says. “This was mostly working with healthcare companies such as nursing homes, and they needed tech contracts. Very few people were doing this at the time.”

This would form the basis of a new chapter for Bromson: She went on to become an in-house counsel for Dow Jones and helped get the company’s services online in a time when “online” was a new concept.

She then went to work in healthcare, initially focusing on pharmaceutical products and clinical trials. When the HIPAA privacy policy was released, she was put in charge of data privacy and helped launch the International Phar-

maceutical Privacy Consortium. Later, after transitioning to a different pharmaceutical company, Bromson became the data privacy officer.

But as Bromson explains, her jobs weren’t given to her solely because of her experience—they were sometimes the result of a friend, colleague, or networking opportunity. Bromson wound up in one job, she says, because she called a colleague looking for their former partner’s new phone number, and her colleague then said that they were looking to hire someone.

But it’s clear in the way that she speaks about her friends and coworkers that it’s not some master plan. Bromson is just the kind of person who likes to build connections—the kind of person who still keeps in touch with her college roommate decades later.

Speaking of Privacy

“One of the things I sometimes say to other privacy attorneys is that for a very long time, privacy was an area dominated by women,” Bromson says. Men have dominated the legal profession for so long that it’s hard to imagine any specialty area becoming more equitable. But Bromson has seen it happen—and shown that it is true.

The AGC’s trailblazing career has been recognized by numerous organizations that have called on her to speak on privacy matters, including the Privacy & Security Forum, International Association of Privacy Professionals, Bloomberg Law, and numerous

privacy- and health-related conferences. Bromson is an active member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals and the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) and was a secretary of the ACC Health Law Network. The AGC is also a board member of the DMAX Foundation, a charitable organization that provides mental health support for college students.

Bromson is also responsible for some of the new blood on the panels she speaks on. “Any time I meet someone who I think might be a fit, I ask if we can bring them in,” she says, pointing to the times when she has provided green lawyers a chance to address George Washington Law students and alumni. “I try to provide support to younger attorneys, especially those who are working in privacy,” she says. “My answer is usually, ‘OK, let me help you find some contacts or find a position.’”

With decades of law experience under her belt, it would seem fitting for Bromson to sit back and relax, but if the difference is between going home early or making one more phone call on behalf of a new friend or colleague, she feels there is no choice. There is only, “Let me help you.”

Blank Rome LLP:

“Debra is a pleasure to work with. In addition to her in-depth knowledge of privacy issues and other topnotch legal skills, including her diligence, thorough and well-reasoned analysis, and attention to detail, she is a wonderful person who always goes the extra mile for the people she is working with and the project she is working on.”

–Charles S. Marion, Partner

“One of the things I sometimes say to other privacy attorneys is that for a very long time, privacy was an area dominated by women.”

Pivot

Showcasing prominent in-house attorneys who capably adapt to changes in their companies, industries, and personal and professional lives to carve out new paths through imagination and reinvention

Highly Evolved

At SoftBank Group, Robert

Townsend has united a dispersed global team and enacted sweeping changes to better serve the leading technology investment holding company’s everexpanding focus

By Billy Yost

IF ROBERT TOWNSEND WASN’T CHIEF legal officer for SoftBank Group, he might just be a spy from a Robert Ludlum novel. He met his wife in Paris on the way to Africa and has lived all over the world; his three children were all born in different countries. He’s getting his pilot’s license. An avid scuba diver, he dreams of developing a desalination solution for island nations whose freshwater wells are threatened by rising sea levels. In addition to donating time to his local nature conservancy group, he’s in the process of building a vineyard and winery on twenty acres in Oregon. He’s also assisting a selfsustaining hybrid for-profit/nonprofit entity, which he helped establish as a leading source for safe and age-appropriate media for children.

And all that is just what Townsend does in his free time outside the SoftBank office. But his zeal for deals is made obvious by the way he discusses business transactions: it’s the same way he talks about his other passions.

First Time’s the Charm

A thirty-four-year veteran of the law firm Morrison & Foerster, Townsend has represented clients in more than two hundred public and private company acquisitions, strategic alliances, and financings. After representing SoftBank in its acquisition of a controlling interest in Sprint—at the time, the largest foreign investment ever done in the United States— Townsend developed a close working relationship with Marcelo Claure, who is COO of SoftBank Group Corp., and Ronald Fisher, who is vice chairman of SoftBank Group Corp. In 2018, after leading legal efforts for the successful merger of Sprint and TMobile US, Townsend was offered a job as SoftBank’s first-ever global chief legal officer, a role which he held at both SoftBank Group Corp., the ultimate parent entity of the SoftBank Group, and SoftBank Group International, one of SoftBank’s principal business units.

“I’d never been an internal legal officer,” Townsend says. “I just had to figure it out. I started by speaking with smart people who’d had the same job in other organizations. I spoke to Founder and CEO Masayoshi “Masa” Son, Ron Fisher, and Marcelo Claure about what their priorities were. I quickly realized that I would have a great deal of latitude in terms of how I wanted to manage the legal function, because Masa expects his executive team to know what they’re doing and to get it done in a way that inherently supports what he’s trying to do.”

The international SoftBank legal team has evolved structurally as well as culturally. The small legal department in Tokyo was relatively separate from the legal team in the US, and the legacy stateside group had almost entirely migrated to support SoftBank’s newly formed Vision Fund, leaving no real legal or compliance team in the States—or anywhere else outside Japan—to support the parent organization (SoftBank Group Corp.) or SoftBank Group International. Furthermore, Townsend felt that the small Japanese team needed to evolve as well. “When I came on board, I joined an initiative led by Masa and Marcelo to build out the executive function at SoftBank to be more global,” he says.

Natsuko Oga, SoftBank’s Tokyo-based chief counsel, says Townsend’s leadership has created stronger bonds among team members scattered across the globe. “Even though our work itself had already been global, it was not always easy for us to work as a team,” Oga explains. “Rob led everyone as one with outstanding leadership and helped make more cooperation possible.”

Patricia Menendez Cambo, the Miami-based general counsel of Soft Bank’s $5 billion Latin America Fund and $100 million Opportunity Fund, concurs. “Rob has created a singularly respected department within SoftBank that the team is now able to benefit from. This increased the ability to benefit from synergies within the global talent in the legal team and created a unified, one-team culture.”

Additionally, Townsend wanted his team to be able to handle more transactional work in-house. “We understand the business in a way that people at outside law firms never could,” he says. “It’s just impossible without being in the organization to fully inculcate the challenges, the

Robert Townsend Senior Advisor

SoftBank Group Corp. and SoftBank Group International

Expertise Spotlight

Morrison & Foerster is synonymous with a commitment to client service. Our global legal team advises clients on market-changing deals and impact litigation. Our clients include some of the largest financial institutions, Fortune 100 companies, and leading technology and life sciences companies. We represent investment funds and start-up companies, and over the years, we have supported their growth and development as leading industry players and household brands.

Global M&A Leader

Morrison & Foerster’s global practice is composed of more than 250 corporate/M&A lawyers located in key technology and financial centers throughout the world. Our preeminent corporate/M&A team represents Fortune 500 companies, private equity firms, investment banks, and privately held companies in their most high-profile and complex mergers and acquisitions.

“Globally, Morrison & Foerster is known as a ‘go-to’ firm for sophisticated cross-border deal making. We understand the nuances and complexities of working in multiple jurisdictions and various time zones, but what truly distinguishes our firm is our deep client focus. We view our clients as extensions of our own teams, and we measure our successes around their successes, which is clearly evidenced by our longstanding collaborative partnership with SoftBank,” said Ken Siegel, Morrison & Foerster’s Tokyo managing partner.

responsibilities, the longer-term strategy, and the multitude of things that you have to really take into consideration if you’re executing cross-border deals that are high-profile on a regular basis.”

“Rob’s vision of bringing in diverse perspectives and encouraging global collaboration has been terrific,” says Ken Siegel, managing partner at Morrison & Foerster Tokyo office. “Thanks to the foundation he has created, SoftBank’s legal team is poised for success for many years to come.”

Dynamism in Motion

The growth and refinement of the legal team become even more important when placed in the broader context of the larger changes occurring at SoftBank as a whole. “This is the most dynamic organization that I’ve ever worked with, by far,” Townsend says. “Forty years after having founded SoftBank and creating a company that now has a $150 billion market cap, Masa is completely comfortable with and able to pivot in a very short period of time in new directions for the business.”

In Townsend’s short tenure, SoftBank has gone from a company that primarily owned operating assets in communications to a global technology investment holding company with a strong

artificial intelligence focus. Townsend needed a legal team that could not only adapt swiftly along with the company but actively embrace the process.

The chief legal officer’s first recruit was Stephen Lam, SoftBank Group International’s current general counsel. “Stephen has turned out to be one of my better decisions in life,” Townsend says. “He’s played a great role in both helping to recruit additional team members and inculcating a culture for this newly formed group.”

Lam says Townsend’s clear vision has helped unify both the legal and compliance departments into a global team, bound by shared core values of integrity and excellence. “This clear vision allowed us to ensure that our team delivered best-in-class service to all stakeholders and also build more meaningful interactions for team members, especially across Japan and the US, by aligning around shared interests and a shared drive to execute seamlessly, rather than being siloed based on geography,” Lam explains.

The effort to unify the legal team did have some hiccups. Townsend came from the firm world, where having less structure is the norm. He says that environment left lawyers who had arrived with more entrenched

Covering a Shortage

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries were unable to secure desperately needed personal protective equipment (PPE) for their frontline workers, let alone the rest of their populations. Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s founder and CEO, wouldn’t accept the situation. He secured PPE from China for workers based in Japan, the United States, and Latin America. Robert Townsend facilitated the distribution of PPE in the US by structuring an agreement with the Service Employees International Union (whose members include nurses and frontline workers) to distribute the face coverings when governments proved too slow. More than a million masks were distributed in the US alone.

corporate résumés feeling like there was a framework missing. One addition who was instrumental to designing and implementing the solution to this challenge was a new hire: Aaron Katzel, SoftBank’s group head of legal, compliance operations, and innovation.

“Because roles, responsibilities, and capabilities weren’t always clear among people on the team and information wasn’t always shared effectively and broadly, we weren’t delivering our services as efficiently as we could have,” Katzel says. “So we invested a lot of time in visiting members of the team around the world, reviewing the ways we were delivering our services, considering what technology was being used and how, and thinking about how we could provide more clarity and authority around everyone’s responsibilities, better, more current information about the company’s priorities, and the technology to allow us all to do our jobs more quickly and efficiently.”

Brendan Kelleher, SoftBank Group International’s chief compliance officer, says he’s personally felt the benefits of a more structured environment. “More structure meant better definition of roles and responsibilities for me and for those with whom I interact. It was smart to

step back and consider the best organizational structure for the company’s challenges rather than continuing to barrel forward with the same old approach.”

Structure in a Storm

The strategic group plan was dubbed Vision 2020, and Townsend says the early 2020 rollout is one of his proudest achievements at SoftBank, not only because of how well it was received by his team, but because the focus on structure and communication actually positioned the team for success when faced with the pandemic that followed.

‎Robert G. DeLaMater and Sarah Payne, both partners at Sullivan & Cromwell, say, “We have seen over multiple assignments how Rob pushes his legal team, both inside and outside, to find creative solutions, but he takes the harder next step of pressure-testing ideas from multiple angles to be sure they hold up under exacting legal analysis and meet the business objectives and best fit the situation. He has that rare ability to lead the team to appreciate the full picture.”

In addition to better connecting SoftBank’s legal team, Townsend has helped connect his department and organization to the communities in

which they operate. In 2020, SoftBank Group created the Opportunity Fund, a $100 million investment fund for entrepreneurs of color. The legal team successfully documented, drafted, and secured internal approvals to have the Opportunity Fund up and operating in just two weeks.

In addition to the Opportunity Fund, Townsend and his team also spearheaded an initiative called “Doing Our Part,” which aimed to channel funds to directly support the communities in which SoftBank operates and to address systemic social inequalities that were exacerbated by the COVID19 pandemic. With $100,000 in seed money from SoftBank, the legal team raised another $600,000 from outside law firms and employees in support of “Doing Our Part.” The funds went to food banks in New York, California, the Bay Area, Miami, and Washington, DC, along with leading social justice organizations such as the NAACP.

“The program awakened me to the need for legal departments to participate in social issues and, where possible, provide pro bono time and services,” says Tim Mackey, SoftBank’s current chief legal officer and group compliance officer. “Not just because the company

weil.com

has a responsibility as a corporate citizen, but because we, as individuals, can benefit by feeling gratitude for all that we have.”

Both internally and externally, Townsend says his global team’s transition is still a work in progress, focused on continual improvement and delivering measurable benefits to SoftBank. SoftBank’s global governance is also an area of continuous improvement. There are liability management issues that will be areas of focus in the coming year. But Townsend speaks about his initiatives not as possibilities but as certainties.

With the dynamic evolution of SoftBank’s legal and compliance function well underway, and with the Vision 2020 road map providing a sustainable and durable strategic plan for the department well into the future, Townsend decided in late 2020 that the time was right to transition to a new role as senior advisor to SoftBank Group Corp. and SoftBank Group International, a position in which he continues to actively advise Son, Claure, and other senior SoftBank executives on some of the organization’s most critical challenges and opportunities.

Stepping up as a result of this transition is the leadership team that Townsend carefully cultivated during his time at SoftBank. Headed by Mackey, who has assumed the role of chief legal officer, the team includes Oga, Lam, Menendez Cambo, Kelleher, Katzel, and other talented team members in both Japan and the US. Building on this progress, his global legal team will continue to evolve together—and if they need a hand, Townsend will soon have his pilot’s license to fly himself wherever they need his expert and experienced leadership.

Simpson Thacher:

“At Simpson Thacher, we have had the pleasure of working closely with the legal team at SoftBank. Their commitment to excellence and quality of work sets a high bar for the industry.”

–David Greene, Partner

Weil congratulates

Robert Townsend of SoftBank Group on his well-deserved recognition in Modern Counsel

Simpson Thacher

Proudly Supports the Work of the SoftBank

Legal Team

We Applaud SoftBank on Their Vision and Industry Leadership

We congratulate Rob Townsend for his many career accomplishments, including building a first-class legal team at SoftBank, and wish him the best in his new role.

We’ve enjoyed the partnership.

www.sullcrom.com

An Industry That Can’t Be Disrupted

AFTER PRACTICING AS A CORPORATE attorney for two decades, Ava Hahn had a strong sense of the environment she belonged in. She knew she preferred working for public companies. Over the years, she had also noticed a tendency to continually seek out larger companies.

“It wasn’t really a plan, but I seemed to be going to progressively bigger and bigger companies,” she says. “Some of it was just following people I had met, like a CFO I became friends with, to their next company. Or just being opportunistic when things came up, and wherever I was, letting the opportunity run its course.”

By 2019, though, Hahn was ready to be more intentional. After reflecting on her career so far, she decided she wanted to work at a growing Fortune 500 company with a large, impenetrable moat around it.

A Fortune 500 company on the upswing seemed like the “next logical milestone” to Hahn. “I’ve been part of companies that were growing revenue-wise, and that’s such a different feeling from being at the top and trying not to go down or flatline,” she says. “It’s a wind-in-your-sails feeling.”

As for what drove her desire for stability, “I’d always been in enterprise IT, and I saw how risky it is. You can be a giant but then easily be felled by a start-up. You have whole industries that have been upset by an app. I decided that whatever I did next, I needed to make sure that it was in a market that can’t be easily disrupted.”

By Courtney Ryan

Lam Research ticked all the boxes. A Fortune 500 company that had been around for forty years in “a very stable, old industry,” it was also growing and transforming into “an astoundingly successful, well-run company being taken over by a new generation, who

How Ava Hahn fortifies Lam Research against outside disruptors, from industry competitors to the COVID-19 pandemic

Hahn Chief Legal Officer Lam Research

wanted to evolve the culture and be number one at things like diversity and environmental responsibility.”

Finally, Lam Research had a secure moat around it. As a manufacturer of semiconductor processing equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits, it’s not going to be easily disrupted by an app. Or as Hahn puts it, “The chemical complexity, the physics, the engineering, the mechanics—all of it comes together so that it’s basically every single scientific discipline that we have put into one. It’s difficult, it’s labor-intensive, it’s capital-intensive, and you can’t disrupt it with just thirteen people coding in an apartment in Santa Monica.”

She became chief legal officer in January 2020 and prepared to tackle the usual corporate governance and policy work that comes with the position. Then a completely unexpected

disrupter tested the moat around Lam Research: the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When you’re working in corporate America, usually the worst thing that can happen is people lose a lot of money or there’s reputational harm. But this was life-or-death, and there’s no playbook for that,” she says. “Everybody has business continuity plans in case there’s a fire or an earthquake or a cyberattack, but nobody had thought about what to do if there’s a highly contagious pandemic where people could die.”

Despite the uncertainty and disruption caused by the virus, Hahn marveled at how well her team rose to the occasion. They quickly assessed the situation and made decisions that prioritized the health and safety of the company’s eleven thousand employees while the business continued to grow.

“The silver lining of crises at companies is that they give the legal

Ava

Mason Howard

Jones Day congratulates Ava Hahn on becoming Chief Legal Officer of Lam Research Corporation. Her success speaks to her qualities as a lawyer, leader, and person, and provides an example for those following in her path.

Why Jones Day?

Binding energy, conviction, and credibility arising from shared professional values.

department an opportunity to really shine,” she says. “This wasn’t something the product group could innovate us out of. It wasn’t something the sales team could sell us out of. This was on the legal team to work with our environmental health and services team, go into crisis mode, and create a playbook from scratch.”

Though she didn’t expect the legal team to be fortifying the moat around Lam Research, the company has held up and settled into a new groove. Hahn is even planning future projects. For instance, she’s leading an executive diversity and inclusion task force dedicated to increasing representation of Black and Latinx individuals in the United States and of women globally.

“We looked at the whole employee life cycle of how you recruit, retain, and develop employees,” Hahn says. “Right now, we are specifically looking at schools that produce a high percentage of, say, African-American PhD students in engineering. It’s a long journey, since you build a pipeline with a more diverse incoming class and you don’t see them as executives for another twenty years, but you can start to see the movement, and that’s exciting.”

We at Jones Day are proud to have the opportunity to support Ava and the rest of the Lam Research legal team as they help guide Lam Research in these challenging times.

“You can be a giant but then easily be felled by a start-up. You have whole industries that have been upset by an app.”

To excel at Marsh & McLennan, Connor Kuratek takes on cross-functional assignments outside his areas of expertise, from closing major global deals to promoting ESG

By Zach Baliva

Method Man

ANY

FIRM LAWYER WHO CONSIDERS GOING

in-house can expect unsolicited advice. Well-meaning colleagues often issue warnings related to deteriorating skills and lack of advancement opportunities. But Connor Kuratek is shattering those misconceptions. After more than five years at Davis Polk, he joined Marsh & McLennan in 2016 and says a corporate role at the leading professional services firm jump-started his career.

Kuratek wasn’t looking to leave Davis Polk. The elite international firm with a thousand lawyers and robust practice areas was the only professional home he had ever known. He interned there as a Columbia University undergraduate, became a paralegal upon graduation, took a job as an associate after Harvard Law School, and worked his way up.

At Davis Polk, Kuratek sharpened his skills and built a reputation as a finance and securities expert. In 2015, he was part of the team responsible for representing Etsy’s IPO. As Kuratek drafted disclosures and related legal documents, he talked strategy with top tech and business executives. In doing so, he saw how someone with his skills could help a business thrive.

These thoughts continued to percolate in Kuratek’s mind when a contact approached him about an in-house position at Marsh & McLennan. The young lawyer hesitated, unsure about leaving the safety and security of a world-renowned law firm. But as he researched Marsh & McLennan and learned about the advisory firm’s four key businesses in 130 countries, he realized something. “The idea of leaving a big firm made me uncomfortable because I knew the new job would stretch me,” he says. “And that meant I had to do it.”

When Kuratek first started at Marsh & McLennan as its chief counsel of securities and finance, he focused exclusively on public disclosures and securities work. Early in his tenure at the company, he realized that there was an important distinction between law firms and corporate departments. “Firm lawyers are on a clear and linear progression, but in-house positions are horizontal and merit based,” he says. “I saw the need to break new ground.”

This is especially important at Marsh & McLennan, where General Counsel Peter Beshar has created a continuous learning culture. Kuratek started

volunteering for assignments outside his traditional sphere of expertise and hasn’t looked back.

First, he joined a cross-business initiative to investigate and analyze blockchain technology. Then, when Mercer (a Marsh & McLennan business) needed help responding to an Australian government inquiry, Kuratek raised his hand again. He boarded a flight to Melbourne, where he spent a month working alongside executives and getting better acquainted with colleagues he’d once only known through email.

In 2018, Kuratek found another opportunity to facilitate growth by steering and supporting the largest acquisition in Marsh & McLennan’s 116-year history. Kuratek originally joined a small team tasked with financing the $5.6 billion deal to acquire Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group, a UK public company. But as the process unfolded, he started assisting with regulatory approvals and antitrust submissions. With the highstakes agreement halfway done, Marsh & McLennan’s legal head of mergers and acquisitions left the firm. Instead of hiring someone else, legal leaders tapped Kuratek to help close the deal.

“I was uncomfortable and even a bit intimidated to help finish such a complex and important acquisition,” Kuratek says. “But it’s good to be uncomfortable. You’re only comfortable when you’re not learning something new.”

“The idea of leaving a big firm made me uncomfortable because I knew the new job would stretch me. And that meant I had to do it.”

In 2019, Kuratek flew to London six times, spending seventy-five nights in England’s capital to get the deal done. In closing the deal, Kuratek helped Marsh & McLennan expand its international reach and bring in ten thousand new employees.

Marsh & McLennan’s outside counsel speak highly of Kuratek’s ability to handle complex transactions where speed is of the essence. “Connor is smart, hardworking, and willing to roll up his sleeves when necessary. He is also very humble and a consummate team player,” says Phil Rogers, a partner at DLA Piper US. “He is articulate and has further honed his business instincts since joining Marsh McLennan.”

Rogers continues, “He has a deep knowledge of corporate issues, and in other areas, such as regulatory and employment matters, where he has not had as much exposure, he has developed a collaborative approach both within the company and with partners like our firm to ensure that the right resources are brought to bear.”

Repeatedly stretching beyond his comfort zone has spurred Kuratek’s career growth. In 2020, he netted a promotion to chief corporate counsel and assistant secretary. He continues to embrace his evolving role as it expands into areas where he’s not the leading expert.

For instance, Kuratek helped Kate Brennan, Marsh & McLennan’s deputy general counsel and chief compliance officer, create a new environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) committee. They also coauthored several articles to help establish Marsh & McLennan as a thought leader in the ESG space. “ESG is gaining incredible attention, and since these issues are important to us and our businesses, we knew we had to lead the way,” he says.

Marsh & McLennan wanted legal to take a prominent role at the outset, given the attention these issues are receiving from investors and the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Marsh & McLennan’s new ESG reporting lead reports to Kuratek, and the company has committed to publish its first comprehensive ESG report in 2021.

All these efforts have naturally helped Kuratek emerge as a leader. “I thought I knew how to manage people on day one because I had completed large IPOs and managed complex transactions in the past, but in-house leadership is very different,” he says. “Good

Connor Kuratek Chief Corporate Counsel and Assistant Secretary Marsh & McLennan

At the top of our voice.

in-house leaders are empowering and empathetic.”

The COVID-19 pandemic brought this idea to the forefront, as Kuratek hosted weekly check-ins and personal follow-ups. The experience brought his team of twelve together. They not only formed closer friendships but also learned how to leverage each other’s skills and improve the overall departmental work product.

Another volunteer assignment solidified these philosophies. Kuratek helped plan and execute a global leadership conference for Marsh & McLennan’s eighty most senior legal leaders. Now, he’s branching out into compliance and helping his general counsel and deputy general counsel manage their fivehundred-person department.

dlapiper.com

Five years after making the leap in-house, Kuratek is happy he took the risk. He advises younger lawyers to find rewarding work and challenge themselves every day. “I’ve totally embraced the idea of always trying something new, even if it seems intimidating or scary,” he says. “I’m going to keep doing the things that make me the most uncomfortable, because that’s where real growth comes from.”

DLA Piper congratulates our friend and client, Connor Kuratek , Chief Counsel, Securities and Finance and Assistant Corporate Secretary of Marsh & McLennan on his recognition by Modern Counsel magazine as a thought leader.

Philip Rogers, 1251 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 Attorney Advertising | MRS000164686

Speaking the Language

Honeywell’s Jason Skinder has set himself apart as an IP attorney with an engineer’s affinity for the technology that he protects

By Natalie Kochanov

Jason Skinder Chief IP Counsel of Connected Enterprise Honeywell

JASON SKINDER HAD ALREADY EARNED TWO degrees when he received what he calls the best advice of his career: go back to school. At that point, Skinder was two years out of law school, and he held an in-house intellectual property attorney role at research and development laboratory Walker Digital. Still, his drive and innate love of learning pushed him to leave the lab and pursue a second bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan.

“That advice ended up being so accurate,” Skinder says. “Having a technical background has opened up every door in my career since then.” Indeed, the knowledge that Skinder acquired at Michigan has allowed him to thrive in IP law, propelling him to his current position as chief IP counsel in the connected enterprise division at technology conglomerate Honeywell.

Before Honeywell, Skinder further developed his IP expertise through roles at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr (WilmerHale), Apple, and Aptiv. At IP litigation firm WilmerHale, Skinder gained experience litigating patents before the United States International Trade Commission and in other courts. His final case, the first round of litigation between technology companies Apple and Nokia, introduced him to parties at Apple interested in his skill set.

“Apple was looking for someone with a litigation background to come in and manage their user interface portfolio, as they had just launched their global litigation campaign against Samsung, Motorola, and HTC,” explains Skinder, who traveled the world defending Apple’s patents during his time at the company. Beyond handling patent prosecution, which required him to collaborate with design and software engineering teams to understand Apple’s new releases, Skinder branched out into areas including appeals and licensing as he continued evolving as an attorney.

His desire for growth led Skinder to make the jump from Apple to Aptiv, another technology company. As Aptiv’s global patent counsel, he took charge of a fledgling autonomous vehicle program. “I helped build the IP strategy around a whole new vertical for the company,” he says. On top of leading

the IP development program and building out a trade secrets program, Skinder managed patent litigation and standard essential patent litigation in the wireless space involving Aptiv’s customers.

His efforts to set up the autonomous vehicle program at Aptiv readied Skinder for his work at Honeywell, which he joined just as a new division was coming online. Right off the bat, he became responsible for creating this division’s trade secret, code handling, and open-source software policies as well as building a patent portfolio—refocusing an inherited portfolio with organic additions in alignment with his own quality-over-quantity perspective.

In addition to getting the division’s IP program off the ground, Skinder oversees litigation, investigates opportunities for portfolio monetization, and incorporates IP language into customer agreements. With so many elements to juggle, he must constantly switch contexts throughout the day. “It’d be great if I could clone myself, maybe five or six times,” he jokes.

To succeed in such a demanding role, Skinder has relied on tactics honed over the course of his career to date. For instance, he has brought certain aspects of Apple’s start-up mentality to Honeywell. “I’ve managed to cut a lot of red tape out of processes to make things run more efficiently,” he says. He also prioritizes clear, efficient communication.

“I can talk the talk, so our engineers trust me to understand the value of what they’re working on.”

Fortunately, Skinder’s education, technical know-how, and passion for learning about Honeywell’s technologies have streamlined his interactions with inventors and other members of the company’s internal teams. As he puts it, “I can talk the talk, so our engineers trust me to understand the value of what they’re working on.”

Building trust matters to Skinder across his professional relationships. To encourage his colleagues to reach out to him for assistance, he strives to remain accessible and to deliver reliable results when people do come to him with problems. That way, others in the company can focus on the products they’re developing without worrying about IP.

Furthermore, Skinder has used his relationships to increase his awareness of the division as a whole. He admits that COVID-19 has made it more difficult to gather insights, but this difficulty hasn’t slowed his ambitions. “I’m hoping to build a bigger pipeline of innovation—to ensure every product being developed within the division come through the IP department for review so that we’re protecting all our differentiation,” he says.

Skinder’s personal investment in his work is clear from his dedication to safeguarding Honeywell’s advancements. Yet he’s equally invested in respecting the human side of technology.

“As much as I want to be an aggressive advocate for the company, I try to remember that there’s a person, not a robot, on the other side of the negotiating table from me,” Skinder says. It’s a balancing act, but Skinder has proven he’s prepared to take it on.

A Fork in the Road

Mondelēz International’s Ellen Smith didn’t start out wanting to be an attorney. But today, as an SVP, she is better able to guide her team because of the twists and turns in her journey.

By Billy Yost

THERE ARE ONLY SO MANY WAYS TO SAY SOMEthing. Ellen Smith is acutely aware of this, because before she attended law school, she’d already written a million words.

As a beat reporter aspiring to work her way up to a position in a big Twin Cities newspaper, Smith spent her nights on the phone with law enforcement for around twenty different counties in Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. She put in long hours, hunting for prospective news and building the career in journalism she had always dreamed of.

But the newspaper industry was shrinking. Though Smith eventually decided to transition from journalism to law, the intensive writing and interviewing experience she garnered in her reporting days shaped her approach to language in ways that continue to benefit her in her current role as senior vice president, chief counsel, chief compliance officer,

and corporate secretary of Mondelēz International, where she leads the company’s corporate governance, compliance, and security teams.

And in reflecting on her career with the clarity of hindsight, she can see that her willingness to stray from the path she had envisioned has been instrumental in her success. Aside from switching career tracks, she has grown her skill set over the years by taking on work in litigation, advertising law, antitrust, commercial law, M&A matters, food and drug law, and whatever else came her way.

“We’re told that we have to be so focused to succeed,” Smith says. “It does take focus to succeed, but if all you are is just this narrow ribbon or highway or swim lane—whatever it is—you’re going to miss so much.”

After graduating from the University of Michigan Law School, Smith spent a year working at a Twin Cities firm and then relocated to New York City to take a job

Ellen Smith SVP, Chief Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, and Corporate Secretary Mondelez International

at a large national law firm. She could see the original World Trade Center from her view in the Citicorp Center, but she knew that a view wasn’t everything.

“It was 11:30 at night, I was in my Ann Taylor suit, and I was this big-city litigator preparing for a deposition and planning for a settlement conference,” Smith remembers. “I saw my reflection in the mirror, and I realized—fully—this was not my path.” It wasn’t the long nights and weekends—there have been plenty of those since then, Smith says—but rather the billable hours and jumping from case to case and client to client that made her realize she wanted to work at a place where she could focus on helping build one business over time.

Eventually, Smith found a position in-house at Unilever, who had been looking for a marketing lawyer. They took Smith on with the intention of training her. “Everything just clicked—it was like being at a

newspaper again. I was on the phone all day, working with words, negotiating ad copy with marketing clients and winning their trust so they would take my call and let me into their world,” Smith says, chuckling. “It was this perfect fit.”

In 2004, she joined food giant Kraft Food and continued building out her expertise on commercial law and M&A. She partnered with the Snacks team to help grow such brands as Oreo, Chips Ahoy!, Triscuit, and Ritz. When Kraft made plans to split into two companies in 2012, Smith was promoted and tasked with building out a new North America regional legal team for Mondelēz International, the global snacking powerhouse and legal successor of the former Kraft Foods. “Our employment lawyer, our sales lawyer, our litigator—I had to recruit all of them because most of [the legacy US] team had gone with the other spin-off company,” Smith explains.

“We’re told that we have to be so focused to succeed. It does take focus to succeed, but if all you are is just this narrow ribbon or highway or swim lane—whatever it is—you’re going to miss so much.”

Mondelēz is the global leader in snacking, Smith says, and so most sales take place outside the US, requiring her to further adapt. “US lawyers are trained through the Socratic method to ask questions,” she explains. “In some parts of the world, if you ask people a lot of questions, it makes them uncomfortable because under their education system, if you don’t know the answer, there must be something wrong.” Flexing her style to suit the company’s dynamic global environment, Smith has learned to open conversations with her intention to ask questions, explaining that this approach helps her process both her thoughts and the information she receives. She also notes that the questions are designed to help solve business challenges.

Ever the reporter, Smith says it’s imperative for her to remain curious and open to new ideas. “You can either be the kind of person who wants to demonstrate that you’ve gotten to this level of leadership because you know everything, or you can be humble enough to ask questions when you need to learn more,” she says.

Lina Tetelbaum, a partner at Wachtell Lipton who has worked closely with Smith, comments, “Ellen is an exceptional lawyer with great commercial judgment and invaluable people skills. She steers complex negotiations to the right answers with positive leadership.”

Taking on CCO and corporate secretary duties right before the COVID-19 lockdown put Smith’s leadership skills to the test as never before. “I had never

helped lead an annual shareholders meeting, period,” Smith says, laughing. “We went from toying with the idea of what a virtual shareholders meeting would look like to having to set one up almost immediately.”

Throughout the pandemic, Smith has continued to adapt and take challenges in stride. She doesn’t have a home office, so with two teenagers and a husband also working from home, she sometimes has to resort to tactics like setting up her computer on a kitchen cutting board to get the job done.

“It’s about continually trying to create an office in your head,” Smith says. Although she has told her team that they do not need to dress in business attire for their online meetings, she notes, “I told my team at one point that I was going to be putting on makeup and putting on my work clothes. I needed to create this workspace that only exists between my ears.”

Last year, Mondelēz International rolled out a global approach to flexible working and has empowered colleagues around the world with tools and tips to enable flexible and remote working, which will remain in place when the company’s offices begin to re-open once the pandemic recedes.

The SVP emphasizes that it has been those colleagues—as well as the generous mentors who have worked with her over the years—who have enabled her success as a leader. Whenever you diverge from their path, Smith points out, it’s important to have people there to support you, encourage you, and help you find your way.

“You can either be the kind of person who wants to demonstrate that you’ve gotten to this level of leadership because you know everything, or you can be humble enough to ask questions when you need to learn more.”

Congratulates ē

When Life Takes a Detour

How taking his job seriously and deftly playing the hand he was dealt led Rich McGuire to become the head of patents at Bed Bath &

Beyond

By Courtney Ryan

RICH MCGUIRE LAUNCHED HIS CAREER AS A PATENT attorney in a decidedly unorthodox way. In fact, he wasn’t even intending to become a patent attorney when he began practicing as one.

A New Jersey native who had always lived on the East Coast, McGuire followed his wife to Muscatine, Iowa, when she accepted a job there. While he was studying for the bar examination, a local manufacturing company, now known as HNI Corporation, recruited him to help fill a couple of recent vacancies in their legal department.

“They were just looking for a warm body to help get some things done while they were figuring out their staff,” he recalls. But there was slightly more on the agenda. During his second week with the company, the general counsel called him into his office and explained that there was a filing cabinet near McGuire’s desk filled with patents and trademarks. “‘You’re in charge of them now,’ he said. So that’s how I got into patent law,” McGuire says with a laugh.

Of course, there was a learning curve.

“They say that you learn more from your mistakes than from your successes,” McGuire says. “Let’s just say that I was blessed with ample learning opportunities while in that role.”

After about five years of working with patents, he decided it was time to make it official and become a patent attorney. Now the only hurdle that stood in his way was a background in philosophy rather than science. To bridge his knowledge gap, McGuire worked for HNI Corporation while studying physics part-time at a local college. It took more than two years, but by the time he sat for the patent bar exam, he knew he was ready.

Not long after he passed the patent bar exam, he and his wife felt the call of family and familiarity on the East Coast. They returned to New Jersey, where McGuire joined retailer Bed Bath & Beyond as its first patent attorney in 2007.

“Before me, IP disputes were handled by litigation counsel, the IP portfolio was handled by the regulatory counsel, and advertising review was handled by a corporate counsel to make sure that we were using our trademarks correctly,” he recalls. “Eventually they all got fed up, so my position was created to take on all of that and to be an expert.”

In McGuire’s early days at Bed Bath & Beyond, he prioritized increasing his visibility across the company’s

New Jersey headquarters. That helped train employees to incorporate IP best practices into their decision-making.

“One of my bosses called it lawyering by walking around,” says the senior counsel, chuckling. “But it was a fairly effective method. People remember that they have issues they want to raise that they might otherwise have forgotten.”

McGuire’s expert counsel has paid off for Bed Bath & Beyond over the years, though he is quick to share the credit for his accomplishments. For instance, reflecting on how he led acquisitions such as a multimillion-dollar trademark deal with linen manufacturer Wamsutta, he demurs, saying, “I almost feel like ‘leading’ is too ostentatious a term.” Similarly, he recognizes others’ contributions when discussing how he facilitated Bed Bath & Beyond’s eventual transition to the cloud via a partnership with Google.

“I was very fortunate to have good outside counsel who were able to help us,” he says. “It’s really just a matter of making sure that everybody understands what it is that they want out of the deal. It’s knowing what their expectations are and making sure that the language accurately reflects that.”

This appreciation for what others want and expect came in especially handy when McGuire represented the company on the board of directors for merchant-led mobile payment system Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX).

Created in 2012, when payment apps such as PayPal and Apple Pay were only beginning to gain traction, the MCX was a merchant-owned mobile payment system. McGuire parsed the novel, complicated agreement and explained to his executive team exactly how it worked.

“They say that you learn more from your mistakes than from your successes. Let’s just say that I was blessed with ample learning opportunities while in [my first patent law] role.”

Homing in on Opportunity

Faegre Drinker joins Modern Counsel in celebrating Rich McGuire for his proactive IP counsel through some of Bed Bath & Beyond’s most ambitious acquisitions and change initiatives. His careful guidance over the years and his “lawyering by walking around” has helped Bed Bath & Beyond navigate these endeavors. He exemplifies the professional excellence for which we all strive.

“Most of the other retailers involved had either finance folks or IT folks as their representatives, with the occasional marketing person,” he says. “I brought something of a unique perspective to that organization. Even though it ultimately did fail, there were some very interesting things learned, and I definitely made a lot of good contacts and good friends in the industry as a result.”

Currently, Bed Bath & Beyond is undergoing a massive transformation, with a restructured board and new leadership. McGuire is optimistic, especially about a company initiative to shift toward selling branded products rather than carrying other brands’ products. Having found his feet in so many new situations, he has every reason to believe that he will take this change in stride.

Throughout the different detours he’s taken in his career, McGuire says that the underlying motivation for his actions has remained the same. She was the reason he came to Iowa and embarked on his patent law career in the first place.

“The woman I wound up marrying is just an absolute bulldog when it comes to getting work done,” he says. “Really, anything that I have accomplished, it’s because I’m trying to live up to her example.”

faegredrinker.com

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP: “Rich’s path to becoming a patent attorney shows why he’s valued—when faced with a challenge, he rolls up his sleeves, digs in, and prevails. Congratulations, Rich, on your much-deserved recognition.”

–Justin O. Kay, Partner

Boeing’s Shared Enterprise

By Dan Caffrey

IT’S NEVER TOO LATE IN LIFE TO MAKE a career change. Just ask Lynda Guild Simpson, vice president and assistant general counsel of litigation and investigations at the Boeing Company.

On paper, the first half of Simpson’s career is one defined by diversity in experience. After graduating from the University of Chicago Law School, she worked at a law firm in New York and had a clerkship on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, before landing another with Justice Lewis F. Powell at the United States Supreme Court.

While clerking for the justice, she met Mike Luttig, who later became a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and, at the time, was clerking for Chief Justice Warren Burger. He subsequently hired her to be his deputy at the Office of Legal Counsel in the US Department of Justice. As much as she loved her work at the OLC, she took a hiatus in 1990 to focus on raising her children alongside her husband, also a high-powered DC lawyer. The break turned out to be a bit longer than expected—seventeen years, to be exact.

“I refer to it as my ‘Long Summer,’” Simpson says with a laugh.

By the time 2007 rolled around, she and her husband were empty nesters. Their youngest daughter had gone off to college, and they had just planned a wedding for their oldest. While Simpson had worked part-time from home over the years for her husband’s firm, she found herself pondering her next career move now that she had more free time. She knew she wanted something new; she just didn’t know what it was.

Meanwhile, Judge Luttig was experiencing his own career transition. In

Lynda Guild Simpson charts her journey from a clerkship at the Supreme Court to an in-house role and unified philosophy at aerospace giant Boeing

2006, he resigned from the Fourth Circuit and joined Boeing as executive vice president and general counsel for the aerospace giant. And in 2007, he called Simpson in an effort to expand his legal team, just one day after she and her husband had their “what’s next” conversation.

“It really was a crossroads for me,” Simpson remembers. “And Judge Luttig called me at the right psychological moment: ‘I’m at Boeing now. I need you to come help me.’ I hadn’t ever thought about working in-house. But I decided to give it a try.” She then joined Boeing in its DC office.

The uniqueness of Simpson’s career trajectory isn’t lost on her—or the legal world at large, for that matter. In a study on Supreme Court clerks conducted by the National Law Journal

from 2005 to 2017, most former SCOTUS clerks ultimately ended up in private practice rather than at corporations. Judge Luttig has been noted for his ability to funnel his talented former colleagues in-house to Boeing—a company (and position) they might not otherwise have considered.

His instincts about Simpson proved to be correct. She’s now been at Boeing for fourteen years, although it didn’t take her nearly that long to realize what a good fit the company was. Far from it.

“As soon as I got there, I absolutely loved it,” she says. “I said to my husband after only being here for about two weeks that this is probably where I should have been my whole career. I found that I really preferred the in-house role.”

In fact, Simpson loved being in-house so much that she coined a term for it and how her role connects to the overall philosophy and ambitions of Boeing: shared enterprise.

“When you’re at a firm, you’re working on your case or with this lawyer or that lawyer and with a client that you want to do your best for,” she explains. “But once that case is over, you go on and do something else. When you’re in-house, you pretty quickly figure out what the company’s priorities are as a whole as well as those of your individual clients within the company. You realize everybody’s working toward the same goal. I just love that. I love the feeling that we’re each doing our little part, but we’re all pulling together for that same goal. I find it really rewarding.”

In other words, the idea of shared enterprise views a company as a constellation, a honeycomb, a coral reef.

Obviously, a huge part of that ecosystem is Simpson’s team, which comprises sixteen attorneys— relatively small for a multinational corporation as large as Boeing. As such, the legal department relies heavily on outside counsel.

“The best relationship with outside counsel happens when you can find that right team of lawyers,” Simpson says. “And it is a team of lawyers. It’s not an entire firm. I should also say that we have really high standards when we’re determining strategy for a case and in our written work. We review—very closely— every piece of work we submit to the court. That means lots of redlining. Lawyers don’t always take well to having their work edited, but our best teams

Lynda Guild Simpson

VP and Assistant General Counsel for Litigation & Investigations The Boeing Company

Committed to Excellence and Innovation

of outside counsel know our standards and how involved we are, and as we work together, we make each other better.”

Given the scope of Boeing’s work, the organization works with numerous lawyers at numerous firms depending on the legal matter at hand, including Wiley Rein, Perkins Coie, Kirkland & Ellis, and McGuireWoods.

The concept of shared enterprise became more important than ever in 2020, when Boeing had to contend with the COVID-19 pandemic. Simpson fondly remembers going to work every day at Boeing’s DC office, where a significant number of the company’s law department was based. This created a close-knit atmosphere that was abruptly taken away on March 15.

“Suddenly, you’re stuck at your kitchen table,” she says. “Even though you’re talking to people, you’re just not having that personal interchange. And your tendency is to keep answering emails whenever they come in, at night or on the weekends. You have to assert a little discipline on that. It can all be very isolating.”

Fortunately, the legal team has persevered by remaining flexible, being patient with one another, and recognizing the effectiveness of simple gestures, such as making those periodic check-in phone calls that have nothing to do with work. Regardless of space, pandemics, and physical limitations, shared enterprise—and Simpson’s role within it—continues.

Kirkland & Ellis:

“Lynda is a brilliant lawyer, strategic thinker, and gifted writer. She is also a wonderful person and a pleasure to work with. In her cheerful way, she has delivered victory after victory for Boeing.”

–Craig Primis, Partner

McGuireWoods:

“McGuireWoods shares the Boeing Company’s commitment to excellence and innovation and values our partnership. Lynda Simpson’s knowledge and leadership are unsurpassed, and I look forward to our continued relationship with her and Boeing’s world-class legal department.”

–Benjamin L. Hatch, Partner

Perkins Coie:

“We at Perkins Coie salute Lynda Simpson for her stellar track record of success over many years and across a wide variety of challenging legal matters.”

–Steve Koh, Partner

Finding His Place

Early lessons in the value of public service eventually led Manav Kumar to AECOM, where he’s working to improve cities and communities around the world

By Zach Baliva

MOST

COLLEGE STUDENTS LOOK FOR

internships in finance, tech, or politics, but when Manav Kumar was a Harvard undergrad, he did something entirely different. Rather than taking a traditional internship, he headed to the disputed region of Kashmir—one of the most volatile parts of the world— to track down legal human rights and aid organizations where he could volunteer. The son of Indian immigrants, Kumar had grown up in Milwaukee, but had always felt a connection to the region and wanted to do something meaningful there.

Kumar arrived in Kashmir, which remained mired in an armed insurgency, without a place to stay and little more than a few names and email addresses. Over the course of four consecutive summers during his time as a political science major at Harvard, he became part of an international cohort

of human rights lawyers and advocates working in the region. His work and advocacy, particularly the painstaking and dangerous job of documenting abuses in the inaccessible region, was with the purpose of ultimately influencing policy-making in New Delhi, Geneva, and Washington, DC.

As Kumar’s involvement in Kashmir grew, so did his admiration for the dedicated lawyers with whom he was working. “To see firsthand the work and leadership of these lawyers, in the face of great personal risk, was my first exposure to the power of law, advocacy, and a vibrant civil society. They were my earliest professional role models, and it was difficult to imagine a higher calling,” he recalls.

The experience altered the professional trajectory of Kumar’s life. After writing his academic thesis on the origins and aspirations of the

Kashmiri separatist movement and graduating from Harvard, Kumar enrolled at Yale Law School in 2006. There, the value of public service continued to be impressed upon him.

“The culture at my law school emphasized being mindful of our place in the world, the necessary guardrails to power and influence, and our responsibility to the community around us,” Kumar says. “The basic framework has influenced every career decision I’ve made since.” Yale sends fewer graduates to private practice than its counterparts: 44 percent of alumni pursue careers in the public interest.

As Kumar entered his third year of law school, his interest in public service and international work remained strong. A series of cold calls to congressional offices led to a connection with a senior member of Senator John Kerry’s foreign policy team. Kumar left New Haven in the middle of final exams to interview for a volunteer role on the transition team for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Taking his exams and classes remotely, he talked a high school friend into letting him crash in the friend’s basement in Washington, DC. Soon, Kumar had his first US Senate ID card and was exploring the hallowed halls of the Capitol. He later took another role in another Senate office working as a special advisor for foreign affairs and defense.

After his time on Capitol Hill, Kumar spent time in private practice at both a major international law firm and a smaller boutique firm, served as a law clerk on the United States Court

of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and accepted a position as deputy counsel to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. At one point Kumar held five different positions in five years—roles that spanned local government, federal government, private practice, and the judiciary. This exploratory phase helped the young lawyer discover how to marry his passions to his profession.

“Having a series of short stops in different professional worlds early in my career allowed me to have a broader perspective of how I could maximize the impact of my skills and legal training in a meaningful way,” he says. “Ultimately, success in my government work required navigating the private sector, and my corporate work has felt more political than anything I experienced in politics.”

In 2017, with his work on Los Angeles’ bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games coming to an end,

Kumar started to think about a professional home where he could marry his interest in large transformational projects with his commitment to cities and the public interest. He started to look at the infrastructure industry, which quicky led him to the largest publicly traded corporation in the city of Los Angeles: AECOM.

With $13 billion in annual revenue and approximately sixty-thousand employees, AECOM is one of the world’s largest engineering and infrastructure consulting firms. Each year, the company delivers professional services to private and public sector clients, solving challenges related to transportation, water, energy, buildings, and the environment.

Kumar initially joined AECOM in a nonlegal capacity, as chief of staff to the chairman and CEO. “The concept was to replicate the well-understood role of a political chief of staff into the

“I get to use my legal training and prior experiences across the public and nonprofit sectors to help steer a global company that touches the built environment in over a hundred countries and is committed to making the world a better place.”

Manav Kumar

SVP, Deputy General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary AECOM

Bringing the Olympics to Los Angeles

In 2013, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti asked Manav Kumar to assist on the city’s bid for the 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. Initially, they were unsuccessful: the United States Olympic Committee chose Boston as the candidate city to represent the country. But in July of 2015, Boston withdrew, which meant that Kumar and a small group of colleagues had just weeks to refresh and resubmit their bid for LA to host the 2024 games.

To do so, they stood up an effort to quickly negotiate and secure the necessary legal and political commitments from private venues, local and state authorities, and the federal government. As Los Angeles made progress, major cities including Rome and Budapest withdrew, while Paris remained a strong competitor. The team soon realized the 2028 games might provide greater opportunity for Los Angeles.

“The mayor wanted the children and communities of Los Angeles to see the legacy of the games immediately, and not wait years to reap the benefits of hosting the event,” Kumar says. The team negotiated an unprecedented deal that would bring IOC funding to fund youth sports programs over a decade before the games. In July of 2017, the IOC made a surprise announcement and awarded the Summer Games to two cities—Paris in 2024 and Los Angeles in 2028.

context of a major corporation, as the challenges and imperatives of leadership are similar across the public and private sector,” he explains. In 2019, after a leadership transition at AECOM, Kumar moved into his current legal role. Today, he serves as senior vice president and deputy general counsel, while also serving as corporate secretary and leading the company’s public affairs functions, including government relations and communications.

Whenever Kumar commutes to his office in Los Angeles or travels the world for work, he takes pride in passing the bridges, airports, transit lines, stadiums and arenas, and communities that AECOM helps shape. “I get to use my legal training and prior experiences across the public and nonprofit sectors to help steer a global company that touches the built environment in over a hundred countries

and is committed to making the world a better place,” he says.

In addition to his leadership of AECOM’s legal function, he has played a key role in major transformations in the company’s recent history, which included the spin-off and ultimate sale of its government services division and its $4 billion in annual revenue and 19,000 employees. Kumar coled that year-long process, as well as a set of subsequent transactions to divest a series of construction-related businesses and complete AECOM’s strategic shift into a professional services firm. At the same time, Kumar played an integral role as AECOM navigated public issues with shareholder activism and completed a transition of its leadership and board of directors.

Colleague Jake Kling, corporate partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, believes there’s a good reason that Kumar has accomplished so much.

“Manav is incredibly smart and savvy,” Kling says. “An exceptional leader, he’s overseen AECOM’s most complex carve-out transactions, never losing sight of the bigger strategic picture. We’re fortunate to call Manav a client and a friend.”

It has been a little over a decade since Kumar left Yale for Capitol Hill, and he’s accomplished a lot since then. For those who’d like to follow in his footsteps, he advises that they should appreciate the unpredictable events and stops in their professional trajectory, as those detours bring a diversity of experience that will open doors down the road. Most importantly, he encourages others to think about the themes that have made a difference in his own career. “Civic responsibility, impact, and community,” he says. “You would be surprised at the wide range of professional homes where you can meaningfully realize those values.”

Congratulates

Manav Kumar of AECOM on his leadership, accomplishments and recognition by Modern Counsel.

We are proud to partner with Manav and the AECOM team on their transformative transactions.

Strategic Counsel

As general counsel at EFI, Anna Lee works to support the business and help them grow for the future

By Lucy Cavanagh

Anna Lee

General Counsel

Electronics For Imaging (EFI)

ANNA LEE DID NOT SET OUT TO BE a lawyer. A lifelong, self-proclaimed “science nerd,” Lee studied molecular, cell, and developmental biology as an undergrad at UCLA. She believed that she was headed towards a PhD track, but after hearing about some of the experiences of older graduate students, she realized that the world of research and academia was not for her.

Lee set her sights on a new passion: she put her analytic brain and public policy minor to use at the UC Berkeley School of Law. She spent her first summer during law school working at the Pentagon and her second summer at WilmerHale in Washington, DC. While Lee intended to return to the nation’s capital after graduation, she ended up joining WilmerHale’s Palo Alto office instead. “I thought I would be working in Washington, DC, but then, as life would have it, it led to me staying in Silicon Valley,” she notes.

During her time in Big Law, Lee mainly focused on patent litigation and complex commercial disputes, representing Apple, Intel, and other major tech companies that make up the base clientele in Silicon Valley. Lee was promoted to counsel and realized that she could either continue on a path towards partnership or look for a change. “I got to the point where I thought, ‘I’m not sure this is for me.’ I started exploring in-house opportunities,” Lee explains. “The most logical transition would have been to go in-house and manage litigation for a tech company, but I wanted to expand my skill set.”

The then-general counsel at Electronics For Imaging (EFI), a digital imaging printing company that develops a wide range of printing technologies, knew Lee to be a smart and diligent young lawyer. Lee was given an

opportunity to join the EFI’s in-house legal team, and in 2013, she came on board as corporate counsel.

EFI’s legal department, Lee says, is actually called Strategic Relations. “We’re business lawyers,” she points out. “Of course we ensure that the company operates in compliance with the laws and regulations, but we’re also here to help them strategize and find solutions. If we can’t do something, we help look for alternatives.”

Lee describes the team as “lean and scrappy.” Though they have fewer lawyers than other companies of a similar size, EFI’s counsel are trained to work as generalists and handle a wide range of legal functions.

After a few years, Lee was offered the opportunity to move to Spain to better support EFI’s international operations. “The legal team was US-based, and we had gotten to the point where we needed boots on the ground for the legal team in Europe,” Lee says. “The notion was that I would go out there for a year, scope out the need, and then hire a European lawyer to take over.”

Taking that jump was somewhat daunting for Lee. The move involved uprooting her young family and facing all the logistics of moving out of the country—and of course, adjusting to a different culture. “It was a mental hurdle to decide to move abroad for work,” Lee reflects. “But it was an invaluable professional growth experience, and an irreplaceable personal growth experience as well.” One year turned into two years, and by the end Lee and her family were wishing they had made the move sooner.

“I learned to adjust my communication style based on the different cultures I was working with,” Lee explains. “It was something subtle

“I learned to adjust my communication style based on the different cultures I was working with. It was something subtle I never would have understood if I wasn’t physically working alongside my European colleagues.”

that I never would have understood if I wasn’t physically working alongside my European colleagues. I wouldn’t have picked up on these dynamics if I was just sitting in California sending an email or making a phone call.”

After her two years in Spain, Lee and her family moved back to California, where she broadened her experience at another technology company called Carbon, which specializes in 3-D printing. Just over a year later, however, she was offered her former boss’s position as general counsel back at EFI.

It was a big leap forward, but Lee’s familiarity with the company—both domestically and internationally—made her the right woman for the job. “After leaving EFI, I could not have imagined that I would return, but the GC role is what I had been working towards,” Lee says of the opportunity. “I seized the chance.”

Since taking on the role in December 2020, Lee has worked closely with her team to navigate the legal and business challenges that have come their way. “I don’t just sit here and pontificate,” the GC says. “I roll up my sleeves and get stuff done right alongside the team.”

Sawyer & Labar:

“Anna Lee is a smart, dedicated professional. She quickly grasps the issues, and considers solutions carefully and collegially.”

–Ivo Labar, Partner

This issue’s focus section highlights six legal leaders who bring a wealth of international expertise to their leadership

A Home at Hillhouse

Adam Hornung speaks to the importance of fostering innovation, encouraging thoughtfulness, and empowering others at Hillhouse Capital

By Lindsey Lubowitz

THE JOURNEY FROM A SMALL town in central Nebraska to working as general counsel and chief compliance officer of the largest asset management firm in Asia may seem like an intimidating career path. But Adam Hornung was more than ready for the challenge.

Hornung saw law school as a ticket to success and felt drawn toward a legal career—all he needed to do was push himself to work hard. He knew that career path would be difficult, but he believed that if he was willing to put in the work in both undergrad and law school, he could graduate with a fulltime job at a law firm.

Once Hornung fulfilled all those goals and secured a coveted position as an attorney at O’Melveny & Myers, he had to ask himself: “What’s the best

outcome for me? What’s the life that I want to live? What’s the kind of mentality that I want to have with the organization that I want to be a part of?”

For Hornung, the answer to all these questions was Hillhouse Capital. The company has led him to his best outcome, provided him with the life he wants to lead, and aligned perfectly with his own work mentality and values.

The Move to Hillhouse

In 2013, after serving Hillhouse as outside counsel for nine years, Hornung decided to move with his wife and two daughters to Hillhouse Capital in Hong Kong.

To most, transitioning to a life in Hong Kong would be quite an adjustment. But Hornung’s two daughters

Courtesy of Hillhouse Capital

Adam Hornung

General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer Hillhouse Capital

were still young enough that they transitioned easily to an American school. His wife was happy to make the move, and the company felt that he was already such an integral player from afar that the move was the perfect fit.

Hillhouse Capital was founded with the goal of developing a researchbased organization known for being patient with its deals and invested in the Asian market. Despite Asia’s fast-paced nature, Hillhouse Capital is focused on long-term projects and ensuring that its investments withstand the test of time.

Hornung had been working with Hillhouse Capital since its inception, originally assisting with the company’s fund formation. He now serves in legal, strategic, and other management roles. A lot of his day is spent thinking about the direction of the organization, the deals they are working on, and how to add value to them.

“Adam operates a mile wide and a mile deep,” says Goodwin Procter Partner and Asia Chairman Yash Rana. “He has the rare skill to disregard the noise and laser in on the key points in any transaction, generating significant value for Hillhouse and their investors.”

Despite the sacrifices he made and challenges that he faced, Hornung doesn’t regret any of it. “I found the best job in the world for me,” Hornung says. “I’m so happy about what I’m doing, and it’s so fulfilling.”

Hornung even goes as far as to say that his happiness is directly linked to Hillhouse Capital. “Who I am today is quite intertwined with this organization and this job,” he admits.

Setting the Right Culture

With such a long-term relationship with the company, Hornung feels responsi-

bility for Hillhouse Capital’s culture and sees it as vital to the company’s success. “I firmly believe that the path to success in management and success in an organizational culture is inspiring a sense of ownership,” he says. “You want people to feel like what they’re building is something that they own and something that they believe in— something that they hope to maintain and continue to build.”

According to the GC, a company’s culture is successful if it follows one simple idea: thoughtfulness, innovation, and empowerment lead to a sense of ownership.

The legal industry as a whole is rooted in precedent and tradition, Hornung admits. But as he explains, “If you have highly capable people who are in an environment where they’re given an opportunity to be curious and innovative—and they also have the ability to be thoughtful and forward-thinking—what you get is people starting to feel empowered, because they’re being encouraged to go do new things and to do them in the right way.”

As important as adding value and being innovative is to the legal team, it does not necessarily come easily. Hornung actively works to encourage this culture of empowerment. When working through different problems, he frequently stops to ask his team, “How can we do this better?” This allows the team to take a step back and ensure that they are attacking the problem in the best way possible.

When the legal team feels empowered, Hornung points out, it impacts other teams as well. He sees the legal team as a cultural hub for the company because of the opportunities they have to interact with all the other departments in a meaningful way.

“You want people to feel like what they’re building is something that they own and something that they believe in—something that they hope to maintain and continue to build.”

“I want the legal team to perpetuate and exemplify that culture [of empowerment],” Hornung says. “I want our interactions with our colleagues to help express our culture and help them understand how the organization works. I want to help them feel that they are empowered and have that sense of ownership while thinking about the long term.”

The GC’s strategy for perpetuating this culture is simple: “Hire experts, mentor to excellence.”

He believes unreservedly in the capabilities of his team and asserts that thoughtful, value-add mindsets—while integral to the culture of the company— are teachable and can develop over time.

Hornung’s colleagues attest to the integral role he has played in fostering

and perpetuating Hillhouse Capital’s culture. “Adam is an exceptional leader and a wonderful ambassador for Hillhouse’s culture of entrepreneurship and excellence,” notes Cleary Gottlieb Managing Partner Michael Gerstenzang. “He’s a highly valued thought partner to me and all my colleagues, and we feel privileged to work with him.”

“Adam shows that culture, diversity, and inclusiveness are key to building successful and lasting organizations,” adds Goodwin Procter’s Rana. “He has focused on building an exceptional team of dedicated and diverse lawyers, all of whom share and add to the culture of Hillhouse.”

career in private practice, Hornung encourages young attorneys to take a step back and really think about what they’re doing—and why.

“That’s hard, when you’re coming up and there’s tangible benefits that you’re trying to realize,” he said. “Young lawyers often say to themselves, ‘This is what I’m trying to achieve because that’s what lawyers achieve, and this is what I know.’ Hopefully you can get to the point where you’re really investing in yourself and what you want to do.”

More than anything, Hornung wants young lawyers to recognize when they are at a point in their careers where they can evaluate their futures. Cross off the milestones first—but then don’t be afraid to think about how you want to express yourself and make an impact

Courtesy of Hillhouse Capital

FORWARD THINKING GLOBAL ISSUES

GROUND-BREAKING DEALS

RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS

We put our clients at the heart of everything we do. We serve our clients as a team, with a common focus on innovation, e ciency and agility.

www.linklaters.com

are proud to work with General Counsel and

Chief Compliance Officer

Adam Hornung and the entire Hillhouse Capital team. We join Modern Counsel in recognizing Adam’s achievements.

We

Kirkland & Ellis is proud to join in recognizing our friend and client Adam Hornung

for his ongoing contribution to Hillhouse Capital’s success.

on the world. When you dedicate yourself to your work, he emphasizes, you begin to own your work, and that is valuable in itself.

“You’re not just an employee anymore— you’re an owner of the concept. You’re an owner of the culture. You’re an owner of the outcome. And that is the most powerful thing that you can do, the most powerful realization that people can come to,” Hornung says.

Hornung takes his own advice. From time to time, he thinks back to the questions he asked himself and reflects on his own frame of mind as well as his motivation to continue innovating. This kind of self-reflection is important for any leader, he points out. As Warren Buffet—a fellow Nebraska native— has said, “The best investment you can make is in yourself.”

While it took years to reach this point, Hornung is certain of his path, his place, and his purpose—and it all comes back to Hillhouse.

Kirkland & Ellis

26th Floor, Gloucester Tower, The Landmark

15 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong

+852 3761 3300 | www.kirkland.com

Linklaters LLP: “Linklaters is proud to work with Hillhouse, and we congratulate Adam Hornung and his exceptional legal team on their recognition.”

–David Irvine, Partner & Cohead of Linklaters’ Leveraged Finance Practice

“I want to help [my team] feel that they are empowered and have that sense of ownership while thinking about the long term.”

The ProblemSolver

Paul Liu has always had a knack for finding innovative solutions to complex problems. Today, he puts that passion to good use as a go-to leader in IP law.

By Lindsey Lubowitz and Zayvelle Williamson

PAUL LIU SOLVES PROBLEMS. WHEN HE WAS A child, that meant solving problems he saw around the house. Today, as a global leader in intellectual property (IP) law, Liu spends his days working to leverage his extensive knowledge of IP and patent law to resolve whatever issues are facing his company as a whole. Modern Counsel recently caught up with Liu to get his perspective on the IP field and his journey within it.

Describe your path to becoming an IP and patent law expert. How did you first become interested in these fields?

I have always had a love of solving problems and learning about innovative solutions to technical problems. One of my favorite books from when I was younger was The Way Things Work by David Macaulay. I was so inspired by the elegant illustrations and explanations of these intricate inventions that solve real world problems that I often tried to invent things around the

house to make my life easier. It was that same fascination with learning about detailed technical solutions that led me to pursue engineering—specifically electrical engineering—in college.

It was during my engineering studies that I met an attorney who told me about an exciting career path in patent and intellectual property law. I had not known that I could leverage my training in engineering in the legal field. I was attracted to that sweet spot of learning about solutions to technical problems not only on a level of implementation but at different levels of abstraction.

Over time, that passion for learning about solutions led me through law school and into a career as an intellectual property and patent attorney. It was along this career path that I began to move from individual transactions—such as the procurement of patent rights via patent grant—to address wider issues, such as how patents and intellectual property are used for business advantage.

Paul Liu

Global Head of Intellectual Property TuSimple

Were there any defining moments or experiences that confirmed your interest in IP and patent law?

My parents are in the tech field. My mother was a programmer, and my father was a mechanical engineer. Growing up, I had never been seriously exposed to a career in anything outside of a STEM field. However, this changed when I learned about IP and patent law. This revelation seemed to open up new doors that I had never considered so that I could pursue a career in something that was uniquely interesting to me.

You have held a few different positions at varying levels throughout your career. How, if at all, has your perspective on IP and patent law changed as you have taken on more senior roles?

As I have become more experienced, my perspective on IP and patent law has changed from focusing on the individual instruments of IP law to orchestrating the wider usage of these individual instruments for business advantage.

I started in the mundane aspects of procuring individual patent rights. For years, I spent practically every day writing patent applications and negotiating with the US Patent and Trademark Office on behalf of clients to procure patent rights. These transactions were the bread and butter of my practice and instilled a strong habit of discipline in conforming to best practices.

However, after that foundation was established, I became more well-rounded by gaining experience in other areas of IP law, such as trademarks, trade secrets, and copyrights. This helped me broaden my understanding of how intellectual property, as intangible assets, can be best expressed as these various instruments of legal protection. I was also fortunate to be exposed to IP law in a variety of fields, from high tech to biotech, and for companies of different sizes, from small start-ups to large multinational companies.

More recently, I have been at the helm of orchestrating these individual classes of assets for business advantage. Namely, as I have progressed in my career, I have been able to take my deep expertise in each of these pieces so that I can position them where they

should be based on the business need. Having an understanding of these instruments in both breadth and depth is helpful so that I can take more nuanced approaches to the management of IP.

What do you like about where you are now, professionally?

What I personally enjoy about leading an IP department are the personal interactions with my colleagues. I enjoy the teamwork and camaraderie that comes with inspiring others to work toward a common purpose of balancing and structuring intellectual property assets and risk to achieve business objectives. I feel great personal satisfaction when I have empowered my teams from my various leadership positions to become the best that they can be so that I can get the best out of them.

Also, I enjoy teaching. Over the last few years, I have been an adjunct law professor at a local law school, where I have taught patent and intellectual property law. Although sometimes it takes a good deal of patience, I get a distinct pleasure in seeing when someone’s face brightens as they move to a state of understanding about what I am explaining. This enjoyment of teaching also bleeds into my leadership role as I interact with both my team and corporate stakeholders.

I also appreciate being in a position where I can give back to my community. Over the years, I have increased my involvement with local and minority bar associations, from membership to helping organize events and taking on leadership positions. In addition, I enjoy sharing my thoughts in speaking engagements, from local events to national conferences. It’s important to remember all the help that I have received along the way and to pay it forward however I can.

What lessons have you learned outside your career that have been applicable to your work with IP and patent law?

One lesson I am always reminding myself of is to always have respect, especially for the younger generations. I am a proud father of two young

daughters, and it is always inspiring to reflect on how fast they grow up. As they grow, I often reflect on how they get more and more similar to each other and to me, despite all our age gaps.

In the same way, I am constantly reminded to have patience and to always respect others. This is especially acute when I keep in mind that I don’t know everything and that my relationship with this person in the future could be very different than what it is today. Therefore, I always try to respect all people and perspectives because, despite my best efforts, I cannot know or fully understand everything before it plays out.

What advice would you give to an up-and-coming executive working in this space?

Hard work is something that people know is necessary for success. However, perseverance, luck, and an open mind are also major factors. The IP and legal field has seen many changes over the years. Each change takes this space in a different direction; the career that you thought you had embarked on may not turn out to be exactly the career that you end up in. However, with an open mind and at least enough perseverance to match that little bit of luck, I’m sure that anyone can adapt to and thrive in our evolving field.

FB Rice:

“Paul takes a creative approach to his role, with a keen eye for leveraging various aspects of the Australia patent system and other IP regimes to maximize protection for TuSimple’s technology in Australia.”

–Madeleine Kelly, Partner

King and Wood Mallesons:

“As global head of intellectual property for TuSimple, Paul is instrumental in developing the company’s global IP strategies. He is an excellent thinker, and most importantly, he gets things done.”

–Maohua Wang, Partner

“It’s important to remember all the help that I have received along the way and to pay it forward however I can.”

Leadership Lived

Former JAG lawyer Victor Wright learned teamwork and leadership in the Air Force. Now, he’s promoting those values at KBR as he helps the famed company break new ground.

By Zach Baliva

MOST COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT

ceremonies are memorable, but Victor Wright’s was one of a kind. He received his diploma from then President George H.W. Bush. Wright was the last to graduate, by squadron and alphabetically. As he saluted the president and waved to his family, the crowd in the stadium erupted. A loud announcement followed: “Class of 1991. Dismissed!” Six F-16 Fighting Falcon Thunderbirds flew overhead as Wright and his classmates tossed their white service caps in the air. With that, it was official—Wright was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force.

Today, Wright is director of global labor and employment law at KBR, a large global provider of differentiated professional services and technologies to governments and companies across

the world, with annual revenues topping $5.6 billion. The former subsidiary of Halliburton often works with the US military, the Department of Defense, and various state and federal agencies.

Wright’s background makes him a natural fit for the role. He’s spent twenty years working alongside top executives and is known for his ability to provide strong leadership and balance sound legal advice with effective business strategies.

A long-standing family tradition of military service first took Wright to the Air Force Academy. After seeing the 1986 movie Top Gun , he originally wanted to become a fighter pilot.

But after two years of training, Wright took a class in his junior year called Military Law for Commanders. He listened to lawyers from the Judge

Advocate General’s Corps (JAG) talk about their trial experiences, their work as advocates for military members, their rotating assignments, and their exposure to various practice areas. The instructors described how they combined the law with their poise, influence, and leadership to drive positive outcomes. “I saw the significant impact a JAG lawyer could have, and I knew right then that I wanted to become one,” Wright says.

After breaking the news to an intimidating commanding officer, Wright changed paths, earned his degree in business management, and went to San Antonio as an active-duty officer, where he also later earned his MBA at St. Mary’s University. Then he became one of just seven recipients Air Force–wide of a competitive legal education

Victor Wright Director, Global Labor & Employment Law

program scholarship fully funded by the Air Force. Participants complete law school, perform military duties, learn military law, and become judge advocates.

Although Wright didn’t follow the most direct route to his JAG career, he says his time as a cadet in the Air Force Academy wasn’t wasted. Flying T-41 trainer aircraft showed him how to react to a high-stress environment and remain calm under pressure.

“The rigorous training prepared me for anything and made me a driven, disciplined, and focused leader,” he says. Wright graduated magna cum laude from the University of Houston Law Center, where he was selected for the Houston Law Review. He currently serves as the Law Center’s first African American president of the law alumni association as well as the first African American chair of the Houston Law Review board of directors in the law school’s history.

Wright passed the bar exam in Texas and accepted an assignment to Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, DC, where he initially served as a prosecutor. After two years, he moved to Andrews Air Force Base as a criminal defense attorney. In that role, he acted as lead counsel for more than thirty bench and jury trials.

In 2001, Wright represented a staff sergeant in the aftermath of a high-profile friendly fire incident. Six individuals, including four US soldiers, died in Kuwait when an F/A-18 pilot dropped his payload on an observation post during a training exercise. Although Wright’s client was initially charged with negligent homicide, the case never went to trial, and Wright helped him avoid criminal exposure.

The four-year period was an important one for Wright, as he worked both sides of the aisle. “I learned to be less myopic and more balanced as I split time between prosecution and defense,” he says. “It still helps me to this day, as I strive to fairly examine all sides of every issue from multiple points of view.”

It was Wright’s next assignment that led him squarely into the world of labor and employment law. In 2005, he transitioned to March Air Reserve

The

Firm

spencerfane.com

Base in Riverside County, California, to help US attorneys respond to employment litigationrelated cases brought against the Air Force by civilian employees.

“I fell in love with labor and employment law because I got the chance to become a trusted legal and business advisor while still using my litigation courtroom skills,” Wright says. Over three years, he responded to more than fifty Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) discrimination complaints, negotiating thirteen settlements and winning six summary judgments.

As Wright’s active-duty service commitment to the Air Force expired, he faced a decision. The job market was good, and he had received an unexpected job offer that would bring him back home to Texas. But it would mean leaving the military after fourteen years. After judiciously weighing the options, Wright decided to step away from active-duty service with the military. This time, instead of notifying a commanding officer, he had to break the news to another dominant presence—his mother.

“Telling my mom was harder than telling my Air Force superiors because I come from a long line of proud veterans,” he says. But Wright was at peak marketability and knew the move would broaden his skills and unite the best of both worlds. He started his civilian career as an employment litigator at Haynes and Boone but maintained a part-time military JAG role in the Air Force Reserve.

After adding big-firm experience, Wright went in-house as TransCanada’s first US-based labor and employment lawyer. He became a key advisor, defended a critical wrongful death case, led a cross-border team, and learned about labor union law on projects in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. While at TransCanada, he also completed his military service and, in 2012, retired from the Air Force in the rank of lieutenant colonel.

In 2016, Wright joined KBR following two large acquisitions that solidified the company’s

The law firm where your business leaders work with our business leaders.

Spencer Fane congratulates Victor Wright on this well-deserved recognition.

status as a top government contractor. Currently, he manages all global labor and employment law matters and leads employment dispute and litigation services across various business lines, including government solutions and technology solutions.

Wright has also been involved in shaping KBR’s overall business strategy at a critical time for the company. Although KBR was once a traditional energy and construction company, it is now focused on science, technology, and systems engineering. To that end, it is training astronauts at NASA facilities and recently won a $400 million contract to provide other missioncritical space support services.

Last year, the retired Air Force officer leveraged his leadership skills to make an impact as part of KBR’s inclusion and diversity council.

“Teamwork and a sense of belonging are critical values in the military and at KBR,” Wright says.

“People need to feel a connection to work that matters.” Wright is helping lead the strategy for developing education and training around courageous conversations, unconscious bias, and corporate responses, all of which will help employees thrive as KBR becomes an “even more inclusive workplace.”

Wright has found a home at KBR. It’s a workplace where he can unite his military service and his leadership experience to effect real change. “I’m in a great place,” he says. “I get to operate as if I am a civilian JAG working in a Fortune 500 company.”

Maynard Cooper & Gale:

“It is such a privilege to work with Victor, and not just on a professional level but on a personal level as well. Victor has a laser-like focus on his client’s business goals. We look forward to continuing to work with Victor and his team at KBR.”

–Matthew Stiles, Shareholder | Labor, Employment & Benefits

The Kullman Firm:

“Victor is a savvy problem-solver who is always thinking outside of the box. His creative leadership and dedication are unparalleled, and he is truly an asset to KBR and his team.”

–Sam Zurik, Shareholder

Family Spirit, Global Stage

Hiro Oshima works to preserve the unique cultural identity of Sumitomo

Mitsui Banking Corporation and SMBC Group through the legal department

By Dan Caffrey

HIRO OSHIMA DIDN’T KNOW IT AT THE TIME, BUT his childhood experiences were priming him for a decades-long stint as a legal leader at a major financial corporation.

As the son of a diplomat, Oshima grew up moving back and forth between Japan and the United States. He eventually settled in the US, attending Carleton College in Minnesota and New York University School of Law.

“I consider myself to be truly native to both places,” Oshima says. “Whether Japanese or English is more accessible to me changes from time to time.”

Today, that cultural flexibility serves him well in his position as managing director, general manager, head of the legal department, and deputy US general counsel at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and SMBC Group (SMBC), a multinational Japanese financial services institution that continues to grow its presence in the Americas.

Oshima came to SMBC nearly twenty years ago, when the organization needed someone to bridge the cultural gap between its lawyers—who, at the time, were all American—and its Japanese bankers. Prior

to his arrival, Oshima says, business meetings were confounding affairs where neither side felt certain that the other fully understood its concerns.

“When I was hired, the two different sides (legal and business) thought they both had me as their fly on the wall, their mole on the other side,” Oshima remembers with a laugh. “I wasn’t quite sure if they knew that the other was saying the exact same thing to me, but that’s how I ended up here. My role is to be the problem-solver—to get everyone to understand where the other side is coming from and to establish a network of trust so that people can admit to their faults and failures, learn from them, and move on. Companies can’t survive on perfectionism.”

As Oshima explains, the differences between Japanese and American work cultures are nuanced and complex. The most prominent is that in the US, the individual takes precedence, whereas in Japan, it’s more about the company as a whole. Neither outlook is inherently better or worse, he says, and both have their advantages and disadvantages.

At SMBC specifically, there’s also a strong emphasis on the long-term view, which likely comes from the organization’s age and history. The Sumitomo family business traces its roots to 1590, and SMBC employees see the impact of that longevity every day. Oshima recalls a time when an elderly widow called him and said that her husband had been a client of a Sumitomo Bank in Hawaii prior to World War II. He had recently died, and she wanted to see what had happened to his account.

“I reached out to my colleagues in Tokyo, and against all odds, they knew where it was,” Oshima says. “The account at the Hawaii branch in the early 1940s was transferred immediately upon the breakout of war to a Hiroshima branch. Obviously, that branch was severely affected by the events at the end of the war, but the accounts had been transferred on paper to yet another branch. The records of that account kept getting transferred around, but we were able to find it seventy years later. I don’t think any other institution in the world would have been able to track that money down.”

Over the past ten years, Oshima has worked to preserve this legacy—while also making the necessary changes for the future—by building out the

Hiro Oshima Managing Director, General Manager, Head of Legal Department, and Deputy US General Counsel Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

Courtesy of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

Hiro Oshima

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

A brilliant legal mind

A trusted and collaborative colleague

A true asset to his field

legal team, one employee at a time. When he first started at SMBC, he was the company’s first Japanese-speaking attorney in the US, and the legal team comprised only seven people. Today, the team is thirty people strong, with 20 percent of its hires brought on board between November 2020 and January 2021.

“My intention has always been to surround myself with people who are far more qualified and smarter than me,” Oshima says. “The tremendous growth we’ve achieved can’t be done without hiring from outside.” He describes the ideal candidate as someone who not only possesses the raw legal abilities essential to an organization as large and complex as SMBC but also understands the unique cultural space in which the company operates, especially as it continues to expand its international footprint.

“We need the fresh ideas that are being brought in to stimulate growth and change,” Oshima says. “But we need to do that while keeping the soul of SMBC—while not losing track of what makes us unique and good. There’s a lot of talent out there that won’t fit.”

Of course, Oshima acknowledges, SMBC’s identity will likely change in the future. As the world slowly makes its way out of the COVID19 pandemic and the economic turmoil that has come with it, he predicts that the organization will reach a cultural crossroads—a time when it can truly claim its identity as a global institution.

“Ten or twenty years from now,” Oshima says, “I want to look back and say that we evolved through this period while still keeping our heart.”

Paul Hastings:

“Hiro is smart, hard-working, and thoughtful with deep legal experience and unparalleled knowledge of SMBC and its business. We always look forward to working with Hiro.”

–Michael Spafford and Eric Schwitzer, Partners

Picking Up the Slack

By Donald Fricke

OFFICE WORKFORCES AROUND THE

world were jolted by the late 2020 news that Salesforce had acquired Slack, the most popular business communication platform bar none, for a jaw-dropping $27.7 billion, the largest tech merger in two years. In 2019, Slack reported more than 12 million daily active users from more than 600,000 registered developers.

This isn’t Salesforce’s first foray into social connection apps. The 2011 acquisition of Radian6 laid the foundation of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud. The 2016 acquisition of content collaboration platform Quip would quickly morph into Salesforce Quip. And the 2018 acquisition of MuleSoft gained Salesforce significant integration capabilities.

“Salesforce started the cloud revolution, and two decades later, we are still

tapping into all the possibilities it offers to transform the way we work. The opportunity we see together is massive,” said Slack CEO and Cofounder Stewart Butterfield in a statement. “As software plays a more and more critical role in the performance of every organization, we share a vision of reduced complexity, increased power and flexibility, and ultimately a greater degree of alignment and organizational agility. Personally, I believe this is the most strategic combination in the history of software, and I can’t wait to get going.”

Slack will be integrated into the already existing Salesforce Cloud, furthering one of the most popular customer relationship management systems in the world. The deal will likely be completed in the second quarter of 2022. Vice President and

Associate General Counsel Sue Hahm Walker will play a critical role in the merger. The thirteen-year Salesforce veteran currently acts as head of global labor and employment and will assist in bridging the cultures of the two companies.

Walker took on acting employment counsel roles for Salesforce in 2011, building out labor and employment experience over the last decade as well as rising through several promotions. Outside the office, Walker has worked on behalf of nonprofit Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) to address the need for legal services for unaccompanied, immigrating minors.

For Salesforce, the Slack deal comes at a critical time for communication services for all businesses. With so many companies sending their workers

Amidst a pandemic, Salesforce proposes a merger with one of the most widely used work-from-home apps in the world

home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, chat and instant messaging (IM) has become more critical than ever in the workplace. Slack had already become the dominant interaction platform for these exchanges pre-pandemic, and there’s no doubt it took on millions of new users as a result of the stay-at-home orders. John Kim at Forbes estimated its daily usage somewhere around 20 million users since most office workers went home.

Salesforce’s president and COO Bret Taylor has called Slack “the central nervous system for teams that use it,” and the company has no plans to change its important role in collaboration, merely to expand it.

For a future that was imagined as video-only, chat and IM functions have continued to hold the dominant role in most office communication. Meetings are for the big moments. Chat is for literally everything else. As a population, we FaceTime much less than we text. Slack’s chat, multiple channels, and multi-format integration is a big win for Salesforce.

As the Slack deal unfolds, Salesforce has also taken action to aid the pandemic response in coalition with companies like Microsoft and Oracle. These companies are working to develop a digital passport for vaccination records.

“As the world begins to recover from the pandemic, having electronic access to vaccination, testing, and other medical records will be vital to resuming travel and more,” said Mike Sicilia, executive vice president of Oracle global business units, in a statement. The tech companies are part of a broader Vaccine Credential Initiative which includes other organizations like MITRE, Mayo Clinic, Evernorth, The Commons Project Foundation, and CARIN Alliance.

We are proud to work alongside Sue Hahm Walker and the Salesforce team. Our deepest congratulations to Sue for her success and contributions to the legal industry.

Volkswagen’s David Detweiler ushered the company through its toughest moment. Now he’s helping to push it into the future.

By Billy Yost

Finally, Forward

THERE WASN’T A SEND-OFF PARTY for David Detweiler when he elected to go in-house. It’s not because the former law firm partner and Air Force veteran wasn’t well-loved. There just wasn’t any time. The executive vice president and general counsel at the Volkswagen Group of America arrived a day after receiving a call from Volkswagen AG’s general counsel to get on a plane to take over the legal department at the auto giant in the midst of one of its most difficult moments. A well-publicized diesel emissions crisis was at its peak, and Detweiler's move to the US in 2016 was fast-tracked in order to help the company’s legal department find its footing and begin the process of earning back its customers’ trust.

Detweiler had just left private practice in Frankfurt and was at Volkswagen AG, expecting to head to the US six months later. “I literally called my wife from the airport to let her know we were moving,” Detweiler says, laughing. “I landed on the ground and stepped into a department that was facing a litigation firestorm.”

At this point, the GC is able to look back on his arrival with satisfaction. Volkswagen exited its independent compliance monitorship in September 2020. There may still be lingering litigation from the six-year-old investigation, but the legal department at Volkswagen can see a light at the end of the tunnel, a light to the future, and one powered by electricity.

Stay in Your Lane

The man Volkswagen turned to in its time of need is no stranger to leadership. Detweiler attended officer training school in the Air Force and remained in the Air Force Reserves for years after his active service and a recall to active duty

App Assistance

David Detweiler says he’s especially proud of the work Volkswagen has done during COVID-19 to ensure safety for all sixty-one of its United States locations. The GC commends Volkswagen team members who were instrumental in developing a self-screening app that can be used to monitor employee health. After answering a questionnaire, the app generates a permission screen for employees to use to go on-premises, if appropriate. It’s a novel concept, and part of a much larger commitment that Detweiler says has been imperative for many of Volkswagen’s employees who didn’t have the benefit of working from home during a pandemic. He says, “We want our employees to understand that we are doing everything we can for them so they can have as normal a life as possible.”

David Detweiler EVP and General Counsel Volkswagen Group of America

following 9/11, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. “One of the things the military did so well was differentiate between managing and leading,” the GC says. “Part of leadership is about tapping into your team’s potential and understanding that the team is the essence of how anything gets done.” Private industry may not be the battlefield, but that focus on teamwork has long served Detweiler.

In private practice, Detweiler says that he would measure anyone going up for a partnership not just by how they treated the other partners but by something much deeper. “I wanted to know what the people working in the copy room or in the support staff thought about a person who was up for a partnership,” he explains. “Those people could give us great insights into who the partner candidates really were.”

That measurement harkens back to both Detweiler’s military training as well as his focus on the sum total of his team. “This might just be an Air Force thing, but the people flying planes are dependent on the ground crew,” he explains. “If you’ve got a problem with your ground crew, you’re not going to be effective. There may be a hierarchy, but those people

We congratulate

David Detweiler of Volkswagen Group of America for his outstanding career and contributions to the legal profession.

“Part of leadership is about tapping into your team’s potential and understanding that the team is the essence of how anything gets done.”

at the top are just as dependent on the people down the line, and the guy turning a wrench on a plane may have a great idea how we can do something better. That’s how I’ve approached all of my roles.”

“David embodies many qualities that you want in a leader, but some that jump out include his ability to understand multiple viewpoints to build consensus decision-making as well as his quiet and effective tenacity on key issues,” says Jonathan Redgrave, managing partner of Redgrave. “David’s leadership has been invaluable in helping the company and his team navigate challenging issues and times.”

At a company as big as Volkswagen, Detweiler says it’s a balance to be able to create a cross flow of ideas while also realizing that lanes are respected and adhered to. Maintaining that balance is one the GC takes seriously.

Darkness Into Light

Neither the military nor private practice has posed the biggest challenge for Detweiler. That prize goes to his first day at Volkswagen Group of America and the ensuing effort to create something good out of a difficult situation. “I had a relationship with Volkswagen’s legal department prior to joining, and it seemed like a very amicable, very pleasant place to be,” the GC says. “Suddenly there was this upheaval, and I was thrust into the situation to try and help the team go in a different direction.”

“David’s ability to manage complex, high-profile, high-stakes matters with grace under pressure is best of class,” says Bret A. Cohen, partner at Nelson Mullins. “His truly collaborative approach with outside counsel, combined with his decades of experience,

Expertise Spotlight

Nelson Mullins is a multioffice professional services organization, providing traditional legal services along with state and federal government consulting and government relations services. The firm has more than 850 attorneys and government relations professionals practicing in 25 offices throughout the country. With more than one hundred diversified practice areas, Nelson Mullins can provide creative solutions to complex legal and business problems.

We are ranked sixty-eighth in The American Lawyer (AmLaw) 100, and our client base includes Fortune 500 as well as mid- and small-cap companies. Our lawyers are leaders in the profession, with five past presidents of DRI—The Voice of the Defense Bar and four past presidents of Lawyers for Civil Justice.

Nelson Mullins is committed to diversity and active in serving our community. We provided more than forty-eight thousand pro bono hours in 2020 and have received numerous recognitions for our diversity efforts and community and professional service.

Our firm is rooted in entrepreneurship, which has been part of our culture for more than one hundred years.

Hallmarks of our culture and values include:

• Unwavering client commitment

• Seeking justice for those in need

• Commitment to inclusive excellence

• Improving lives in our communities

• Thinking beyond the law

Among our other many practice areas, Nelson Mullins represents regional, national, and international franchisors, distributors, and multiunit franchisees. Our franchise and distribution clients range from start-up companies to established franchisors and cover industries, including restaurants and food service, hotel and hospitality, vehicle manufacturers and distributors, real estate brokerage, tax preparation services, retail stores, commercial office cleaning, health-related services, amateur and professional sports leagues, and other commercial and consumer-based services.

In addition to our presence in twenty-four other states, Nelson Mullins serves the needs of our growing list of regional and national clients from the Massachusetts capital. Boston office attorneys and professionals provide corporate and litigation services in, among other areas, employment and labor, intellectual property, bankruptcy, business litigation, bad faith and extracontractual litigation, directors and officers liability coverage, products liability, multiclaims and class action litigation, and white-collar defense and government investigations, among others.

For more information, visit us at nelsonmullins.com.

Expertise Spotlight

Redgrave is one of the largest law firms focused solely on information law issues, including e-discovery, information governance, data privacy, and cybersecurity. This exclusive focus allows us to drill deeper into issues and apply our knowledge and experience across our diverse client base to address cutting-edge issues and develop innovative solutions. In 2020, the firm was recognized by Chambers USA as the leading law firm in the United States for e-discovery and information governance.

We are unique in that we combine the talents of lawyers with those of other technical and business professionals. This blend of professional talent and experience lets us explore, recommend, and execute solutions from a holistic viewpoint of the business and not just from the angle of legal risk.

Over the past ten years, Redgrave has helped numerous Fortune and Global 500 corporations establish global processes and guidelines to improve efficiencies, reduce costs, and diminish risks across a wide range of cases and matters. In this same time period, Redgrave has also assisted multiple clients and law firms in navigating discovery, privilege, confidentiality, and sanctions issues in “bet the company” litigation and investigations.

leads to the best possible results. We are honored to work with David and delighted to see Modern Counsel recognize his extraordinary talents.”

Helping to bring Volkswagen through the monitorship is a milestone on its own, but Detweiler says there are better things that have been born out of tribulation. “This has all led to absolute transformation for the company,” he notes. “I’m privileged to sit on the board of Electrify America, which is building the largest open network of charging stations in the US. It has become an absolute priority to build out the charging infrastructure to move us all into the electric vehicle future.”

Volkswagen committed to both the Paris Climate Agreement and the California Framework Agreement on emissions. Detweiler says that after the lessons learned from the diesel crisis, Volkswagen has implemented environmental and product management systems and other initiatives that require it to analyze how its actions affect the environment, and the company wants to be the leader in the space.

The company’s “Darkness Into Light” ad campaign has served as a metaphor for Detweiler’s tenure with the company. He came in under a shadow and is just now

“I’d like to think one of my highlights here has been a return to normalcy, but I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been there.”

getting the time to start planning strategically instead of reacting. “I’d like to think one of my highlights here has been a return to normalcy, but I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been there,” he says, laughing.

Detweiler isn’t paying lip service about climate impact. The GC has been committed to lessening his own environmental footprint for years. He installed solar panels on his home, and he drives an Audi e-tron, the first fully electric SUV offered by the company. “If we charge the car while the sun is shining, the juice is going straight into the car’s battery,” Detweiler says. “I love to tell my kids that we’re literally driving on sunshine.”

King & Spalding:

"King & Spalding congratulates David Detweiler on his well-deserved recognition from Modern Counsel for his work as executive vice president and general counsel for Volkswagen Group of America. Having worked closely with David for many years, I am consistently impressed by his thoughtfulness, diligence, and integrity."

–Grant Nakayama, Partner

Steptoe is proud to congratulate David Detweiler, Executive VP and GC of Volkswagen Group of America

King & Spalding congratulates and is proud to partner with David Detweiler, who is keeping Volkswagen in the lead.

www.steptoe.com

CONGRATULATIONS DAVID

Redgrave LLP is one of the largest law firms nationwide focused solely on issues related to information: how information is managed, litigated, and protected. We assist clients regarding complex issues on eDiscovery in litigation and investigations, information governance, corporate transactions and restructuring, and data privacy and cybersecurity.

We call our practice Information Law.

Redgrave LLP is ranked as the only top tier (Band 1) law firm in the United States in the area

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

Long-Term Investment

Mark Snyder often spends years working on a single case at Qualcomm. But no matter how long it takes, he sees nothing but potential in the company’s innovations.

By Natalie Kochanov Portraits by Patrick Strattner

MARK SNYDER BECAME AWARE OF the power of innovation at a young age. Throughout his career, and now as a senior vice president and the head of litigation at wireless technology company Qualcomm, Snyder has taken to heart lessons about Thomas Edison and other famous inventors throughout history.

“I’ve always been fascinated by inventors,” Snyder says. “I grew up thinking about how people got ideas, how they protected those ideas, and how they made a business out of them.”

As an adult, Snyder transformed those interests into a successful career

in intellectual property (IP) law. Since joining Qualcomm more than thirteen years ago, he has used his in-depth legal knowledge to litigate foundational cases, thereby preserving the company’s cutting-edge advancements. Beyond standing up for the company and its innovations, he has also established an environment conducive to collaboration, even on projects that take years to come to fruition.

Snyder began his technical training at the University of Rochester, where he earned a degree in chemical engineering. He then simultaneously pursued

a JD and an MBA at Boston College as a next step toward working with— and protecting—the types of innovations that he had always admired. “My thinking was that if I was going to take ideas and create business opportunities out of them, I should understand the fundamentals of how businesses work,” Snyder explains.

Upon completing his schooling, Snyder accepted a role at IP law firm Sheridan, Ross & McIntosh (now Sheridan Ross). At the firm, he drafted patents, licensed and transferred technologies, and started to handle IP

Mark Snyder SVP and Head of Litigation

litigation—including a case involving the type of technology now commonly used to microchip pets.

Snyder entered in-house practice by participating in a leveraged buyout of an advanced composite materials company with a friend. “I was the sole lawyer there, so I oversaw the entire legal function and handled all kinds of legal matters,” he recalls. His duties ranged from resolving employment disputes to managing the company’s laboratories.

Following the sale of the company five years later, Snyder took a role at a privately owned electronics manufacturer in the telecommunications industry. Afterward, he decided to join Kyocera Wireless (now Kyocera International), a Qualcomm spinoff producing cell phones and handsets. During his five years as lead IP counsel, Snyder led Kyocera’s patent portfolio development, IP litigation, and licensing negotiation efforts.

When he transitioned to his current role at Qualcomm proper, Snyder gained global oversight of the company’s litigation and regulatory matters on top of his ethics, IP, antitrust, and compliance responsibilities. “My day-to-day activities involve issues that often transcend national borders,” he explains. “I also spend a lot of time thinking about potential disputes and how we will meet those future challenges.”

Snyder’s proactive mindset stems in part from Qualcomm’s relatively small docket of ongoing litigation. However, this lull comes mere months after the company received a major victory in an antitrust case in front of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

“At its core, the case was a dispute over what Qualcomm was charging as royalties for its IP,” elaborates Snyder, who expects the ruling to shift the

perception of IP licensing across the industry. “The outcome vindicated our business practices. I hope that courts and regulatory agencies will start to recognize that similar commercial disputes can be resolved without bringing antitrust law into the picture.”

Leading up to the FTC’s benchmark ruling, Snyder spent years crafting Qualcomm’s response to the complaint in close collaboration with his team. Many of his cases, he says, play out over long periods of time—a Japanese FTC case took ten years to resolve favorably.

Considering the typical timelines, Snyder places a warranted emphasis on hiring team members who possess the necessary endurance and drive to see a case through from start to finish. “The people on my team have not only the perspective to understand that these matters take a long time but also a dedication to—and a belief in—the company and in what we’re doing,” he says.

From a leadership point of view, Snyder seeks to embody the same level of dedication and composure that he looks for in his team. In addition, he encourages his team members to take on tasks that will improve their skill sets, and he acknowledges individual contributions when the team succeeds.

“I want to create a team environment where people know what their roles are and how those roles fit into our overall strategy, where they receive credit for their work, and where they can shine,” Snyder emphasizes. Open communication and a shared vision each factor into his approach, which extends to parties outside Qualcomm as well. In those situations, he tries to insert the external party into the internal team to better align their goals and perspectives.

“We’re always trying to remain competitive, to keep our inspiration alive, and to protect the company.”

Goldstein & Russell, P.C., congratulates Qualcomm’s General Counsel, Mark Snyder, for his incredible leadership in successfully defeating every allegation launched against the company by the United States Federal Trade Commission.

e FTC sued Qualcomm in 2017, alleging that Qualcomm had violated the antitrust laws in the CDMA and 4G LTE modem chip market. After a 10-day trial, the district court ruled for the FTC on every one of its claims, and entered an injunction that would have cost the company tens of billions of dollars. But Mark persisted. Guided by his leadership, Qualcomm won a unanimous reversal on appeal before the Ninth Circuit, which overruled the district court in every meaningful respect. Congratulations, Mark, on this well-deserved victory.

www.goldsteinrussell.com

As emerging spaces such as 5G and the Internet of Things open up further opportunities for wireless innovation, Snyder believes that Qualcomm’s products will become increasingly integral to everyday life. With new opportunities, however, come new challenges—especially in a hypercompetitive global industry.

“We get out ahead with our strategic planning, sometimes years before we begin to see cases that directly impact Qualcomm,” Snyder says. “We’re always trying to remain competitive, to keep our inspiration alive, and to protect the company.”

“It’s been a privilege to work with Mark and his team,” says Cravath, Swaine & Moore Partner Gary Bornstein. “He always sees how the pieces fit together and how individual cases around the world link up with the company’s long-term strategic goals.”

As he endeavors to anticipate changes to US and international laws that may impact Qualcomm, Snyder also seeks to minimize misconceptions about the company and its IP program. He argues that instead of hurting competition in the market, the company’s innovations incentivize investment and drive forward economic growth.

“I’ve long been committed to the idea that intellectual property promotes economic welfare and economic good,” Snyder says. “We want people to see Qualcomm not as a problem but as a company that creates solutions.”

Keker, Van Nest & Peters, LLP:

“Mark has cases literally around the world to worry about. Despite that, when we were in trial, he was in court with us every day, helping guide important strategic decisions, providing keen business insight, and ensuring that everyone knew how much the company appreciated all of the hard work.”

–Gene Paige, Partner

The Tools to Protect Yourself

SEAN HANLEY’S ANNOUNCEMENT that he was going to law school surprised his colleagues, many of whom assumed that Hanley was already an attorney. Indeed, he held multiple legal-oriented roles and educated himself on topics such as data privacy and consumer protection long before beginning his degree at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

His early legal roles broadened Hanley’s perspective on the paths available to attorneys beyond working at law firms. “I realized that I could be embedded in a company and help figure out how to solve problems,” he says.

That’s exactly what Hanley does today as an associate general counsel at e-commerce company Wish. To succeed in the multifaceted position, he applies not only the legal knowledge that he has accumulated over the years but also other elements of his nontraditional background. The role brings together his diverse areas of expertise, which in turn allow him to protect the interests of both Wish and its users as the company scales up.

Hanley started his journey toward Wish in an unlikely arena: government and politics. As far removed as this space may seem from e-commerce, it was where Hanley first got a taste for legal research and related services. Law remained a through line in his subsequent roles, which included serving as a license and contracts administrator at record label Six Degrees Records and as director of product compliance at social game developer Zynga.

By Natalie Kochanov

At Zynga in particular, Hanley took on responsibilities that prepared him for the nature of his current role at Wish. “I was brought in to do online brand enforcement, but the role quickly blossomed into developing a close

After a nontraditional start to his legal career, Sean Hanley of Wish has found his niche at the intersection of product work and data privacy

Sean Hanley Associate General Counsel Wish

relationship with key people on the product teams,” he says of working at Zynga.

In addition to familiarizing himself with Zynga’s internal operations and back-end development, Hanley taught himself what he needed to know to lead the company’s privacy initiatives. Still, after several years in the role, he felt that the time was right to hone his legal skill set even further by pursuing a law degree.

Hanley accepted a corporate counsel role at electronic agreement company DocuSign right out of law school. He stayed at DocuSign until learning of an opportunity at Wish, which he joined as a senior counsel in 2018.

Since then, Hanley has handled a number of complex compliance and litigation matters for Wish. At the core of his duties, however, is his oversight of consumer-facing aspects of the company. “I work

closely with the product team because I need to understand how our app and user interface work to ensure compliance with the law,” Hanley explains. The technical terminology and communication skills that he acquired through his product work at Zynga inform those interactions.

By staying up-to-date on how Wish describes its features and engages with users, Hanley positions himself to address issues in the present and to mitigate risks for the future. As was the case at Zynga, consumer protection and data privacy feature heavily in his day-to-day activities at Wish. He believes strongly in maintaining transparency and considering how the company can create value for users when using data in new ways.

“Part of protecting consumers is giving them the tools to protect themselves,” Hanley says. “I want to make sure that users understand how our features work, why we’re collecting data, and how they can manage their preferences.”

Hanley prioritizes transparency and trust when it comes to in-app content as well. Although Wish merchants generate their own product listings, the company strives to maintain the listings’ accuracy to facilitate the decision-making process for potential buyers. For Hanley, that means working together with Wish’s content team to set listing guidelines and to help determine how to proceed in instances where merchants violate those guidelines.

That attention to detail always impresses the partners Hanley interacts with on a daily basis. “We have been honored to work with Sean,” says Lauri Mazzuchetti, a partner at Kelley Drye & Warren. “He has been integral to Wish’s legal compliance and success and brings out the best in both his in-house teams and outside counsel. We thoroughly enjoy our collaboration.”

As the business scales up, Hanley keeps pace by looking around the corner, both internally and externally. Externally, he monitors new legislation and court decisions that may impact Wish’s operations. Internally, he encourages teams across the company to key in the legal function at the planning stages so that they can identify concerns prior to rollout. “We stay engaged with the teams and give them input that they can build into their road maps,” he says.

Courtesy of Wish

Hanley strikes a balance between resolving urgent problems as soon as possible and implementing risk-based legal and compliance approaches that unfold over time. In both scenarios, he exercises his judgment and natural skepticism to Wish’s benefit. “It’s in everyone’s interest to ask hard questions, especially when the answers to those questions may indicate that we need to make changes,” he says.

Close to three years into his tenure at Wish, Hanley is proud of the relationships that he has built with internal teams and company leadership. His achievements also include strengthening the documentation and processes surrounding user agreements, updates to them, and contract negotiation with service providers to increase company-wide efficiency and consistency.

“We’re at a point now where a lot of my work comes down to making things more sustainable and more structured,” Hanley says. “We understand many of the core issues and we’ve had some success, so we need to start investing more heavily in the organizational policies, procedures, and tools.”

Despite clearing the initial hurdles, Hanley doesn’t expect his role to slow down moving forward. It’s part of what he enjoys about working at a company full of creative and talented individuals. “I’ll always have something new to look at and to provide advice about,” he says. He wouldn’t have it any other way.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR FRIEND

SEAN HANLEY

ON WELL-DESERVED RECOGNITION OF HIS LEGAL CAREER AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS.

Kelley Drye is proud to partner with Sean and Wish.

Quality Over Quandary

Insight Partners’ Andrew Prodromos explains how he views his legal work in the most tangible terms possible, especially in the wake of COVID-19

ANDREW PRODROMOS RECOGNIZES how easy it is to get lost in the weeds when discussing law. But when it comes to putting it into practice as deputy general counsel and chief compliance officer of Insight Partners, he strives for an outlook that prioritizes tangibility.

“Treat your work like a woodshop,” Prodromos advises. “If you think about a carpenter fashioning a widget or a figurine, it’s a product they create. To take that into a lawyer’s context, you build both your reputation and your credibility in the rapport with the people you work with. Are you being responsive to their requests? Are you giving them useful, practical, tailored

advice? When you give them markups of contracts and legal documents, are you being thoughtful, and do you know your audience? Every little bit of work you do is a creation or product that goes out the door. It has to be consistently high quality, as both your colleagues and your reputation depend on it.”

Insight Partners describes itself as one of the largest investors in software “scale-ups”—companies that have evolved from the start-up phase into a more streamlined growth trajectory. And to make good on the woodshop metaphor, Prodromos explains that the organization rigorously adheres to a foundational set of core values: heart,

By Dan Caffrey

creativity, a commitment to reinvention, and scrappy entrepreneurship. It’s that last value that comes up the most in Prodromos’s conversation with Modern Counsel , especially when it comes to establishing relationships with new prospects.

“It’s getting in front of them at a conference or finding creative ways to make a connection with them,” Prodromos says. “We’ve had people who sourced a deal by going on a run in Central Park with a founder. We have a million stories like that.”

As far as Prodromos’s own day-to-day work goes, he describes himself as both a generalist and a specialist, as exemplified by the dual roles in his job title. The deputy general counsel half of the equation encompasses a wider breadth of responsibilities: everything from human resources to marketing, public relations matters, and vendor contracts—not to mention all of the other tasks an in-house lawyer would take on at any other corporation. Because Insight Partners is also a private equity fund, there’s the added wrinkle of deal negotiations and fundraising work. Prodromos’s role as chief compliance officer is where his work becomes more niche.

“Compliance is a rapidly developing area in the sense that regulators always have new things they’re focused on,” Prodromos says. Some of those current areas include cybersecurity, data privacy, and, for European investors, ESG (environmental, social, and governance).

Cybersecurity, in particular, became an even higher-level and more complicated concern in 2020. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the sheer number of people who began working remotely created a vulnerable environment for malicious actors to exploit.

“There’s always the pioneering hacker out there coming up with the next new thing, so you have to remain hypervigilant at all times,” Prodromos says. “Cybersecurity has been a huge focus for us for the past several years. How can we be robust as possible? It really requires a cross-functional team effort within our organization.”

On Prodromos’s end, that means maintaining a high level of flexibility, responsiveness, and quality within Insight Partners’ legal team, composed of himself and Blair Flicker, managing director and general counsel.

“We’ve always prided ourselves on being lean and mean,” Prodromos notes, once again citing the company’s core value of scrappy entrepreneurship. “Blair and I think of Insight Partners as our client, and we’re singularly focused on delivering the highest level of service to them. We have to make sure we’re always moving at the speed of the deal, which for Insight, is light speed.”

Another crucial element of Insight Partners’ legal team is their strong partnership with outside counsel at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.

“They’re our one-stop shop, soup-tonuts legal services provider,” Prodromos says. “We’ve developed a close relationship with a core group of lawyers that works with us nonstop. That’s been immensely helpful because it allows Blair and me to focus on matters that really require our attention.”

Prodromos talks about the folks at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP as if they’re coworkers. That’s because, up until just a few years ago, they were. From 2012 to 2018, he was an associate at the firm as an M&A and private equity-focused attorney. Although his move to Insight Partners broadened the

“We’ve always been pushing a lot of companies through their journey toward digital transformation. The last twelve months has shown how rapidly that can occur.”

Expertise Spotlight

Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP represents more than three hundred US and international private equity sponsors as well as portfolio companies, management teams, issuers, debt providers, and financial advisors. Our focus is on building long-standing, trusted relationships with our clients. Willkie’s 360-degree private equity platform provides life cycle legal counsel to clients, from fund formations, platform acquisitions, tuck-in acquisitions, carveouts, and joint ventures to bank credit and other debt financings, IPOs, SPACs, follow-on offerings, and ultimate exits. Willkie is one of the few major law firms to offer deep transactional, fund formation, and regulatory compliance experience, combined with sector-specific knowledge and a commercial approach.

scope of his work, he loves that he still collaborates so closely with his former colleagues. And they agree.

“Andrew is a very talented private equity attorney who adeptly navigates intricate and evolving compliance and regulatory hurdles while keeping his eye on the larger picture of achieving strategic goals,” says Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP Partner Morgan Elwyn.

“It’s a really symbiotic relationship,” Prodromos says.

Like most other companies on the planet, Insight Partners’ infrastructure was put to the test in March 2020, when the onset of COVID forced operations to transfer out of offices and into homes. Then again, the idea of going remote was, in many ways, already encoded in the DNA of Insight Partners and its portfolio.

“We’ve always been pushing a lot of companies through their journey toward digital transformation,” Prodromos says. “The last twelve months has shown how rapidly that can occur.”

When it came to Insight Partners’ own pivot toward digital, it was

also a logical move, since so many of the organization’s team members are deployed around the world in search of the next greatest software company. There was already a remote backbone in place built from cloud-based providers, Dropbox accounts, Office 365, and Virtual Private Networks.

“I give a lot of credit to our chief operating officer, Ian Sandler,” Prodromos says. “He was pounding the table in the several weeks leading up to the quarantine, insisting that we took this time to make sure that our employees were protected and that everything was very buttoned up.” Even though we were already in a good place to begin with, we spent those weeks leading up to quarantine moving a lot of mountains and preparing as if going completely remote was an eventuality and not just a risk.”

In other words, even though the woodshop may have temporarily changed its location, the work remains the same for Prodromos and his team: delivering a consistent product on time and with care, and never sacrificing quality even during a quandary.

“Cybersecurity has been a huge focus area for us the past several years. How can we be robust as possible? It really requires a cross-functional team effort within our organization.”

Facing the Unexpected

Carrie Parikh brings a passion for data privacy and proven track record as a quick study to Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, where she’s built privacy protection from the ground up

By Lucy Cavanagh

CARRIE PARIKH WAS BARELY SIX MONTHS INTO her tenure at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey—her first foray into the field of healthcare— when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Parikh serves as chief privacy officer and assistant general counsel, so the pandemic affects her work in a number of ways, bringing both healthcare and privacy law into uncharted territory. But for Parikh, unexpected challenges are par for the course; she’s faced more than her share in the course of her career.

When Parikh last spoke with Modern Counsel in 2018, she had recently been promoted to vice president of legal at Wyndham Hotels and Resorts. She’d been at the company for only a few months and had already been promoted to head of the privacy and data security legal group—just six weeks after she was hired, while she was still new to the practice of privacy law.

When asked to take on more responsibility, she rose to the challenge, but couldn’t help wondering if

she was truly ready for the undertaking: head of the global privacy program for one of the largest hotel groups in the world is no small role. “Women are particularly prone to impostor syndrome—up to the point of almost wanting to decline the opportunity you get,” Parikh says. She looked for guidance from her female mentors, who encouraged her to believe the people who saw her potential. “I learned a valuable lesson: if you can’t trust yourself, trust the people that trust you,” she says.

Throughout her time at Wyndham, Parikh was politically active and built a relationship with Phil Murphy while he was campaigning to become governor of New Jersey. She had many conversations with him about the growing importance of data privacy, which was largely unregulated—not just in the state but in the country at large. As it happened, those conversations ended up leading to her next career opportunity: when Murphy was elected, he

identified Parikh

Carrie Parikh

Chief Privacy Officer and Assistant General Counsel Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey

as the ideal candidate to spearhead the state’s privacy program as the chief officer.

Once again, Parikh felt a sliver of doubt. She had less than ten years of experience, and though she had run a global privacy program at Wyndham, the resources that she would have in a public service operation would be very different. Nevertheless, she took the plunge. “It was the biggest and most important challenge of my career,” Parikh reflects. “It is one that I met with all of the seriousness in the world.”

Under Parikh’s leadership, the state of New Jersey put into place a number of initiatives designed to protect citizens’ data. Those efforts included drafting both the first data breach incident response plan and a statewide data governance response plan, along with strategies and policies designed to synergize cybersecurity and privacy. They also built a data response team. “For the first time we were able to tell the citizens and residents, ‘This is how we treat your data. These are the protections we have

in place. This is who we share it with,’” Parikh explains. “Even something as simple as having a place for citizens or residents to call—that didn’t exist prior to my role.”

Parikh’s next career move placed her where she is today, at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield. She handles privacy protocols at the company both internally and externally. “There’s the educational component, [which entails] going out into the company and ensuring that our workforce is fully up to speed on all things privacy related, including how to treat data, how to share data, when not to share data, and when to raise the alarm,” Parikh says.

When the pandemic struck and sent a huge part of the workforce home, it also changed the privacy landscape in ways that were previously unimaginable. “In the US, an employer has pretty much unfettered rights to monitor their employees, but the laws never contemplated 90 percent of the workforce working at the kitchen table,” Parikh explains.

“The current laws are not sufficient in balancing an individual’s right to privacy, particularly as it relates to sensitive information regarding health, [with the need to] stem the tides of this pandemic,” Parikh continues. “It is an absolutely delicate balance, but it’s one that we have to find.”

Parikh remains optimistic and, true to form, eager to learn. She believes that even though there are no previous statutes or cases to look to for guidance in the area of data privacy, it’s an opportunity to discover and build systems that ensure people’s protection. “We’re constantly having to adjust as we learn new things, so it has just been a whirlwind,” she says.

Rajiv Parikh

“Women are particularly prone to impostor syndrome— up to the point of almost wanting to decline the opportunity you get.”

A World of Difference

At multinational Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley, seasoned dealmaker Chandra Mitchell has helped build a venture capital business from the ground up

By Natalie Kochanov

SILICON VALLEY START-UP CULTURE might seem incompatible with historic Japanese business practices. However, Chandra Mitchell knows a thing or two about capitalizing on differing perspectives.

“The most demanding aspect of the job is ensuring that, as the venture capital arm, we provide Yamaha Motor access to cutting-edge technologies as well as the start-up companies that create them. This requires having an intimate awareness of Yamaha’s existing portfolio of products as well as a broader insight into its vision for the future. At the end of the day, success

in our endeavors requires seamless collaboration and communication between Silicon Valley and Japan,” says Mitchell, chief operating officer and general counsel at Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley (YMVSV), the venture capital arm of Japanese mobility company Yamaha Corporation. “When we work as one, we create something really special.”

In Mitchell’s eyes, that “something” is a US venture capital operating arm that reflects the values of its parent company while still having what it takes to thrive in its local environment. Mitchell has mastered this balancing act in

her dual role at YMVSV. With her past experience to guide her, she has taken an active part in shaping the company and advancing its mission—one that speaks to the spirit of the venture capital fund and the parent alike.

YMVSV’s $100 million fund went into effect only a few months before Mitchell joined as GC. “It allowed me to set up our policies and procedures and to have key input into how we wanted to execute transactions,” Mitchell says of signing on in the company’s early stages.

Mitchell’s previous roles equipped her to take on these substantial responsibilities. After graduating from

Columbia Law School in 2000, she spent ten years handling mergers and acquisitions for private equity firms and multinational companies at Manhattan law firm Debevoise & Plimpton. The high-intensity position required her to interact with legal professionals and businesspeople around the world, overcoming language and cultural barriers to hammer out deals involving significant assets.

“I was charged with executing deals that fully addressed the wants and concerns of a number of different

stakeholders—and doing it efficiently,” Mitchell explains. “It taught me how to present ideas as well as how to be clear and precise in language.”

Mitchell applies the same communication skills and efficiency to her role at YMVSV. She also factors what she learned from her M&A work’s international scope into her current dealings. But Debevoise & Plimpton was just the beginning in this regard. “For my entire in-house career, I’ve served as a US lawyer for large, multinational corporations,” Mitchell explains.

Mitchell first went in-house at defense contractor DRS Technologies (now Leonardo DRS), which Italian defense company Finmeccanica had acquired. She next jumped to the Texas headquarters of Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota Motor Corporation. In each position, Mitchell expanded her in-house counseling repertoire and deepened her understanding of how to best maintain open channels of communication and effective collaboration between a US subsidiary and its international parent.

Furthermore, Mitchell’s role at Toyota allowed her to focus on the type of corporate venture capital investing that she now oversees at YMVSV: Toyota tasked her with executing transactions that extended the company’s footprint beyond manufacturing. Similarly, she seeks to bring the next generation of technology as well as new strategic alliances into the equation at YMVSV.

Of course, negotiating and executing deals constitutes only a portion of Mitchell’s purview these days. Since her promotion to COO, she manages YMVSV’s operational matters as well. Her duties range from administering external contracts and sponsorships to overseeing the company’s administrative, HR, and IT activities.

Chandra Mitchell Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley

In addition to increasing her impact on recruiting and company culture, Mitchell’s COO status enables her to exert greater influence on YMVSV’s future plans. Effective planning means remaining organized, anticipating upcoming challenges, and reacting quickly when problems arise—all skills that Mitchell honed long ago as a financial analyst and project manager at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), where she worked for several years before enrolling in law school.

At the top of our voice.

Mitchell needed to rely on her full arsenal of skills in 2020.

“COVID-19 was a huge test for us. We had to revamp a lot of how we do business and how we interact with each other,” she says, noting that she implemented measures at YMVSV to minimize interruptions to business operations during the pandemic.

As she continues to look around the corner, Mitchell has clear goals for YMVSV’s ongoing evolution. She hopes to broaden the company’s capabilities by building on its numerous investments to date. At the same time, she wants YMVSV to stay true to its Yamaha roots, despite its Silicon Valley location. Honoring those roots is especially important to Mitchell, who shares Yamaha’s steadfast commitment to innovation and sustainability.

“What I love about working at Yamaha is that it’s never only about Yamaha,” Mitchell says. “We’re looking for technologies that will absolutely make a difference in the world.”

With Mitchell at the helm, that difference has never been more in reach.

DLA Piper:

“As outside counsel, we have been lucky to work with Chandra on several transactions across a wide range of global jurisdictions. She has seamlessly driven numerous projects to completion and has a unique ability to solve complex issues. She is an excellent lawyer, and it has been a pleasure to work with her.”

–Richard Bull, Partner

Richard B. Bull, 4365 Executive Drive, Suite 1100, San Diego, CA 92121

Attorney Advertising | MRS000164933

DLA Piper is proud to recognize the many contributions of Chandra Mitchell in her work on behalf of Yamaha.

When to Focus on the Forest

Jill Van Dalen started off in the expansive world of project finance. Now, she applies a hyperspecific skill set to nuanced big picture work at energy company Calpine.

By Dan Caffrey

SOME KIDS WANT TO BE ASTRONAUTS. OTHERS want to be nurses or want to dig for dinosaur bones. But Jill Van Dalen, assistant general counsel at power company Calpine, recalls how her early career aspirations were more defined by what she didn’t want.

“As a young person, I was so afraid of being shoehorned into a particular career or industry,” she says. “I’m in my early forties, so I grew up during a time where everyone told me I’d have five or six careers in my life. I thought that I’d have to be flexible and train for all sorts of different situations.”

By the time she was a teenager, Van Dalen had developed an interest in law. But she still saw value in being a generalist. She gravitated toward the wide-reaching area of project finance, which she practiced as an associate at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in San Francisco.

“To be a good lawyer in that area, you have to know a lot of other different areas of law,” Van Dalen explains. “You have to know securities law, corporate law, environmental law, general contract law. I was really drawn to that because I thought I’d work in all

Jill Van Dalen Assistant General Counsel

different areas of what we basically call ‘transactional law’ and get a broad knowledge of everything I need to know in life to be successful.”

Despite her chosen area’s universality, Van Dalen soon found that all the deals she worked on in her first four years of practice with Calpine, one of the firm’s main clients, focused on a very specific topic: the energy space.

“Eventually, you become shoehorned, whether you like it or not, into an industry,” Van Dalen says with a laugh. “But the industry has been really good. I couldn’t have picked a better one.”

What particularly fascinates her about the energy sector is its legal and logistical complexities, especially when it comes to renewables. Van Dalen witnessed this firsthand when Calpine—whose seventy-seven power plants run off natural gas and geothermal resources—tasked her with helping establish a wind portfolio at a grassroots level.

“There are positives and negatives to everything,” she says. “One of the things that makes me a good lawyer is understanding that balance. There’s no deal out there that’s wholly beneficial for one party. You always have to take the negatives into account.”

In getting Calpine’s wind portfolio off the ground, Van Dalen strove for a nuanced understanding of the project’s advantages and disadvantages, frequently weighing and reevaluating the gains and losses involved. At the inception of the project, she liaised with Calpine’s outside counsel to locate a suitable stretch of land and gather support from the community and landowners.

“The team would say to me, ‘Jill, we need a lease that we can share with a hundred different landowners in this area to get the rights to construct a wind farm on their property,’” Van Dalen remembers. “So much of our activity very early on was setting up procedures and policies for how to handle a series of transactions that were much bigger than what we had usually done, just in terms of volume.”

Calpine’s outside counsel recall Van Dalen’s masterful handling of this multifaceted project. “What I am most impressed about [when] working with Jill is her intuitive strategic sense and rapid analysis of complex variables and outcomes for permitting wind projects in a state like New York,” says Jim Muscato, Kirsten

Getchell

Calpine

renewable energy practice leader at the law firm Young/Sommer, a boutique environmental and energy firm in Albany, New York.

In keeping with the philosophy of unflinching honesty and recognizing both the positives and negatives of any legal area, Van Dalen and her team divested the wind portfolio in 2020, five years after it was created.

“It turned out to require a commitment on behalf of the company that we didn’t think was the right fit for our business,” she explains. “I’m very proud of helping our executive team think through those issues so we could sell the portfolio to people who value those assets more than we do and make better use of them.”

Although Van Dalen—and Calpine as a whole— have moved on from the wind portfolio, she credits the project with evolving her into a better legal diplomat.

“That’s something that I’ve really grown into,” she says. “If you had asked me what my greatest strength was five or six years ago, I would have said being able to master a bunch of different details in my head and then explain how they interact to arrive at the right legal conclusion. And I would’ve said I was a really good drafter.

“But the wind portfolio project really tapped into a skill I didn’t know I had, which was reaching out to different people and soliciting their input, then helping everyone work through the most important details. What trees in the forest do we need to focus on, and what forest? When is it important to just focus on the forest? I am surprised at how intuitively I’m able to manage that.”

White & Case congratulates

Jill Van Dalen on her recognition by Modern Counsel

White & Case:

“Jill has that rare combination of superb legal judgment and business savvy, which allows her to seamlessly shepherd Calpine through complex transactions. It is truly a pleasure to work with Jill.”

–Michael Shenberg, Partner

“Eventually, you become shoehorned, whether you like it or not, into an industry. But the [energy] industry has been really good. I couldn’t have picked a better one.”

The Transparency of Privacy

THUMB THROUGH ANY ISSUE OF Modern Counsel from the past five years, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a copy without the word “privacy” written several dozen times in its pages. As the internet has continued to expand at a snowball’s pace, so have the concerns and regulations around how people’s data gets used.

By Dan Caffrey

But it’s easy to forget that, until fairly recently, privacy—at least from an online standpoint—was not as much of a front-of-mind concern. Kaaren Shalom, vice president and chief privacy officer at SiriusXM, remembers when the topic started attracting increased attention and prioritization. Before embarking on a legal career, she worked at Paramount Pictures, where she began to notice the change.

“I was brought into Paramount to work with the then-burgeoning world of the internet,” Shalom remembers. “I was working on developing marketing campaigns that were customer focused, in the sense that the interest was motivating the

As technology becomes increasingly connected to all facets of consumers’ lives, Kaaren Shalom shares how SiriusXM is ushering in a new era of privacy

customer in some way. Even early on, I realized the kind of information that we could see about the behavior of individuals—more than you would ever get from a TV ad or print ad. I became interested in privacy then, because more data means a little more exposure but also more insight. That’s the pro and con.”

Shalom began considering a career pivot after she and her family moved from Los Angeles back to the Dallas area, where she grew up. When she thought back on the internet issues that interested her most while at Paramount—intellectual property, the reconversion of contracts and use rights, and of course, privacy, to name a few—she realized that many of them were based in legal concepts. Applying to Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law seemed like a no-brainer.

Today, at SiriusXM, Shalom is broadly responsible for privacy matters at the enterprise’s ever-growing family of companies. This includes SiriusXM Beau

Bumpas

Kaaren Shalom VP and Chief Privacy Officer SiriusXM

Radio, as well as the streaming internet radio service Pandora and podcast platforms Stitcher and Simplecast.

“New products undergo privacy reviews as they are developed. And those are often split up in a number of organizations, so I’ll meet with each of them differently,” says Shalom, adding that she’s also heavily involved in the company’s ad-tech business, which is seeing a lot of fluidity in how laws are applied. “I work with the marketing team on their projected campaigns to determine if the use rights they’re looking to leverage are within the disclosures we’ve made to the customer.”

And there’s the key word: customer. Besides being the number one priority for SiriusXM, it’s the common thread between the two halves of Shalom’s career.

“I’m very customer focused, because customer sensitivity to privacy grows as the collection and use of consumer data grow,” she says. “When trying to create a product, how do you speak to the customer? How do you reach out to a customer? At Paramount, there was a growing awareness that data could inform that process. And now, clearly, not only does data inform it—it drives it. Now my job is to make sure that we are conscious of how we do it in a compliant and respectful manner.”

This all ties into what Shalom calls the modernization of privacy— the quest to be transparent about the process of data collection while also making the information digestible. “In order for the consumer to be informed, they have to be able to understand,” she elaborates before bringing up dense privacy policies that read more like complicated tech manuals. Anyone who has ever had to click “Agree” on a privacy agreement after a software update should know the feeling. As a happy medium that addresses both the regulatory perspective and the consumer perspective, SiriusXM is currently working on a privacy portal that will go live sometime in 2021.

“Instead of opening a PDF or some sort of single page, you’ll click on a link and go into a space that guides you a little bit to where you might find the information you’re looking for,” Shalom says. “The aspects of disclosure will be more of an accessible, interactive experience for the consumer. And then you can still have the longer, more soup-to-nuts sort of policy for anyone who needs a little light bedtime reading. Essentially, it’s a tool for the company to communicate with the consumer.”

As SiriusXM moves into the future, Shalom finds herself thinking about

how different the privacy landscape was when she started at the company just over seven years ago.

“Privacy didn’t have a good foothold in the legal world yet,” she recalls. “It’s remarkable to see what the last seven years have done in terms of raising its profile as a legal concept, as a consumer concept, and as a legislative concept—as something that is worthy of regulatory attention. That’s a fairly short period of time. And when you have that rapid escalation in something, there is a tendency for things to swing from one extreme to the other. The interesting part of my role is to understand which directions you have to steer your company to be on the right side of the wave.”

King & Fisher Law Group, PLLC: “As outside counsel, we’ve worked with Kaaren on many projects. She’s a strategic thinker who has a great ability to find practical solutions to complex legal issues—especially in the area of privacy law.”

–Todd

Fisher, Partner

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP:

“Kaaren is a true professional and great partner— she’s smart, savvy, and thorough. She fully understands the ramifications of issues under her purview yet she always finds a way to identify and mitigate legal risks so that we can assist in arriving at a business-savvy solution.”

—Barrie VanBrackle and Tony Kim, Partners

“The aspects of disclosure will be more of an accessible, interactive experience for the consumer.”

Weil congratulates Kaaren Shalom of SiriusXM on her well-deserved recognition in Modern Counsel

King & Fisher is focused exclusively on structuring and negotiating technology, outsourcing, and commercial contracts. Each of our lawyers has more than 20 years of experience handling these transactions for many of the world’s leading companies and their customers. We know how to balance the legal and business demands to get the deal done.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

Toward a Future-Ready Business

Shanée Nelson keeps an eye on the horizon for two reasons: the need for Synopsys to maintain a competitive edge and the need for diversity in the next generation of engineers

By Natalie Kochanov

Shanée Nelson VP and Deputy General Counsel Synopsys

BACK IN 2011, GOING IN-HOUSE WAS FAR FROM Shanée Nelson’s mind. She planned to continue practicing at law firms for the foreseeable future—until an opening at electronic design automation company Synopsys piqued her interest.

“The opportunity intrigued me because Synopsys had been one of my very first clients out of law school,” Nelson explains. “I always enjoyed the work that I did for the company, so I decided to leap out on faith.”

Nine years—and multiple promotions—later, Nelson has no regrets. Today, she serves as Synopsys’ vice president and deputy general counsel. To maintain the growing company’s competitive edge, she applies her extensive legal expertise to anticipate and respond to changes in the industry on a global scale. She looks to the future internally as well by supporting inclusion and diversity (I&D) initiatives at Synopsys and investing in the talent pipeline.

Before making her leap of faith, Nelson studied political science at Stanford University and law at the University of California, Davis. She interned and later accepted a full-time position at law firm Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly, where she worked in an IP group that fellow law firm Dechert subsequently acquired.

During her four years at Dechert, Nelson honed her understanding of patent infringement and trade secret matters. She then narrowed in on patent cases at another firm, Paul Hastings, before transitioning with her group to Cooley. She was still at Cooley when she received a recruiter call alerting her to the first role that she would hold at Synopsys.

Soon after joining Synopsys as a senior counsel, Nelson began to recognize the importance of factoring business objectives into her legal strategies and her dealings with outside counsel. “Business objectives aren’t always tied to a litigation win. You need to be mindful of the endgame as well,” she says.

In many ways, Nelson’s major areas of focus at Synopsys have remained the same over the years. Across her roles, she has managed litigation and counseled employees on IP-related issues. She has also spearheaded antipiracy efforts in relation to the company’s products and established governance surrounding the use and contribution of open-source software.

What has changed, however, is the size of the company—and the scope of Nelson’s responsibilities.

“The contributions of the litigation and IP team have needed to follow the company’s scaling and, at times, get ahead of it in terms of our strategy,” she explains.

Nelson views Synopsys’ growth as evidence of the impact of its technology. Her job is to protect that technology. “As artificial intelligence and machine learning have become driving forces at the company, the need for IP counseling has increased,” she says. “There’s also an increased need for us to consider how to innovate cooperatively in an increasingly competitive environment.”

When it comes to competition, Nelson has her eye on emerging markets, such as China. She stays on top of developments through constant research. As part of that research, she monitors US policy updates that may impact future business relationships—and potential litigation—in China.

At the same time, Nelson strategizes about how best to protect Synopsys’ specific business interests and technologies in the face of China’s burgeoning industry. “The landscape in China presents a lot of unique challenges to our business,” she notes. “My team assists Synopsys in navigating those challenges from the standpoints of IP protection and partner relationships.”

Even as she looks to protect Synopsys intellectual property abroad, Nelson places considerable weight on a topic much closer to home: I&D initiatives at Synopsys. The company strengthened its commitment to I&D in 2020, including through its hiring of its new Head of Global Inclusion and Diversity Solomon

“ One of the most important ways that Synopsys can contribute to inclusion and diversity in the high-tech space is by creating opportunities for diverse students who are interested in engineering.”

SHANEE NELSON

Donating Dollars and Computers

When Synopsys encouraged employees to donate to a cause close to their hearts at the end of 2020, Shanée Nelson chose to donate to StreetCode Academy. “The organization teaches kids how to code and helps them get access to technology,” she says. The nonprofit’s mission matches her own: investing in the pipeline, especially in historically marginalized communities.

Wilkins. Nelson is fully committed to supporting the I&D team to ensure that such strides continue.

“We have to invest in our pipeline. One of the most important ways that Synopsys can contribute to inclusion and diversity in the high-tech space is by creating opportunities for diverse students who are interested in engineering,” Nelson says. She has advocated for Synopsys to show up at career fairs, universities, and engineering societies to introduce students from historically marginalized communities to the company.

“Synopsys is increasing awareness of inclusion and diversity issues and encouraging employees to think about what those issues mean to them,” Nelson says. She is excited about Synopsys’ commitment to and focus on this important issue. Recognizing Nelson’s leadership and contributions to the company’s success, Synopsys recently elevated her to vice president and deputy general counsel.

As Nelson joins the executive team of key decision makers at Synopsys, she is ready to invest in the future.

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe: “Working with Shanée is inspiring as she challenges us to problem-solve together at the highest level. She leads by example through her diligence and grit. Shanée consistently explores novel solutions to resolve complex issues.”

–Denise Mingrone, Intellectual Property Partner

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe: “Shanée is a fantastic lawyer and even better client. She manages to balance working closely with us in the trenches while still giving us the trust and autonomy we need to be our best.”

–Robert L. Uriarte, Intellectual Property Partner

WE ARE PROUD TO PARTNER WITH

and the entire legal team at Synopsys. Shanee, you are a true leader, and your tenacity and collaborative spirit are an inspiration to us.

The Ins and Outs of the Legal Team

Carrie Terraferma explains how outsourcing has allowed her to adapt during the COVID-19 pandemic and evolve her role at Price Chopper/Market 32 Supermarkets

By Maggie Lynch

IF IT HADN’T BEEN

FOR THE

GUIDANCE

OF

LEGAL mentors and leaders Bill Kenneally and Christine Daniels, Carrie Terraferma affirms that she would not be in the executive-level position she’s in today at Price Chopper/Market 32 Supermarkets. “They both had this unwavering faith in my ability and were so confident that I could succeed in law school,” says Terraferma, who now serves as senior corporate counsel and corporate secretary for the supermarket company.

Succeed she did, but it was the company’s support that enabled her to embark on her path as a lawyer. “I was in my mid-thirties at that point, and I was cautious about the commitment it would take to go to law school. I knew I wasn’t in a position to not work,” Terraferma recalls candidly. “The company guaranteed me a position upon my graduation, which is an extremely fortunate position to be in.”

Price Chopper/Market 32’s commitment to Terraferma enabled her to attend law school in the mornings and work at the company in the afternoons. She completed her JD in three years. The lawyer reiterates that it was Kenneally and Daniels who motivated her, noting, “They really exemplify the impact a mentor can have on your life. It was as a result of their encouragement that I decided to go for it.”

With the company’s recent outsourcing, Terraferma’s ability to reciprocate seemed less likely, but she is assisted by a team of two in-house paralegals whom she is proud to support in any way she can. “Mentorship is extremely important in the legal field because it can be fast paced. It’s important to have someone you can turn to who can guide you.”

Price Chopper/Market 32’s outsourcing model is also something that Terraferma herself relies on for

Carrie Terraferma Senior Corporate Counsel and Corporate Secretary Price Chopper/Market 32 Supermarkets

support, especially in 2020. “It really allowed me to focus on the pandemic,” she explains. “We had to continue to run the business, and that means contract reviews, the things that are needed daily. The outsourcing model really allowed me to focus on pandemic-related risk assessment.”

The model came as a result of the partnership between Price Chopper/Market 32 and law firm Harter Secrest and Emery, as the latter’s managing partner, Craig Wittlin, has had a long-standing relationship with the former. “It was a natural fit for him to act as a general counsel, but not in-house,” she says of Wittlin. “He acts as the general counsel and my mentor, and I have his firm at my disposal to contact.”

Working with Harter Secrest and Emery and other local counsel gives Terraferma access to subject matter experts to talk through specific issues that may arise, allowing her to advise Price Chopper/Market 32 more effectively. Terraferma states that the outsourcing model works because she was ready to hit the ground running with it.

“It allows me to be more of a generalist. As the sole lawyer in a large corporation, there are a number of areas that I provide guidance on,” she says. “The company relies on me to give risk-based advice while still speaking in business-friendly terms. The outsourcing gives me the legal information I need to communicate to my business stakeholders to make the best decisions possible.”

Terraferma describes her position now as analogous to traffic control. She spots issues, determines

“Mentorship is extremely important in the legal field because it can be fast paced. It’s important to have someone you can turn to who can guide you.”

Dania Bagyi

what to focus on, and stays flexible in the face of shifting priorities. Moving on to the next issue at hand has been a big part of this past year, as the COVID-19 pandemic brought forth many regulatory changes and risk-assessment issues. Price Chopper/Market 32, and the grocery industry as a whole, have responded well. Terraferma attributes the successful response to an ability to shift focus and get creative.

Price Chopper/Market 32 operates in six states, and the lack of federal rules means the company has to keep up with the various changes that are happening in each state—and sometimes each municipality, Terraferma explains. “The outsourcing model allowed me to become the COVID expert on the ground as it related to our business.”

According to Terraferma, Price Chopper/Market 32 and the grocery store industry worked to make adjustments for their stakeholders’ safety before state regulations were in place. “By the time the states came out with their guided documents for business on how to operate in a pandemic,” she says, “everything that was on the list was things we’d already done.”

Harter Secrest & Emery LLP:

“As the only in-house lawyer for a large organization (with more than one hundred locations in multiple states), Carrie shows tremendous leadership and judgment and has a keen ability to focus on priorities and assess risk. She is a pleasure to work with and is a rising star in the legal profession.”

–Craig S. Wittlin, Managing Partner

A Cleaner, Greener Future

Sundance Banks explains how Sunrun is leading the way to make renewable energy the rule, not the exception

By Dan Caffrey

“WHEN I THINK OF CLIMATE CHANGE, I think . . . of jobs,” President Joe Biden said on January 27, 2021, regarding his administration’s approach to combating global warming. Addressing climate change-related problems, he indicated, also results in economic prosperity.

Case in point: Sunrun.

As the nation’s leading provider and installer of residential solar panels and solar-powered batteries, the San Francisco-based home energy company is driven by a mission to create a planet “run by the sun.” And in July 2020, that mission got a little bit closer to becoming a reality when the company acquired one of its largest competitors, Vivint Solar. “At the beginning of the

year, we had a market cap of around $1.7 billion, with around 4,800 employees,” says Sunrun Deputy General Counsel and Assistant Secretary Sundance Banks, who was the lead corporate attorney on the acquisition. “At the end of the year, we had a market cap of approximately $14 billion, and we had more than eight thousand employees. It was the biggest transaction of the company’s history, and it happened during the worst pandemic in a hundred years.”

If Sunrun’s growth seems rather sudden, that’s because it has to be, given the rapid warming of the planet.

“What climate change demands is action now,” Banks says. “Clean energy now.”

But he also recognizes that, historically, many Americans have been reluctant to accept the threat posed by climate change—an overwhelming, complex force that isn’t always visible in its effects, depending on where one lives. Banks recalls a jolting moment in his own life back in 2015 when he realized the profound—and universal— nature of the problem.

“My daughter was a toddler, and I had started reading how the Pentagon was referring to climate change as a ‘threat multiplier,’” Banks remembers. “It just makes every bad problem worse. For instance, before the Syrian civil war broke out, Syria was experiencing its worst drought in hundreds and hundreds of years. It just decimated farming and the countryside, and as a result, all those farming communities had to move into cities and were suddenly competing for a sparse number of jobs.

“Then it started turning into conflicts,” he continues. “Climate change

Sundance Banks Deputy General Counsel and Assistant Secretary Sunrun

didn’t make any one person fire a gun, but it did set up a course of events that led to one of the most deadly and complex conflicts in the past fifty years. It has impact wherever you live in this world.”

Today, there seems to be a wider acceptance of both the dangers posed by climate change and the dire need to do something about it. According to the Peoples’ Climate Vote—a survey conducted by the United Nations on 1.2 million people in fifty countries and seventeen languages—two-thirds of the global population now considers climate change an emergency.

Sunrun’s industry has followed suit. A report from the climate-focused think tank Ember found that wind and solar energy are steadily replacing coal generation, which dropped by 8.3 percent in the first half of 2020 alone. To put it more bluntly, renewables are the fastest-growing energy source in the United States.

For Sunrun’s part, the Vivint Solar acquisition meant leveraging both

companies’ combined manpower in time for California’s wildfire season, which has only become more hazardous as a result of climate change. Further complicating matters are the intentional blackouts initiated by power companies to avoid sparking any flames.

“As a California resident, [I can say that] blackouts have become a normal part of life,” Banks explains. “But our customers who have solar and storage are able to keep their lights on. During an outage, they use the solar energy stored in their battery during the evening hours, then charge it back up with solar during the day.”

Banks’s passion for the fight against climate change extends to his volunteer work outside Sunrun. Since 2019, he has been a group leader of the San Mateo county chapter of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy organization with a network of volunteers working to create bipartisan climate solutions. Banks says that the organization’s

Antitrust

Intellectual Property Litigation

biggest goal at the moment is to put a federal price on carbon.

“Right now, you have all these carbon emissions that are causing more warming, and they are all going unpriced,” he says. “But if you make these emissions proportionally more expensive at the wellhead or at the mineshaft, then people making pocketbook decisions will start choosing the cleaner option. That lets the market do a lot of the work for you. What Citizens’ Climate Lobby is lobbying for is to take the money raised from pricing carbon, and, instead of just making the government bigger, give it back to families in an equal monthly carbon dividends check. It’s one of the leading bipartisan climate policies in Congress.”

While Banks recognizes that there’s still a lot of work to do to prevent the planet from warming to disastrous levels, he’s inspired by the passion and lobbying skills he sees demonstrated by the ordinary citizens volunteering through the nonprofit—and, of course, the work of Sunrun and the renewables industry as a whole.

“The technology exists,” he says. “Rooftop solar alone could meet 40 percent of total US electricity demand. I have full confidence that we’re going to completely transfer from fossil fuels to clean energy. The question is when. It’s a scary but exciting time.”

Axinn:

“Working

–Jeny

Axinn congratulates our friend and client Sundance Banks on his recognition in Modern Counsel.

with Sundance is a pleasure. He is committed to Sunrun’s mission and leads with enthusiasm. It is a privilege to partner with him as Sunrun works to create a planet run by the sun.”

Maier, Partner

“I have full confidence that we’re going to completely transfer from fossil fuels to clean energy.”

Environmental Expertise

Trips to the beach in his youth convinced Andy Marks to make a career out of protecting the environment. Today, he continues to pursue his passion at Walgreens.

By Lindsey Lubowitz

IT MAY BE A SURPRISE TO HEAR

that a senior counsel for one of the largest retail pharmacy chains in the United States spent his life dreaming of making a positive impact not in healthcare but on the environment. Yet that is exactly the case for Andy Marks, who today oversees various commercial litigation and regulatory law matters at Walgreens.

His Inspiration

Marks grew up in New Jersey, not far from the Jersey Shore. His father, a former Marine who also worked as a lifeguard, instilled in him a belief in

both the importance and the beauty of the ocean.

And indeed, when Marks went to the beach every summer, he saw the beauty of it. But he also saw the trash. His trips to the Jersey Shore not only reinforced his love of the ocean but also exposed the reality of how poorly it was treated. When choosing a career path, Marks was drawn to environmental protection because of these experiences in his youth.

Years later, before heading to law school, Marks witnessed what is still considered to be one of the most significant acts of ecoterrorism in US history.

He had spent a few years working different jobs in Vail, Colorado, and, while there, an environmentalist group known as the Earth Liberation Front set fire to a lodge, the ski patrol headquarters, and a chairlift at Vail Ski Resort— all in the name of protesting the resort’s plan to expand into a lynx habitat.

“Seeing that devastation solidified my interest in pursuing environmental law,” Marks says. He wanted to make a difference and protect the environment through the power of the law. He decided to attend Vermont Law School, which was the top environmental law program in the country.

Welcome to Walgreens

After law school, Marks had the opportunity to work with the administrative law judges at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

“I was able to work with the judges, research, write memos, help with opinions, and really see how the whole administrative aspect of environmental law worked,” Marks recalls. He also had the opportunity to work on the policy side at the EPA, eventually transitioning to its headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC.

His wife, whom he met in law school and married in DC, was originally from Chicago, which eventually prompted their move to the Midwest. When he left DC, Marks decided to leave both the EPA and the public sector in general, accepting positions at boutique environmental law firms in Illinois.

It was while working in private practice at the Law Offices of Carey S. Rosemarin that Marks really felt he was able to come into his own. “I was fortunate that Carey was a longtime environmental practitioner who worked for the EPA, Region 5, and started the environmental program at a preeminent law firm in Chicago. Under Carey’s guidance, I really learned how to practice law,” he says.

After some time, an opportunity arose in-house at Walgreens. The company was facing pressure from numerous California District Attorneys regarding the disposal of hazardous waste products and needed an environmental regulatory attorney.

As his first major case with Walgreens, Marks oversaw the California matter to a successful resolution. This was only the beginning for Marks, who has been leading the company’s environmental legal strategy for nearly a decade.

A Challenge and a Purpose

As much as he enjoyed his time as outside counsel, Marks has found a particular passion for his role as in-house counsel.

“One of the many things I like about working in-house is that I can see my advice transform into practice over time. And my advice is constantly evolving in an ever-changing, dynamic environment. I get to see the implementation of my counsel through compliance programs and business operations and how it stands up when pressure-tested in the real world,” Marks says.

The senior counsel has grown as both an individual and a leader during his time at Walgreens, but he is quick to acknowledge the contributions of his teammates. “People are very willing to

work with each other,” he says. “No one is trying to be a superstar at the expense of others.”

Indeed, Walgreens’ culture of collaboration is a large part of the reason that Marks has been so fulfilled during his time with the company. Even though the scope of his work is very wide—he works on everything from proper waste handling and workplace safety to the introduction of new product offerings and imports to supporting corporate social responsibility and managing litigated matters—the help from his team makes that work interesting rather than difficult.

This culture of collaboration is exemplified in the company’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past year, numerous cross-functional teams across the country have come together

Rachel Marks, Michayla Marks

Andy Marks Senior Counsel for Commercial Litigation & Regulatory Law Walgreens

to keep stores open and operating safely, so they may continue providing essential services and products to diverse communities, including food, medicine, testing, and vaccines. Marks has advised these teams on the evolving health and safety regulations at the federal, state, and local levels to help ensure compliance and support operational continuity.

“I’m never bored—far from it,” he says. “Every day is challenging. I’m constantly moving beyond my comfort zone.”

In a way, Marks feels that his career has come full circle—his father used to sell products to CVS, and now he works for its competition. Marks never would have guessed that the trash at the Jersey Shore beaches would eventually lead him to a senior role at Walgreens, but he is happy knowing that he can play a part in making the world into a place his younger self would be proud to live in.

Rogers Joseph O’Donnell: “Andy’s deep experience in environmental and retail trade regulation, coupled with his pragmatic approach, brings great value to every project. It has been my honor to work with him during his ten years at Walgreens.”

–Renee D. Wasserman, Shareholder

“Every day is challenging. I’m constantly reaching beyond my comfort zone.”

People & Companies

Danette L. Alfonso P46 Lennar Corporation

Sundance Banks P234

Sunrun

Justin Bauer P93 Schneider

Dawn Blume P64 Zebra Technologies

Debra L. Bromson P130 AAA Club Alliance

Anne Brooksher-Yen P84 Celanese

Angela Castle P57 Olin Corporation

Kamau Coar P68 Heidrick & Struggles International Inc.

David Detweiler P193 Volkswagen

Bret A. Cohen Partner

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP 617.217.4617

bret.cohen@nelsonmullins.com

Bret Cohen covers a range of industries in the drafting and litigation of noncompete, confidentiality, and other employmentrelated agreements throughout the United States.

Paul T. Collins Partner

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP 803.255.9747

paul.collins@nelsonmullins.com

Paul Collins handles a variety of litigation matters throughout the country, including civil litigation, business litigation, dealer franchise litigation, and class action defense.

Jonathan M. Redgrave Managing Partner Redgrave LLP 703.592.1155

jredgrave@redgravellp.com

Jonathan M. Redgrave, a founding partner of Redgrave LLP, focuses his practice in eDiscovery, information governance, and privacy and data security issues.

Dolores DiBella P8

National Football League

Elise M. Bloom Partner Proskauer 212.969.3410

ebloom@proskauer.com

Elise M. Bloom is a member of Proskauer’s seven-person elected Executive Committee and cohead of the Class & Collective Actions Practice Group. Elise is widely hailed as one of the nation’s top employment lawyers and one of the most creative and effective wage and hour, class/ collective action, and trial lawyers.

Dale Cendali Partner Kirkland & Ellis LLP 212.446.4846

dale.cendali@kirkland.com

Dale Cendali is a partner at Kirkland & Ellis and heads Kirkland’s Copyright, Trademark, Internet, and Advertising practice group. She is a nationally recognized leader in the field of intellectual property litigation.

Susan Dunnings P30

Lockheed Martin

David Eramian P115 BlackRock

Bill Foster P98 USAA

Mark Furry P122

U. S. Steel

Ajla Glavasevic P52

Quaker Houghton

Sue Hahm Walker P191

Salesforce

Ava Hahn P140

Lam Research

Sean Hanley P209

Wish

Lauren Hoffer P82

Dell Technologies

Adam Hornung P172

Hillhouse Capital

Manav Kumar P161

AECOM

Connor Kuratek P143

Marsh & McLennan

Anna Lee P166

EFI

Darin Lippoldt P24

Neurocrine Biosciences

Paul Liu P179

TuSimple

Rebecca Lombard P77

Kimberly-Clark

David Markowitz P34

Goldman Sachs

Victor Hou Partner

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton 212.225.2609

vhou@cgsh.com

Victor Hou’s practice focuses on litigation, including government enforcement work, white-collar criminal defense, securities litigation, corporate governance, and general commercial litigation.

Giovanni Prezioso Partner

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton 202.974.1650

gprezioso@cgsh.com

Giovanni Prezioso’s practice focuses on securities and corporate law matters, securities enforcement and litigation matters, and corporate governance and regulatory matters.

Andy Marks P237

Walgreens

Rich McGuire P154

Bed Bath & Beyond

Chandra Mitchell P218

Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory

Raven Moore P111

McDonald’s Corporation

Shanée Nelson P228

Synopsys

Ben Odom P103

NASCAR

Sam Olive P18

Splunk Inc.

Hiro Oshima P188

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and SMBC Group

Carrie Parikh P216

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey

Mark Pasko P89

QBE North America

David Patrick P21

PepsiCo Beverages North America

Makesha Patterson P72

Google

Andrew Prodromos P212

Insight Partners

Morgan D. Elwyn Partner

Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP 212.728.8981

melwyn@willkie.com

Mr. Elwyn focuses on representing private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies in M&A, carve-out transactions, JVs, structured secondary transactions, growth equity investments, and capital markets transactions.

Kaaren Shalom P224

SiriusXM

Bobby Simpson P40 GE Current, a Daintree company

Lynda Guild Simpson P157 The Boeing Company

Jason Skinder P147

Honeywell

Ellen Smith P150

Mondelēz International

Mark Smith P26

Syngenta

Mark Snyder P204

Qualcomm

Todd Strother P106 EMC Insurance Companies

Carrie Terraferma P231 Price Chopper/Market 32

Supermarkets

Robert Townsend P134 SoftBank Group Corp. and SoftBank Group International

Kenneth A. Siegel Managing Partner (Tokyo) Morrison & Foerster LLP 81.3.3214.6522

ksiegel@mofo.com

As managing partner and head of the fifty lawyer M&A team in Tokyo, Ken Siegel’s practice focuses on the representation of high-technology companies in acquisitions, joint ventures, and strategic alliances.

Jill Van Dalen P221

Calpine

Beth Weinstein P60 Raytheon Intelligence & Space

Brice White P15

Tyson Foods

Victor Wright P183

KBR

Leslie Yuan P118 Varian Medical Systems

John Zecca P126 Nasdaq

We are pleased to support the in-house leaders featured by Modern Counsel with whom we are honored to work.

We are Morrison & Foerster — a global firm of exceptional credentials. Our clients include some of the world’s largest financial institutions, investment banks, Fortune 100, and technology and life sciences companies. Our lawyers are committed to achieving innovative and business-minded results for our clients, while preserving the differences that make us stronger.

Learn more about us at mofo.com.

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