Modern Counsel #36

Giselle Huron’s passion for helping others find their voice and inner strength inspires her work as senior counsel at Google P32

ANaturalStoryteller

BIGLAW REDEFINED.

When your world changes, your legal partner can make all the difference. At GT, we help clients anticipate and adapt to uncertainty through responsive, transparent service. Agile teams enable faster, more confident decisions. And our global platform lets us work together closely–especially when working remotely. Together, we’re changing how your lawyers work for you.

Senior Counsel Giselle Huron is devoted to helping Google empower people to tell their stories

Implement

P10

IP Counsel Tiffany Norris Logan is passionate about raising the bar for Sidel’s conglomerates to embrace their diverse talent

P18

Michael Callahan has spent the past quarter of a century at Eversource Energy, building teams and adding value with an internal litigation group

Feature

P40

AP Capaldo-Aoun of TD SYNNEX was always the youngest in-house lawyer, director, and assistant general counsel, and now she’s added the title of mom to her résumé

P54

As corporate counsel of the Americas at the Weir Group, Regina Himelfarb isn’t just running with the boys—she’s leading the pack

Lead

P72

Eclectic experience in technology, science, and law helps Senior Patent Counsel Aleksandra King protect the novel ideas that anchor Commvault

P80

Davida Osei’s journey from studying elementary education in college to law school student to deputy general counsel at Allstate Investments has taught her a lot, to say the least

Courtesy of Tiffany Norris Logan (Logan), Thomas Garza (Himelfarb), Oksana Sorochan (King)

P10

P54

P72

Courtesy of Gilbert Wong (Wong), James Gustin (Turner), Jamie Vandewinkle (Misich)

Pivot

P84

Jeffrey Koppy mitigates risk for General Motors, but his willingness to take chances on himself throughout his thirty years in law is perhaps most inspiring

P104

With a background in physics and engineering, Gilbert Wong continues to evolve as a legal leader in his role as global head of IP at Block

Focus

P115

Kim Brooks once thought the law was tired and boring, but an in-house role at Red Bull has the litigation and employment attorney energized for what’s ahead

P120

Beyond diversity and inclusion, Hank Turner cultivates collaboration and compassion as vice president and chief counsel of litigation at Conagra Brands Inc.

Evaluate

P138

Brittany Misich’s decade-long tenure at GKN Automotive started long before she was a lawyer. Today, she helps guide the over 250-year-old brand in a new chapter.

P144

A lifelong football fan, Cyrus Ghavi utilizes his legal acumen to support the National Football League’s thirtytwo teams, owners, and the organization as a whole

P138

P120

P104

One of my worst memories

from elementary school involves the physical fitness test. Every year, young students would undergo challenges to see how many pull-ups and curl-ups they could do in a minute. The sit-and-reach measured flexibility and the shuttle run seemed like a tripping hazard. However, the worst part of the week was the timed one-mile run.

As a nerdy child, I tended to gravitate toward more sedentary hobbies like reading, practicing the piano and flute, sewing, and playing board games. I excelled in traditional academics and didn’t give my parents any grief when it came to completing homework or studying for exams. Gym class was a different story. I had an irrational fear of a ball hitting me in the head, and I found most sports boring.

This mentality eventually caught up to me as a teenager when I approached the college admission season. A college counselor advised me on the importance of presenting a “well-rounded application,” pointing out my lack of athletic involvement. I tried (and failed) to make an argument that marching band was a team sport.

Given my long-standing issues with any sport involving a flying object, my only choices were narrowed down to swimming and running. The thought of smelling like chlorine for days didn’t appeal to me so I began a workout regimen on our dusty basement treadmill to build up my stamina. What I didn’t expect was to fall in love with long-distance running.

Growing up, I often shied away from discomfort and stuck with what came naturally. As a thirty-something-year-old, my running routine is still going strong. I embrace the adrenaline and credit it for developing a toughness that bleeds into multiple areas of my personal and professional lives.

The feature section of Modern Counsel’s Grit issue celebrates legal executives who have exhibited resounding strength in the face of adversity. They aren’t just lawyers; they have emerged as seasoned leaders by undergoing tremendous growth and development. As a first-generation professional woman of color, cover star Giselle Huron has carved out a space by always being willing and open to try new things regardless of obstacles. The senior counsel at Google is a fierce advocate for herself with a focus on personal goals and finding balance.

“Don’t be content to let others dictate your path while you follow along and hold on for the ride,” she advises. “Be bold enough to tell your own story, and then help others do the same.” She and other strong leaders in this issue serve as examples of those who have risen to the occasion through their steadfast determination.

Brittany Farb Gruber Managing Editor

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

Delivering DEI Excellence

Tiffany Norris Logan raises the bar for conglomerates to embrace their diverse talent in her role as IP counsel at Sidel

By Marcos Chisholm

WHILE YOU NAVIGATE YOUR CAREER, you’ll find leaders who rise to the occasion before they receive a promotion. Or, if their name is Tiffany Norris Logan, then they’re taking advantage of every opportunity.

As intellectual property counsel at European packaging manufacturer Sidel, Logan wears many hats. Since she’s the only IP counsel at its US offices, Logan addresses every IP matter the company deals with in one of its most competitive markets. She does everything from filing and prosecuting patent applications to drawing patent licensing agreements. “All things transactional are my primary wheelhouse,

but I help support litigation in the US and abroad,” she says.

So, how did Logan become a patent prosecution expert? Before joining Sidel in 2019, she spent six years at Parks IP Law LLC, a minority-owned IP boutique law firm in Atlanta specializing in securing and defending patents, trademarks, and other IP centered matters. By entering private practice, she discovered her knack for advising Fortune 100 companies as they launched products.

However, the most important lesson Logan learned in private practice had nothing to do with the ins and outs of her job. Instead, she recognized the value diversity brings to a corporate

Tiffany Norris Logan IP Counsel Sidel

Courtesy of Tiffany Norris Logan

environment. “It solidified my thoughts and convictions that diversity is needed in all spaces,” she recalls. “As I talked to my colleagues at larger law firms, they maybe didn’t have as much of a diversity experience or a diverse impact; they didn’t necessarily have those conversations. It made me realize how important those conversations are.”

According to Crain’s Chicago Business , 0.86 percent of partners at US law firms are Black women. Not only was Parks IP Law LLC among a handful of Black women-owned law firms, it also hired more diverse talent as attorneys. “Every time we did a project at Parks IP, there was a diverse group of people always working on something,” Logan says. “We were able to challenge each other and really analyze an idea from a lot of different angles because we came from so many different perspectives.”

Fast forward to her current role at Sidel, and Logan noticed a difference in attitudes toward diversity. She regularly attended meetings where Black and female employees were not represented. Even if Logan never worked in human resources, she decided to create a leadership profile that reflects the global population of company. First, she asked female employees about their experiences at Sidel. Then, after realizing how powerful it was to learn about sexism they faced, she pitched a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiative to the legal affairs team and the executive vice president of human resources.

“I had a very candid conversation [with] him,” Logan remembers. “I said, ‘Hey, we don’t have a lot of women. Do we know that? Are we doing something about it?’ His blunt answer was, ‘Yes, we know about it. We are working on it, but have not gotten to where we want to be yet.’”

Sure enough, Logan’s message paid off. She spearheaded the Think Tank Forum, a roundtable discussion series Sidel sponsored at nine global locations. The roundtable discussions provided female employees with a platform to shed light on the challenges they

“[Diversity is] about getting people who are not from similar backgrounds in a room so their voices can be heard.”

encounter. Plus, it prompted the manufacturer to reevaluate how it recruits, retains, and promotes women.

“We’re gathering all of this raw data and distilling it into something that can present as a business case to our senior leadership, because diversity and inclusion is not just a nice-to-have, it’s a necessary for companies to function at their most optimal level,” Logan says.

Meanwhile, despite the fact Logan’s days in private practice are behind her, she strives to boost representation for people of color in the legal profession, in general. With the Diverse Attorney Pipeline Program, a non-profit corporation that addresses the continued and systematic decline of women of color lawyers in law firms, she interviews Black female candidates for attorney openings at law firms. Plus, Logan sits on the board at the National Council on Patent Practicum, where she hosts workshops for engineers of color who want to pursue careers in patent law.

Whether you’re committed to your job or change careers religiously, Logan has the same advice:

“Always make your voice heard,” she says. “When you get the degree, you’ve proven that you can do the work, so now it’s about being provided access and providing your value to whatever company or law firm that you are a part of. If you’re in a meeting, and you hear something you don’t agree with it’s OK to share your thoughts. Because that’s what diversity is about. It’s about getting people who are not from similar backgrounds in a room so their voices can be heard.”

For Innovation

AddyHart P.C. is proud to have counted Sidel Inc. as a client, and we applaud Tiffany Logan Norris for her outstanding legal acumen and her career achievements.

A specialist intellectual property law firm, AddyHart P.C. helps innovators navigate an increasingly complex legal environment, handling IP litigation—including inter partes reviews.

Founded by former Big Law partners and former Chief IP counsel, AddyHart has unrivalled experience in patent litigation and appeals.

AddyHart P.C.:

“AddyHart P.C. worked with Tiffany and Sidel on several complex IP cases, including a multinational matter involving cases in France, Italy, and the US. Our collaboration could not have been more smoothly run and professional.”

—Robert Hart, Cofounder & Partner

www.addyhart.com

On Governance and Goals

Kristina Fink reflects on a career in governance, passion for collaboration, and the importance of continuing one’s leadership education

By Will Grant

KRISTINA FINK WAS GIVEN GREAT ADVICE early on in her career. A leader at Bear Sterns (where Fink was acting as in-house counsel) told the young lawyer that it was probably time for her to get some law firm experience. Fink had come to Bear Sterns straight out of law school, and so her higher-up suggested that she should get some exposure to issues she wouldn’t presently be able to get at their investment banking firm. After three years, she could return to Bear Sterns in an elevated leadership role. That was 2007.

The plan would have worked perfectly had Bear Sterns not imploded during the financial crash of 2008, derailing Fink’s original intentions.

But the lawyer was used to the job search, and the sudden change ultimately led her to a path she never envisioned: corporate governance. Like many young lawyers, Fink had always assumed that she would be engaged in heady litigation straight away. She instead found herself at Clifford Chance, where she spent six years engaged in extensive governance and M&A work.

“I loved it, but I really tired of the deal work,” Fink told the podcast Women Governance Trailblazers. “I missed being in-house. I had honed my governance practice and decided to make that my focus. I found my way to Guardian Life Insurance. It was a private company, and I learned so much. I would probably still be there had it not been for the American Express job listing.”

The AmEx opportunity looked like her dream job: board meetings, shareholder interaction, and a return to an in-house role.

After an extensive interview process, Fink joined the company. Fast-forward six years and two promotions, and she now serves as vice president, corporate secretary, and chief governance officer.

“It’s such a unique perspective where you’re able to proactively engage with everyone involved from all different angles,” Fink said in the Women Governance Trailblazers interview. “It’s a fantastic opportunity to influence and make sure that good governance is always in play.”

Fink takes her leadership responsibilities very seriously. Since coming to AmEx, she’s taken part in two different leadership courses, one from Harvard and another through Duke Corporate Learning. The latter course required some significant legwork—literally.

“I was so skeptical coming in because there was a sports component to this course,” Fink explained. “We had a soccer match, and I still remember strapping on shin guards while letting one of my managers know that I was going to be out of pocket for a while, and that they might have to handle putting up a board posting on their own.”

Fink said her skepticism was quickly put to rest. She forged meaningful connections with people scattered throughout AmEx’s global talent pool of sixty-four thousand employees, and the course analyzed the game and explained why certain people took on certain roles.

“I think these kinds of courses can be so valuable for an organization,” Fink told Women Governance. “But I also know that times are a little tight for that kind of spending right now. But even investing in a coach to come in and work with your team or doing an off-site can have a really significant impact on an organization. It’s important to take the time to really get to know the people around you.”

This mindset has proven to be beneficial for those around Fink as well. “Kristina is an exceptional leader who always focuses on collaboration and communication. Her keen intellect and breadth of experience bring people together to help achieve the organization’s goals,” says Francesca Odell, partner at Cleary Gottlieb. “It is a privilege to work with her and the whole team at American Express.”

The corporate governance landscape continues to demand more time of in-house leaders, and Fink has noted how important it is to look back on just how much change has taken place since she began her work in 2001. Environmental, social, and governance; culture building; cybersecurity; boardroom diversity; and business continuity management in the wake of crises like COVID-19 were barely a blip on the radar of corporate governance leaders twenty years ago. But as times continue to evolve, Fink will evolve right along with them, in cleats if need be.

We are proud to work with Kristina Fink

and the talented team at American Express. Congratulations to Kristina on her achievements and her recognition by Modern Counsel.

Michael Callahan wasn’t sure he’d find a role as a corporate litigator. But he went in-house with Eversource Energy, where he’s spent the past twenty-five years building teams and adding value with an internal litigation group.

By Zach Baliva

Inside Man

Michael Callahan Assistant General Counsel of Litigation & Dispute Resolution Eversource Energy

IT’S ONE OF LIFE’S GREATEST MYSTERIES. Why do children always seem to do the things their parents tell them not to do? Michael Callahan remembers his father, an attorney, telling him and his four siblings never to become lawyers. All but one did. In fact, three of them are married to lawyers, including Callahan, whose wife went to law school after they married.

Callahan grew up outside of Boston and was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in December 1985. He spent two years as a law clerk and chief law clerk to the Justices of the Superior Court and then practiced at two Boston firms. He’s worked for the same organization since 1997 and is now Eversource Energy’s assistant general counsel heading up its Litigation and Dispute Resolution group.

So, why did the elder Callahan attempt to steer his children to other career paths? They aren’t sure. “My dad knew that being a lawyer comes with financial and personal challenges,” Callahan says. “Maybe he thought there were easier paths or careers that would bring more balance.”

It’s a challenge Callahan has had to navigate in his own life and career. After graduating from Suffolk University Law School, he spent two years clerking and then began practicing litigation at two respected Boston-area firms. Before long, the young attorney found himself with a heavy caseload and a house full of four children under the age of nine. Callahan remembers leaving for work before his kids were awake and returning home when they were already in bed. He says the entire family burden was falling upon his wife, and he knew something had to change.

But Callahan faced a dilemma—he loved litigation and knew there weren’t many opportunities to do the work in-house, where

his hours and professional demands would be less burdensome on his young family. When he saw a job listing for a litigation attorney at a small utility in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he pounced. Callahan got the job at what was then known as COM/Energy.

For his first years on the job, Callahan operated as the company’s only in-house litigator. That changed in 2000, when COM/ Energy merged with then Boston Edison Company to become NSTAR. At the time, senior management agreed it made sense to keep more litigation in-house.

In 2010, the makings of a terrific marriage of two law departments and the opportunity to create the current extremely talented and productive internal litigation team came to fruition when Northeast Utilities announced its intentions to combine with NSTAR (to become Eversource) and increase its electric and gas services footprint in the region. As the deal, which closed in 2012, wound through approvals, Callahan worked to demonstrate that keeping litigation in-house would be more cost effective and provide better results than doing everything with outside firms.

Today, Eversource is a Fortune 500 company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Its 9,200 employees provide electric, water, and gas service to 4.4 million customers across Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire.

Callahan’s team is located across two states. Attorneys Janet Helmke, Honor Heath, and Amy Van Dyke, as well as paralegal Jessica Colliton, are in Connecticut. Attorneys Marissa Goldberg and Jonathon Cardosi, as well as paralegal Jennifer Govostes, are with him in Massachusetts.

As the company has grown, Callahan credits his legal department leadership and

senior management with having confidence in his team, which has been instrumental in the success of the internal litigation team at Eversource.

“There aren’t many in-house litigation groups in the corporate setting that do what we do, and it’s been especially rewarding to work with this group and the entire legal department,” he reflects. “I truly enjoy the work I do and the people I work with.”

Now, Callahan and his colleagues handle more than 80 percent of Eversource’s litigation matters in-house. Those matters include cases related to general liability claims, property damage, wrongful death, bankruptcy, transactional disputes, employment issues, real estate battles, and customer disputes. When specialized cases require outside expertise, the internal team remains highly engaged and works directly with outside counsel. He confides that as in-house counsel, you are in a unique position to develop strong rela-

tionships with key stakeholders which is critical when providing guidance.

Callahan strongly believes that the litigation team has a unique lens into the company that few others have as a result of being exposed to a variety of claims, disputes, and litigation. Strong support from leaders and healthy corporate culture are two of the main things that have kept him at Eversource for a quarter century. Executives view legal as a true business partner and rely on lawyers to help spot potential risk and intervene early before they become large problems.

Those working in Eversource’s litigation group are introduced to a wide variety of claims from all parts of the business. That means each person has a unique view into the company. “We each get to work with senior leaders and internal partners, and it’s rewarding to be in a position to help identify and mitigate risk and drive strategy forward,” Callahan says. In his role as assistant

general counsel, he works to influence larger decisions while giving his talented and dedicated team the freedom and autonomy to take ownership of the matters it’s working on.

Over the years, Callahan has found many other ways to serve the legal profession and give back to his community. He was previously on the board of directors for the New England Legal Foundation and board of editors of the Massachusetts Law Review. He is active with DRI as vice chair of the corporate counsel committee and is a mentor in the DRI Diverse Rainmaker Mentoring Program. In 2006, he was appointed by the Supreme Judicial Court to a ten-year term as a member of the Massachusetts Board of Bar Examiners. During the term, Callahan and others worked diligently to ensure each candidate had the appropriate character and fitness to be admitted to the Massachusetts Bar.

Hearing each person’s story only deepened his own commitment to

“Visualize not only what you want to do but how you plan to get there. Stay focused, but always make sure to be a good person and do the right thing. Your license to practice is a privilege.”

fairness, ethics, and integrity. The experience also shaped some of the input Callahan now gives to junior lawyers. “I encourage everyone to just be who they are,” he says. “Visualize not only what you want to do but how you plan to get there. Stay focused, but always make sure to be a good person and do the right thing. Your license to practice is a privilege.”

Callahan says his choice to come in-house was the right one. Work can still be demanding and stressful. He routinely gets calls during nights and weekends—but he’s achieved balance and has been present for big and small moments with his family. Callahan was home to help with homework, share family meals, coach sports teams, and put his kids to bed.

He even gave them career advice. “I steered them away from the law as a career but support whatever decisions they make,” Callahan says. However, one of his children has already not followed his advice and is an in-house attorney at an investment management firm in Boston. His other three children enjoy terrific careers, but he understands it’s never too late to go back to school. “So, you never know,” he adds.

Bowditch & Dewey LLP:

“Michael has a keen legal mind and fantastic strategic vision. He is an incredible asset to Eversource. It is a true pleasure to work with him to craft and execute the company’s litigation strategy.”

—Joshua A. Lewin, Partner, Litigation

Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey LLP:

“Michael is a trusted partner with whom we have worked closely with on a number of matters over the last decade.   Michael’s insight and experience help us navigate our cases to a successful conclusion.”

—Richard L. Street, Partner

Steptoe & Johnson:

“Michael is among the very best inside counsel I’ve worked with in my forty-plus years of practice—extremely knowledgeable in all aspects of litigation, always prepared, great strategic judgment, and an exceptional team leader.”

—Paul Ondrasik, Partner

Seize the Moment

Alyssa Sandrowitz fearlessly dives into her work as director and lead IP counsel at Gates Corporation

By Marcos Chisholm

IS ALYSSA SANDROWITZ THE FIRST attorney who made it where they are today with drive and determination? No. However, what inspires her to thrive in her career goes beyond recognition.

“I think my attitude of resilience has served me well in this profession, especially as a woman in IP,” Sandrowitz says. “During my days a patent litigator and at other times in my career, I was the only one in the room who looked like me. I could have chosen a different path. However, I knew what my goals were, and I was going to keep working at them and create the opportunities to achieve my goals.”

Just consider how Sandrowitz approaches her role as director and

lead intellectual property counsel at Gates Corporation. Since joining the Denver-based manufacturer in 2020, she has transformed its traditional IP operations into a modern juggernaut for the twenty-first century. While leading a global team, she has spearheaded a revision of the IP legal processes and the cloud-based digital transformation of IP and brought in data analytic tools for improvement of strategic decision-making. Plus, she empowers her staff to establish tactics that ensure they align with other departments.

“I have a team of four under me, and we really set the strategy and tone for the IP portfolio along with the business units and leading innovators to ensure

alignment with the overall growth initiatives of the company,” she explains.

Sandrowitz reimagined how Gates files patent applications by bringing a holistic approach to harvesting inventions and the filing strategy. Thanks to a digital transformation that she facilitated, her team can access data on platforms that ensure it makes better decisions. “I can look at my numbers and benchmark our performance, our various technology units, the industry sector, and compare with our competitors,” Sandrowitz says. “Through this, we are creating a high-value IP portfolio.”

Before Sandrowitz joined Gates, she spent fourteen years in private practice

at law firms in Washington, DC, and Denver, including Sterne Kessler Goldstein & Fox, McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, Polsinelli, and Lewis Brisbois. She partnered with manufacturing and tech clients to protect their proprietary innovations and branding through development of IP portfolios and enforcement of patents and trademarks.

Instead of just focusing on patent portfolio development, Sandrowitz also developed an expertise in IP litigation. And because she welcomed opportunities to bolster her dynamic outlook on IP, the companies she serves are better off.

“I think that was a wonderful move, because doing that, it developed another

Attorneys at different perspectives

skill set for me. The foundation that I got at Sterne Kessler in patent prep and prosecution was wonderful. It gave me an understanding of the process and why certain decisions are made—I could see the pitfalls,” she reflects. “Whether it was in a patent litigation matter or drafting a new patent application to make a better patent application, it was a really great experience to see both sides of the coin.”

What secret sauce did Sandrowitz rely on to serve up successes for clients across multiple IP functions? The answer: she is an academic. Even though she is far removed from her days as an engineering student at Rutgers University and Princeton University, she is a lifelong learner at her core. After all, that’s why she entertained her transition to law in the first place.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s outside of my expertise,” Sandrowitz says. “I’m going to say yes to a project and learn to question things and rethink assumptions. It’s the desire to learn that’s motivated me. Hopefully I’m a good listener when I ask questions and fully listen to the answers.”

She also prioritizes making herself a resource for the next generation of lawyers. Sandrowitz sat on the Rocky Mountain IP Inn of Court’s Mentoring Committee and coordinated its programs for years. “I had great mentors in my career and trusted advisors who have guided me,” Sandrowitz says. “Because I’ve had it, I want to give that back.”

Attorneys who wear the leadership hat at work can take a page out of Sandrowitz’s playbook for mentoring young talent on one’s team.

“I’ll ask them what they want to work on or what skills would they like to develop,” Sandrowitz says of her interactions with younger employees. “Then we try to write down some goals. We have a goalsetting meeting earlier in the calendar year [to determine] a project or two outside of their normal responsibilities that they have an interest in and a passion for. That’s another way of mentoring and helping develop a guide for the next generation in making sure they’re empowered and seeing the career progression that they want.”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s outside of my expertise. I’m going say yes to a project and learn to question things and rethink assumptions. It’s the desire to learn that’s motivated me.”

Leaving Her Mark

As director and assistant chief trademark counsel, Shelby Bruce brings her expertise and brand savvy to 3M

By Marcos Chisholm

WHAT CAN YOU OFFER A FORTUNE 500 that makes just about everything? If you’re Shelby Bruce, you supply 3M with the trademark savvy it needs to protect its brands.

“I’m continuously learning new developments in the law, and continuously learning different products or brands, or creative marketing pathways that clients or companies are taking,” she says.

As the director and assistant chief trademark counsel at 3M, Bruce ensures its household names stick around for a long time. She manages the global trademark matters of each brand within her business group. Whether she oversees how they orchestrate licensing agreements or enforce trademarks, no stone is left unturned.

Of course, with multiple brands to serve, Bruce understands that her success boils down to juggling competing priorities. By creating strategies and protocols for

when her clients enter a handful of legal scenarios, they can accomplish more in a fast-paced environment.

“One area that differentiates trademark law from a number of other practices is that you can be working on a large number of matters at any time, in many different jurisdictions,” the director explains. “It’s not a practice where you necessarily go in and spend a day on one very large case.”

Bruce thrives on big projects where the stakes are high. After 3M discovered

that fraudulent websites were being created and counterfeit respirators were being sold under its name on websites and social media, Bruce became a key member of 3M’s Global COVID-19 Brand Protection Program. She architected the domain name enforcement protocol that 3M followed to remove over four hundred fraudulent domain names during the pandemic. “This work was really meaningful for me because it made a true impact in making sure that counterfeit respirators

weren’t getting in the hands of consumers,” she reflects.

It’s also important to Bruce that she dedicate herself to causes beyond 3M’s offices. Disappointed with the lack of diversity in her profession, Bruce recently joined the board at Twin Cities Diversity in Practice, a nonprofit whose mission is to help its member organizations attract, recruit, advance, and retain attorneys of color.

“The legal profession has always been kind of a slow mover of change, so

Shelby Bruce Director and Assistant Chief Trademark Counsel 3M

Howard Berg

one big challenge is just the pace of change,” Bruce says. “It’s not moving at a pace that is quick enough for people who are passionate about this space. Making sure that diverse attorneys can come in the door while also feeling included, welcomed, mentored, and sponsored throughout their careers is something that the legal profession has had a hard time with.”

Just how slow is the legal industry to embrace change? According to the American Bar Association, the number of lawyers of color grew less than 3 percent from 2010 to 2020. So, getting law firms to hire more diverse attorneys is not enough for Bruce. She also wants to do her part to foster retention.

Before 3M, Bruce was an IP attorney at Norton Rose Fulbright for five years. She developed her trademark, copyright, and advertising expertise and served clients like 3M. But she credits the firm for surrounding her with mentors when she practiced copyright law, patent litigation, and false advertising.

“I was really immersed in pretty substantive client work, so even as a young attorney, I really felt like I was a part of the team from the very beginning,” Bruce remembers. “I had very great mentors at the firm, and I think as a young attorney that’s so important.”

She realizes just how instrumental her diversity of experiences was in preparing her for the role at 3M today. It helped her discover her strengths and weaknesses as an attorney. And she became an asset to iconic brands like Post-it and Scotch because of it.

That’s why Bruce recommends young attorneys dive into a wide variety of projects. “Especially in the early years of your career, really be open to a variety of different projects to figure out what interests you as an attorney,” she advises.

Even if that comes with trial and error, Bruce explains the outcome is worth it. “This will help to craft your practice and develop some level of a specialty,” she says.

G R I T

WHEN FACED WITH HARDSHIP AND CHALLENGES, THESE SIX ATTORNEYS HAVE RISEN TO THE OCCASION THROUGH THEIR STEADFAST DETERMINATION

32 40 46 52 60 64

AP CAPALDO-AOUN TD SYNNEX

LANCE HIGH

KUBOTA NORTH AMERICA CORPORATION

REGINA HIMELFARB THE WEIR GROUP PLC

KRISTINE CARPENTER WABTEC CORPORATION

GISELLE HURON GOOGLE MARK JONES

SHELTER INSURANCE COMPANIES

Telling the Story

As one of the most innovative companies in the world, Google is taking creative steps to protect its hardware brands and its customers.

Giselle

leads the way.

By Zach Baliva

Huron

Photography by Sheila Barabad Sarmiento

Giselle Huron Senior Counsel and Anti-Counterfeit Lead Google

It’sbarely a surprise Giselle Huron is leading the way at one of the most innovative companies in the world. After all, she’s always been creative, curious, ambitious, and talented. As a young girl, Huron danced, played the piano, and studied martial arts. Later, she went to Princeton University to pursue a pre-med track as a neuroscience major. She started a web design company, dabbled in biotech, and even considered a career in obstetrics and gynecology.

Huron ultimately took a job as a paralegal, attended Harvard Law School, and began a career in intellectual property. Today, the senior counsel is a member of Google’s Trademark Legal team and leads the anticounterfeiting efforts at Google.

In these varied experiences, Huron sees a common thread. “It’s storytelling,” she says. “My work and interests have always been about telling stories, making connections, sharing experiences, and learning from one another.”

At Princeton, a young Huron did independent work combining theater techniques and therapy modalities to help people understand personal trauma and tell their own stories well. Likewise, her law classes were all about communicating, crafting narratives, and making connections.

Experiences as a premed student and at Harvard Law also developed in her a passion for helping others find their voice. “Information levels the playing field. If you don’t have the tools to tell your story, you’re not going to be heard and find your place,” she explains.

It’s a lesson Huron learned from watching her own mother raise her on her own. The petite woman from the Dominican Republic came to the US without a mastery of the English language. Although she didn’t always understand phrases or culture, she could find creative ways to tell stories, make connections, and navigate life.

In the first part of her legal career, Huron spent many years climbing the ranks of litigation teams at big New York firms where she specialized in new technology and intellectual property. Although Huron was thriving and developing specialized expertise, dry investigations and internal tasks left her yearning to apply her skills in the pursuit of something more creative. She made a shortlist of companies she would leave firm life for, and Google topped the list.

In 2013, Google reached out, and Huron jumped at the opportunity to join the technology, cloud, and computing giant. As she interviewed, Huron was aware just how rare the opening was. “I wanted to come work here because I recognized that Google was unlike other employers I could work for,” she explains. “I knew Google would be one of the very few places that is actually making law in the IP space.” The innovative company is constantly advancing and entering new markets and introducing new products and form factors early, before precedents have been set.

Google’s overall mission is to make the world’s information available. Huron and her colleagues see themselves as the guardians of that mission. “The Google

EXPERTISE SPOTLIGHT

LexField Law Offices provides a full spectrum of intellectual property services in China, including strategic counseling, prosecution, enforcement, and litigation. Our work covers trademarks, patents, copyright, entertainment, anti-unfair competition, internet, and anti-trust.

Our clients include many Fortune 500 companies as well as up-and-coming startups in industries such as telecommunications, automobiles, information technology, life sciences, consumer products, pharmaceuticals, energy, and chemical engineering. We have an extraordinary track record of helping them to protect their IP rights and navigate complex regulations in one of the world’s most active markets.

Our professionals are graduates of top-tier Chinese, Japanese, European, and American universities, and we work in English, Chinese, and Japanese languages. In addition to our IP expertise, many attorneys have experience in industries outside of the legal world, which adds to the insights and skills we offer to clients.

LexField has been consistently ranked as a top-tier firm for contentious and prosecution trademark and patent work by several industry publications, including Chambers, Managing Intellectual Property, Intellectual Asset Management, and World Trademark Review.

Trademark Legal team is responsible for protecting and enforcing the company’s many major, global brands. In support of Google’s mission, we take a balanced approach to enforcement, focusing on misuses of our brands that harm or confuse users, and being mindful of valid expression to avoid overreach,” she says.

In her tenure with the company, Huron has worked on several notable projects, including the Pixel brand, which covers its phone and mobile hardware line; Glass, a hands-free device; Terra Bella, a satellite imaging system; Stadia, a cloud gaming platform; and Pokemon Go, the massively popular augmented reality mobile game. She’s had to navigate complicated issues related to IP and trademarks as well as the novel application of emerging technologies. She’s been in the control room for a satellite launch, developed strong relationships

with developers, and explained intricate technologies to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

In 2016, Huron set out to establish Google’s internal anti-counterfeit team from the ground up. Counterfeiting and unauthorized sales pose a risk not only to Google but also to its customers. Those users may be drawn to lower price points with fake items that mimic Chromecast, Pixel, and other authentic devices, but those knockoffs can let bad actors steal passwords and other valuable information, and pose physical safety hazards.

Huron’s group is putting appropriate guardrails in place to protect users, maintain trust, and keep its brand value—and it’s doing so in the most “Google way” possible. They are not only executing the fundamentals by recording trademark rights with Customs offices in dozens of countries

and shoring up supply chain security, but also affixed a beautifully designed hologram sticker to Pixel phones and other Google products. When counterfeiters started replicating the sticker, Huron led a cross-functional effort to release a second version.

Now, Google uses a QR code on all products. Users can scan the label to gain instant access to their device’s memory, type, color, market, and other key identifiers. If that user believes they’ve purchased a fraudulent product, they can then report the problem to the proper authorities.

“It’s very enjoyable to work with Giselle,” says Jan Liu, managing partner at LexField Law Offices. “She can always inspire outside counsels to be creative and business oriented [when] thinking [about] legal solutions. In leading anti-counterfeiting projects, she has demonstrated her impressive ability to organize various

service resources and master diverse and complex projects and issues.”

As Huron devotes her professional life to helping Google empower people to tell stories, she aspires to do the same in her personal time. She teaches students at Columbia Law School how to navigate corporate America and find their place. She also serves as board president of Ariel Rivka Dance (ARD), a dance company that is committed to championing female creatives through original choreography, commissioned music, and curated family and educational programming. In fact, ARD supported dancers who lost income during the COVID-19 pandemic by creat-

ing remote performances, hosting virtual workshops, and continuing to experiment and push the limits of the medium. ARD led a corporate movement session for members of Huron’s own team at Google.

As a first-generation professional woman of color, Huron carved out space by being creative and pushing boundaries, always being willing and open to try new things, and advocating for herself with a focus on personal goals and finding balance. Her advice for others today? “Don’t be content to let others dictate your path while you follow along and hold on for the ride,” she says. “Be bold enough to tell your own story, and then help others do the same.”

“Be bold e nough to tell your own story, and then help others do the same.”

Law Offices is proud to join in recognizing our great partner Giselle Huron of Google.

LexField

LexField Law Offices provides the full spectrum of intellectual property services in China, including strategic counseling, prosecution, enforcement, and litigation. Our work covers trademarks, patents, copyright, entertainment-related laws, anti-unfair competition, as well as internet-related laws, and anti-trust.

Our clients include many Fortune 500 companies as well as up-and-coming startups in industries as diverse as telecommunications, automobiles, information technology, life sciences, consumer products, pharmaceuticals, energy and chemical engineering. We have an extraordinary track record of helping them to protect their IPR and navigate complex regulations in one of the world’s most active markets.

Our professionals are graduates of top-tier Chinese, Japanese, European, and American universities, and we work in English, Chinese, and Japanese languages. In addition to our IP expertise, many of us have experience in industries outside of the legal world, which contributes to the insights and skills that are necessary to meet our clients’ varying needs.

We have been consistently ranked as a top-tier firm for contentious and prosecution trademark and patent work by publications including Chambers, Managing Intellectual Property, Intellectual Asset Management, and World Trademark Review.

LexField Law Offices

Tel : +86 10 8525 3366

Email: general@lexfieldlaw.com

Website: www.lexfieldlaw.com

PARENTING ≠ C AREER PL ATE AU

AP CAPALDO-AOUN OF TD SYNNEX HELPS CREATE A WORLD WHERE PARENTS CAN BRING THEIR WHOLE SELVES TO WORK

By Billy Yost

Ana-Paola (AP) Capaldo-Aoun has always been the youngest everything. She graduated Notre Dame Law School at twenty-three (foregoing what might have been an incredible singing career). By twenty-six, she was sitting on a compliance committee presenting before seasoned executives at a global company. She was always the youngest in-house lawyer, the youngest director, the youngest assistant general counsel, and now she’s added the title of mom to her résumé.

“All of a sudden there was a different speed to life,” remembers Capaldo-Aoun, who is assistant general counsel at TD SYNNEX. “We’re wired to want to do everything all of the time. But then everything changes and this person comes into the world, and your approach to things becomes nuanced in ways you didn’t expect. You have to learn to look at issues through a new prism and

Ana-Paola (AP) Capaldo-Aoun Assistant General Counsel TD SYNNEX

life gains so many dimensions. You have to worker smarter, be more efficient and judicious with your time and energy.”

But this isn’t the story of a highspeed compliance pro who suddenly decided to put the brakes on her professional journey. That’s too simple of a narrative. Never fearing a challenge, Capaldo-Aoun made a soft turn in her career and decided to make the transition from compliance to the legal side of the house—while in the trenches of early motherhood with small children.

In a country where the idea of parental leave is still wildly out of sync with the rest of the world, Capaldo-Aoun has seen the tough decisions parents have to make. And she wants to be part of the change to help families, especially women, be proud of the choices that they have made and not feel forced to take a significant fork in their career journey. Capaldo-Aoun is still eyeing that general counsel role but getting there may look a little different now.

Capaldo-Aoun is only thirty-three, but she’s benefited from some of the best mentors in the business. She professionally grew up with some heavy hitters in compliance like former compliance heads at Royal Caribbean and Ryder, Richard Montes de Oca and Marcia Narine Weldon (who are both at MDO Partners).

“I feel like my track was expedited in part because it’s been built on the legacy of other people’s careers,” Capaldo-Aoun says. “I had the

Dipp Photography

opportunity to work with people who had run the finest legal teams at Fortune 100 companies [and] a boss who had clerked for Supreme Court justices, and these people were willing to take me under their wing to mentor and nurture my own career. I’ve always sought out those opportunities to learn and grow—but also people who will help me develop something new.”

She now works on a team led by Rania Shehata, a former prosecutor and litigator who serves as GC of the Americas region for TD SYNNEX. “This time, I knew I needed someone who could not only help me grow as a lawyer—but as a person. And Rania is a strong leader who prioritizes empathy—and, importantly, is a mom like me.

“It’s critical that at every company you can look up and see people who reflect who you are or who you want to be,” she adds. “If you can’t do that, you’re not in the right place.” Capaldo-Aoun has always chosen roles based on who she’d have an opportunity to learn from to help her get to the next milestone of her career.

Capaldo-Aoun has a natural immigrant drive, the daughter of a Cuban mother and an Italian father. She came to the United States from Venezuela when she was just three months old. Her mantra has always been one of gratitude for living in a country where she has had limitless potential and has been able to achieve so much in a short time.

“I think we have an obligation to give back to our communities—to our country—and I see that lawyers can also help do this not only in the public sector, but also in building better, more

ethical, more ‘souled’ companies,” she says. As a Notre Dame Law School graduate, Capaldo-Aoun keeps the motto “a different kind of lawyer” front and center always.

Now, the lawyer has added a new dimension to her identity as a lawyer with her role of being a mom. “I can’t tell you how much motherhood unexpectedly altered my trajectory,” Capaldo-Aoun says. “That’s just simply how it is. I started to realize that the sacrifice-to-payoff ratio altered dramatically after I had my two kids. But it also makes you sharper. And companies should want people who are committed, adept at change, able to juggle, and that have peak endurance.

“And guess who can list all those skills?

Parents can. Moms can. We are called to do big things before 7:00 a.m.—and that is a major soft skill,” Capaldo-Aoun adds. “We have to truly welcome people to bring their whole selves to work and that

starts with our values as a company and with our policies.”

At TD SYNNEX, Capaldo-Aoun says she’s been grateful to see progress in real time. As the chair of the company’s Hispanic business resource group, Fuerza, she advocates not just for diversity of background, but diversity of experience as well. She feels lucky to be part of a corporate ecosystem singularly focused on change and on being stewards of good corporate values at TD SYNNEX. She’s particularly motivated to help mentor younger attorneys in a legal landscape that has drastically changed.

“My advice is always that the rules are kind of out the door,” Capaldo-Aoun says. “You don’t need to do seven years in a firm before you can transfer in-house. Everything has changed, and those traditional paths do not have to be your own. Don’t be afraid to have a radical—but studied—voice. Say yes more than you say no. Keep your door

IT’S CRITICAL THAT AT EVERY COMPANY YOU CAN LOOK UP AND SEE PEOPLE WHO REFLECT WHO YOU ARE OR WHO YOU WANT TO BE. IF YOU CAN’T DO THAT, YOU’RE NOT IN THE RIGHT PLACE.”

open to new opportunities even when the timing doesn’t seem perfect or ideal. Say yes to the difficult project, the new assignment; have the conversations.”

Moreover, the Capaldo-Aoun says that creating a network of trusted advisors can help guide one through every twist and turn in their legal journey, even if it’s just from afar.

“You need three people: someone who is two years out from where you want to be, someone who is where you want to be in five to ten years, and your Ruth Bader Ginsburg-typeof-dream role,” she says. These people can provide context and guidance and can help you see the big picture but are also close enough to where you need to be next in your career narrative.”

The big picture, though, is far more complex. Tough decisions still need be made. Refocus is often needed. But for the next leg of her journey, Capaldo-Aoun has some additional tools under her belt, and she is excited to say yes to new challenges.

Akerman:

“AP is an exceptional lawyer who displays professional excellence and a great depth of knowledge about her business. A true collaborator on strategy and a pleasure to work with, we really appreciate our business relationship.”

fr.com

Akerman applauds Ana-Paola Capaldo on her accomplishments and well-deserved recognition in Modern Counsel. We are proud to work with Ana-Paola and TD SYNNEX who are leaders in their own rights.

Akerman LLP is a top 100 U.S. law firm recognized among the most forwardthinking firms in the industry by Financial Times. Its more than 700 lawyers and business professionals collaborate with the world’s most successful enterprises and entrepreneurs to navigate change, seize opportunities, and help drive innovation and growth.

Irene Bassel Frick Office Managing Partner Tampa,

FL 813 209 5047

irene.bassel@akerman.com

700+ Lawyers 24 Offices akerman.com

©2022 Akerman LLP. All rights reserved.

—Irene Bassel

Frick,

Managing Partner (Tampa)

Fish is proud to partner with TD SYNNEX and congratulates our client and friend Ana-Paola Capaldo on her leadership as their Assistant General Counsel.

TH E GLOBAL GC

LANCE HIGH DRAWS UPON DECADES OF PRIVATE PRACTICE AND GLOBAL IN-HOUSE EXPERIENCE TO LEAD KUBOTA’S NORTH AMERICAN LEGAL TEAM

By Brittany Farb Gruber

L.A. LAW IS FONDLY REMEMBERED

by many as one of the greatest legal television series of all time. Applications to law school rose due to the glamorized presentation of the profession in the late eighties and early nineties, and some practicing attorneys even reported that the television show affected how they dressed. Lance High admits that the show also inspired his own journey to law school; however, he quickly realized how unrealistic Hollywood’s representation was.

“The rigor to excel in a law school class is nothing like a television show,” he says, adding that law school is very different from the day-to-day practice of law. “Law school gives you a sense of what is it like to be in the hot seat and to speak in front of a group of people. But I would venture to say that there is not a huge correlation between the successful practice of a lawyer and law school itself.”

High earned a joint JB/MBA degree from William & Mary Law School, hoping someday to take his litigation and business acumen in-house. However, when he graduated in 1993, the legal market was tight, and the US was heading toward a recession. The young lawyer started with a local practice in his hometown of McLean, Virginia, and cut his teeth on domestic relations and residential real estate matters.

“It got me into court working with clients and judges directly,” High reflects.

“I gained experience on my feet. There's nothing like going to general district court and being in the gallery of several hundred people waiting for your case to be called. Judges are running through cases of all

matters, of all types, and you realize that when you get your moment, your pitch has got to be succinct and focused. You know right then and there whether you’ve won or lost. But there’s no luxury of time because you’re on to the next matter.”

High then went on to practice at much larger law firms, including Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP and K&L Gates LLP, before going in-house at Caterpillar in 2001. He spent nearly two decades at the machinery manufacturing giant, rising through the ranks of the legal department and ultimately serving as chief ethics and compliance officer and associate general counsel for litigation. “It was a tremendous experience,” he says. “I got a chance to see the world through the jobs that I held there, and it was a chance to have a global impact on the company.”

High spent several years living and working in the Asia Pacific region during his time with Caterpillar. That international experience serves him well at Kubota North America Corporation, which has a Japanese parent company. “I had a general sense of what I was getting into at Kubota,” High explains, noting that Japanese business culture is very consensus-driven.

He continues, “As the general counsel here in North America, a lot of the issues that come to my desk have an interplay with the parent company in Japan. That takes an awareness of what needs to be communicated and an ability to work collaboratively with Japanese colleagues who may not understand the US legal system, but who can communicate best in the native language. They know the

organization back in Japan and know how to get that consensus built. So, you have to understand the business culture of the company.”

The GC believes that the experience overseas with Caterpillar prepared him for the role he holds today at Kubota North American Corporation because of the breadth of issues crossing his desk. He gained exposure to various elements of the law and various areas of expertise, including litigation, intellectual property, employment, trade and regulation, and ethics and compliance.

“I learned from Caterpillar’s general counsel at the time the importance of team building, delegation of authority, and making sure people not only maximize their utility but also maximize their career potential,” he reflects.

In his GC role for the Japanese equipment manufacturer, High is charged with managing a team of fourteen lawyers and staff who are organized into major practice groups. He explains they handle anything that comes up, including matters related to product liability litigation, intellectual property, regula-

tion, supply chain, dealer management, product distribution, and more.

When he joined the company in 2020, High encountered a variety of challenges, perhaps the most challenging being the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. There was the difficulty of meeting and integrating into Kubota’s team, who were working remotely at the time, but also the fact that Kubota was not spared from supply chain issues that affected manufacturers worldwide.

“At the beginning of pandemic, it was all about getting products into ports and across borders,” he says. “Whether you’re waiting on parts to incorporate into your product, or you’re waiting on a piece of industrial machinery for the factory floor, the pandemic gummed up the supply chain for everything. And, I think that’s what every manufacturer has been dealing with for the past couple of years. Now, as we’re coming out of the supply chain crisis, inflation is hitting everybody, and that poses a different set of challenges for our business.”

While High’s role as general counsel means he’s at the center of many

decision-making processes, he knows when to draw upon the expertise of the Kubota legal team. In his time playing football at Dartmouth College, he learned valuable lessons about teamwork that he still draws on today.

“As an offensive lineman, you’re one of five people who work arm-and-arm to make sure the play is being executed. That means understanding what your role is and maximizing your impact within that role. As linemen, we didn’t look for the limelight, and I operate the same way today,” he says.

This mentality aligns with High’s leadership approach today at Kubota. “I recognize that the role of a lawyer is to set our beliefs and our ego aside for the sake of the company and for the benefit of the client,” he says. “And that means making sure we have the right expertise assigned to handle the company’s legal matters. We have tremendously talented people here, and it’s my job to make sure that we tap into that talent to deliver the greatest benefit to the company.”

Industry colleagues have come to admire High’s management style over

I RECOGNIZE THAT THE ROLE OF A LAWYER IS TO SET OUR BELIEFS AND OUR EGO ASIDE FOR THE SAKE OF THE COMPANY AND FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE CLIENT.”

EXPERTISE SPOTLIGHT

Polsinelli’s litigators have deep experience defending and protecting our clients against products liability, premises liability, and catastrophic injury claims that often go to the heart of their businesses. Our litigators approach each case the “Polsinelli Way”—with a laser focus on our clients’ business goals and an eye toward case resolution that prioritizes those business objectives.

Our products liability and catastrophic injury attorneys draw on Polsinelli’s extensive resources. This includes partnering with attorneys with deep industry knowledge and experience in legal service areas to formulate a comprehensive litigation approach for our clients. Our clients range from publicly traded, multinational corporations to privately held companies spanning a variety of industries who manufacture and distribute a variety of products, including automotive, construction, agricultural, and heavy earthmoving equipment, electronics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, asbestos, cosmetics, and food.

Our goal is to resolve cases efficiently while also protecting the economic and business sensitivities that affect our clients’ bottom line. As such, we also assess alternatives to trial, including alternative dispute resolution options and strategies.

Polsinelli is recognized by BTI Litigation Outlook and by U.S. News and Best Law Firms for its success in products liability litigation.

Courtesy of Lance High

Lance High General Counsel

Kubota North America Corporation

the course of his legal career. “Lance’s commitment to family and teamwork is an inspiration,” says Daniel W. Bir, shareholder at Polsinelli. “He leads with passion and humility and handles difficult problems with grace and forethought. It’s been an honor to work with and learn from Lance for nearly two decades.”

Throughout his career, High has faced adversity, and grit has been one of his greatest assets as he navigates high-stakes uncertainty—in fact, it’s been a major factor in his success.

“We all have to deal with failures at some point or another,” he admits. “You might not get the verdict that goes in your favor or maybe you don’t get the job that you want. But there are few things in life that have an immediate effect or have no solution to them. You have to persevere, keep going, and have confidence and creativity to find the next step.”

BakerHostetler:

“Over decades litigating matters with Lance High, we’ve witnessed his success transforming litigation teams, compliance programs and law departments—all while keeping a laser focus on the business strategy he is supporting and defending.”

—Gilbert S. Keteltas, Leader, Commercial Litigation Team

McGuireWoods LLP:

“We have worked with Lance at Kubota and at his former company. He is a true visionary in the areas of litigation and compliance and makes all of his attorneys—both inhouse and external—feel an integral part of the company’s legal team.”

—Dion

Hayes, Partner

OUT IN FRONT

AS CORPORATE COUNSEL OF THE AMERICAS AT THE WEIR GROUP, REGINA HIMELFARB ISN’T JUST RUNNING WITH THE BOYS— SHE’S LEADING THE PACK

By Zach Baliva

LOT OF PEOPLE ADMIRE A female attorney sitting atop a leading company, but few understand the persistence and resilience that it takes to get there. Regina Himelfarb is the Weir Group PLC’s corporate counsel of the Americas. She spent nearly thirty years in other roles before she seized the opportunity to help lead and advise the global engineering business.

A

in her rural east Texas hometown. “Any woman coming from that culture already has one arm tied behind her back and will have to figure out how to deal with it as she grows and develops personally and professionally,” she says.

Himelfarb had no choice but to be a strong, independent, and determined free thinker. That was her response to an uncompromising evangelical community

That’s what she’s done her entire life. Himelfarb is competitive. She was an athlete and a high school coach. The experience taught her to get comfortable when surrounded by men and other ambitious women.

Long before Himelfarb was an in-house attorney in oil and gas, she learned the

Regina Himelfarb

Corporate Counsel of the Americas

The Weir Group PLC

Thomas Garza

PEOPLE HERE RECOGNIZE THAT WE NEED INPUT FROM EVERYONE TO REALLY HAVE THE RIGHT ATMOSPHERE FOR EMPLOYEES AND THE RIGHT RESULTS IN THE BUSINESS WORLD.”

Thomas Garza

cutthroat industry from the ground up. Then, the Lone Star State native roamed the panhandle trying to negotiate rightof-way agreements in a contracts and sales role for a local upstream company. Although the twenty-two-year-old sometimes worked alone, she often accompanied a veteran colleague who took her to oil fields, introduced her to the “good old boys clubs” in dusty diners, and showed her how to build effective business relationships.

Himelfarb was glad to have a mentor in the field, but it was the company’s two lawyers in the office who inspired her to go to law school. She had an initial conversation with them, and within two months, she was sitting for the LSAT on her way to Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law in Dallas.

The JD program was exactly what Himelfarb was looking for, but she kept one secret from her professors, deans, and administrators—the law student was still gainfully employed. Her dual status violated the school’s policy for first-year learners expected to devote every minute to legal studies.

By the time Himelfarb graduated, she had moved to an oil and gas law firm to get hands-on experience working for sizable industry clients. She experienced her first oil crash, moved to her first in-house role at Union Pacific Resources (UPR), joined another law firm after UPR was sold, and later helped take Fort-Worth’s Quicksilver Resources Inc. midstream company public as its senior attorney.

HOW TO BE A WOMAN IN A MAN’S WORLD

Regina Himelfarb has spent the past thirty years learning how to advocate for herself in not only law but also the competitive oil and gas industry—two fields traditionally dominated by men. Here are her tips and tricks for going from surviving to thriving.

• You need support to do this. Find someone you respect who will be a good sounding board and mentor.

• Understand that it takes effort, but it is worthwhile. Don’t let the struggle bring you down.

• Always be willing to raise questions, but do it in a way that doesn’t offend.

• There are some unfair things that you simply have to accept. Women and minorities can be seen as confrontational when using a tone that would be acceptable for white men. That’s life. Work around it.

• Find professional networking groups and communities where you fit in.

• Find ways to participate in the extracurriculars even if you’re not really interested. Drive the golf cart and go to the football game; this gives you visibility.

• Build relationships, earn trust, and let people get to know who you are and what you can do.

In 2016, she went into private practice with Grable Martin Fulton (GMF), which is an innovative, full-service, (certified) women-owned law firm that is composed of a richly diverse group of experienced attorneys. At GMF, she served as an outside counsel for the Weir Group before transitioning to a full-time role in 2019, primarily due to its General Counsel Steve Meck and his leadership philosophy focused on inclusion and team building.

Now, as corporate counsel for all Weir and ESCO divisions operating in the Americas region, Himelfarb handles real estate and certain finance matters, IP and miscellaneous contracts, and supply chain, customer products, and services agreements. She also assists Weir’s corporate secretary to provide the documentation required for corporate transactions and participates as needed with the due diligence team on major deals.

Because the company is based in Glasgow and has dozens of entities operating all over the globe, she must stay aware of numerous emerging legal and financial issues in many jurisdictions while finding creative ways to increase efficiency and keep costs down. That’s in line with Weir’s overall vision to increase inclusion and diversity among its ranks while focusing on its core constituencies.

The 150-year-old company has spent an increasing amount of time and effort to foster its vision for sustainability, inclusion, and diversity. As a result, initiatives have been implemented that include training and education for all employees, which gives Himelfarb optimism that the playing field for professional opportunities will be increasingly equitable and open to all, regardless of color, gender, or background.

“People here recognize that we need input from everyone to really have the right atmosphere for employees and the right results in the business world,” she says. “Our global legal team is increasingly diverse, and I believe it stands out as a shining example of DEI [diversity, equity, inclusion] in action at Weir.”

Himelfarb’s past experiences motivate her. She recalls that the female number one student in a prior law class did not get any job offers from big firms and brought a class action to right the injustice, which finally happened. Another female colleague at a previous company did not receive the same perks and benefits of her male counterparts and was often asked to get coffee and make copies. She was referred to, as was Himelfarb, as a “lady lawyer,” which reflected the view that a woman was not as capable and did not have the same status as a man.

I WANT THE WOMEN I INTERACT WITH TO BECOME CFOs AND CEOs. IT’S IMPORTANT THAT ALL WOMEN BE ALLIES WITH ONE ANOTHER.”

“The women who have stood up against sexism are the ones who have paved the way for me, and I have the obligation to do the same thing for minority law students, female lawyers, and even our minority and female clients,” she says.

Now, as corporate counsel, Himelfarb goes out of her way to unlock opportunities for young female lawyers. She makes sure the women working for her clients shine.

“I want the women I interact with to become CFOs and CEOs,” she says. “It’s important that all women be allies with one another.” She participated with her prior law firm’s executive retreats for women, which became a model for female lawyers at firms to have the same client development opportunities as that of the standard allmale golf or ski trips that were a regular occurrence.

These are the practices that have helped Himelfarb find a way to level her playing fields and help other women understand, take advantage of, or create their own opportunities and paths.

on this well-deserved recognition and for all she does for so many.

Norton Rose Fulbright congratulates Regina Himelfarb on being recognized by Modern Counsel. We look forward to continuing to work closely with Regina and her team as Canadian corporate counsel for the Weir Group.

Law around the world nortonrosefulbright.com

Kristine Carpenter VP of Legal, M&A & Corporate Governance Wabtec Corporation Brea, LLC

KRISTINE CARPENTER EMBRACES HER HERITAGE AND PASSION FOR DEALS TO THRIVE IN HER ROLE AS VP OF LEGAL, M&A, AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AT WABTEC CORPORATION

By Marcos Chisholm

LO CKI NG IT I N

What does it mean to grow up as a first-generation immigrant and a military brat? If you're Kristine Carpenter, you literally keep moving.

“Living in vastly different places from an early age really pushed me to become comfortable with the uncomfortable because my surroundings were constantly changing,” Carpenter reflects. “Dealing with an ever-changing environment gave me critical skills of being able to connect with everybody and quickly adapt to new situations.”

She leaned into the chaos of new cultures and embraced the opportunities that come with them. Carpenter became the first in her family to attend college when she enrolled at the University of Virginia in 2004. There, her professors encouraged her to broaden her horizons and encouraged her to be inquisitive and pursue fields of study that would enable her to find her passions.

Carpenter followed their advice: She decided to study English and psychology. After she graduated college in 2008, she earned her JD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2011. By the end of that year, she landed her first role as a corporate associate with a mid-sized law firm in Pittsburgh. While at the law firm, Carpenter honed her skills by working every facet of a transaction, from drafting to diligence to negotiating.

Once Carpenter entered her third year at the firm, she evaluated her career options, hoping to find a position that would allow her to utilize her corporate training in an international context to work on cross-border transactions. Then, she took a leap of faith: she joined rail equipment manufacturer Wabtec Corporation, a multinational business headquartered in Pittsburgh, as an attorney in 2014. She joined a small in-house team of lawyers where her broad-based corporate

background lent itself well to an in-house practice.

“I was able to have a substantive role very early on in my career, simply because I wasn't at a law firm where there were thirty-five corporate associates. I was hired as the fifth lawyer at my company,” Carpenter says. “I had an exceeding amount of responsibility from the start. It was a really energetic time.”

In her eight-year tenure at the company, Carpenter has held the titles of senior corporate attorney and director. Currently, she is vice president of legal, M&A, and corporate governance.

Since joining Wabtec, Carpenter has crafted over thirty deals that catapulted Wabtec to $8 billion in annual revenues and a Fortune 300 company. She considers her work on its $11.1 billion merger with GE Transportation the

proudest moment of her career. “For a deal lawyer, that was my Super Bowl in the sense that all of my training led me to this moment where I could work on a deal that had people in multiple countries across multiple disciplines that would be transformative for the company,” Carpenter says. “For deals the size of [GE], the fundamentals and the training become crucial to staying grounded and pushing the deal forward.”

Behind the scenes, Carpenter thrives in an in-house environment because she goes beyond acknowledging teamwork as a nice-to-have. She embraces the challenge of juggling competing interests in a global conglomerate. “It’s that focus on having the right team around you and making sure it’s a team that you trust,” she explains. “Because you’re relying on many people to feed you information so that you can make these critical decisions.”

She also leads Wabtec’s employee resource group (ERG), the Asian Pacific

FOR A VERY LONG TIME, THERE WEREN'T A LOT OF WOMEN OR PEOPLE OF COLOR IN THE SPACES THAT I WAS WORKING IN, AND I HOPE TO CHANGE THE PERCEPTIONS OF WHO BELONGS IN THE CORPORATE SPACE.”

Forum, for Wabtec employees based in the Americas. “For a very long time, there weren't a lot of women or people of color in the spaces that I was working in, and I hope to change the perceptions of who belongs in the corporate space,” Carpenter says about what inspires her work with the ERG.

According to Ascend and the Harvard Business Review, Asian Americans represent less than 5 percent of directors at Fortune 1000 companies and are the least likely group to be promoted to management roles. As such, she refuses to sit back and allow the status quo to continue. “I am now in a place where I can help the people who are coming up behind me,” Carpenter says. “I feel a deep sense of responsibility to make sure that I'm opening doors in the same way that doors opened for me. A commitment to service has given me a new sense of purpose in my job as well."

Meanwhile, Carpenter advises young attorneys on embracing every opportunity to develop in their careers. “No one will invest more in your career than yourself,” Carpenter says. “Always know the journey that you're on. Be questioning, open, and curious about the projects that you take and how they can lead to your personal and professional development. Architecting a long-term career is intimidating, so I always break down each step and think about how each project will lead to the next opportunity.”

Jones Day congratulates Kristine Carpenter on her well-deserved recognition by Modern Counsel and her many successes as Vice President, Legal M&A and Corporate Governance, at Wabtec Corporation.

Why Jones Day?

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

CL AIM I NG HIS STAKE

AFTER SURVIVING A SERIOUS CAR ACCIDENT, MARK JONES TOOK A LEAP OF FAITH AND JOINED SHELTER INSURANCE COMPANIES AS DIRECTOR OF LITIGATION AND SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT

By Marcos Chisholm

Mark Jones was driving with his family when their worst moment came crashing down.

“My family and I were involved in a very serious car wreck,” Jones reflects.

“It was serious enough that everybody was taken to the ER, and we thought we actually lost my youngest daughter. We thought she had died, and fortunately she did not. She is thriving today.”

While Jones was just happy his family survived the car accident, his experience

from the wreck would provide him with the perspective he needed to relate with clients later in his career.

Today, he serves as the director of litigation and special investigations unit at Shelter Insurance Companies, where he navigates the legal challenges of claims and lawsuits presented against its customers. “People are hurt,” Jones says. “They’re real injuries. They’re real things that we are here to try to help with. And unfortunately, we can’t take away their injuries.”

He continues, “All we have is money, which is frankly a very, very poor substitute. But we are dealing with people at probably the worst moment of their lives.”

Since Jones joined Shelter Insurance Companies in 2004, he’s turned a small legal team into a dynamic department with full-service capabilities. He has twelve in-house attorneys who advise branch offices in twenty-three states. Plus, he launched an in-house Special

Investigation Unit that addresses fraud claims. “Each one of our litigation attorneys in my unit have responsibilities for the one or two or three of these branch offices and provide legal advice to them,” Jones says.

The director also brings over a decade of legal and insurance experience to his role. He began his legal career at Sherman, Wickens, Lysaught. He tackled commercial litigation cases for four years at Polsinelli, White,

Mark Jones Director of Litigation & Special Investigations Unit Shelter Insurance Companies

WE CAN'T TAKE AWAY THEIR INJURIES.... ALL WE HAVE IS MONEY, WHICH IS FRANKLY A VERY, VERY POOR SUBSTITUTE. BUT WE ARE DEALING WITH PEOPLE AT PROBABLY THE WORST MOMENT OF THEIR LIVES.”

Bruce Meentemeyer

Vardeman, & Shalton (now Polsinelli). Then he spent eight years with Media Professional Inc., a managing general underwriter for insurance companies, as assistant vice president of claims. There, he discovered the ins and outs of the insurance industry.

“That was really the first time I got involved doing insurance work,” Jones says. “Most of my litigation work was not for insurance companies, so I got to learn the insurance industry pretty well. I worked for this company because I was doing some legal advice, even within other departments in this company in the underwriting side, and other areas. I managed the litigation, then I took over the unit that handled all of the lawsuits against insurance agents.”

Of course, Jones has watched the industry evolve. He remembers insurers doubling down on stubborn and complacent approaches to running their businesses. “Insurance has been around for a long time, and they’ve kind of always done it the way they’ve done it,” Jones says.

Despite having to keep up with an influx of regulations—and working in legal environments that he says continue to become “more adversarial”—Jones confirms that insurance companies have pulled a 180, shifting their attitudes toward innovation.

“Over the last ten, fifteen, maybe twenty years, that is really, really starting to change,” Jones says. “Insurance companies in the industry are able to

move a lot quicker on things, and we’re no different. We have been modernizing all our systems for the last few years, and that’s been a big change for us as a company, but it’s been very good.”

Jones embraces change as a catalyst for growth. He leans into challenges that prompt him to think like a lawyer and a leader, and it shows in the digital transformation he’s achieved across his department. “We just introduced in the litigation side, [a] brand new case management system that we built out on our side,” Jones says. “I led that effort . . . and that’s been awesome. It’s been a great productivity and efficiency boost for all our attorneys and our staff.”

Jones advises young attorneys to get as much broad experience as they can as they develop in their careers, even if their interests are specialized. “When I’m hiring folks here, I don’t necessarily have to hire somebody who knows insurance or who’s handled insurance cases,” he says. “I need somebody who has a broad experience base in helping people . . . in wanting to really help folks and be a part of the team.”

Foland, Wickens, Roper, Hofer & Crawford, P.C.:

“Mark is a thoughtful, analytical, and conscientious litigation manager.  He has been striving to protect Shelter’s insureds and do the right thing for Shelter for nearly twenty years.”

—Clay Crawford, Principal

Schreimann, Rackers & Francka, LLC:

“Mark is smart and forward-thinking—he is aggressive about solving situations before they become problems.  I enjoy working with him to reach common-sense solutions that serve his insureds’ best interests.”

—Chris

Rackers, Attorney at Law

I DON'T NECESSARILY HAVE TO HIRE SOMEBODY WHO KNOWS INSURANCE OR WHO’S HANDLED INSURANCE CASES. I NEED SOMEBODY WHO HAS A BROAD EXPERIENCE BASE IN HELPING PEOPLE...IN WANTING TO REALLY HELP FOLKS AND BE A PART OF THE TEAM.”

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

The Evolution of a Seasoned Lawyer

At

Voya Financial, Rachel Reid has evolved into a nimble and efficient business-oriented lawyer who serves as a partner to management

By Frank DiMaria

LIKE MANY LAW SCHOOL GRADUATES,

Rachel Reid began her journey at a large law firm, which provided a solid foundation to hone her craft. “They teach you law in law school, but you learn how to be a lawyer and how to be an effective business-oriented lawyer on the job,” says Reid, senior vice president, deputy general counsel, corporate secretary, and chief privacy officer at Voya Financial.

Reid started her legal career at Sutherland, Asbill, and Brennan after graduating from Harvard Law School. By virtue of hard work and training, Reid earned opportunities to counsel demanding clients, but was eager to move on. There’s nothing wrong with the law firm environment, she says, but when a woman needs to decide whether she’s going to pursue a partnership or follow a different path, she must consider the work/life balance.

“I had gotten engaged, I was about to get married and was thinking about starting a family, and the demands and billable hours didn’t feel sustainable,” says Reid.

She left the law firm and moved in-house at McKesson, an experience that “opened her eyes” to the employee evaluation process at law firms compared to corporations. “In corporate America, it’s not always pure skills or talent that get you a promotion,” she says. “It’s not the glass ceiling, but to get to the most senior levels of management, it’s often as much about relationships as it is about performance.”

This realization turned Reid passionate about mentoring junior attorneys, something she regularly does today. “It’s hard to climb the corporate ladder without a mentor or advocate,” she says. “I didn’t have that at my prior jobs.” It may seem obvious, but

individuals need time and training. “We all went to law school and most of us worked at a law firm before coming in-house, but we forget that there’s a lot to learn. Even if it’s just how to navigate the company,” she adds.

Reid, who came to Voya in 2009, manages a team of eleven attorneys and paralegals, providing legal advice and support in a number of different subject matter areas, including corporate governance, data privacy, data security, general business advice, intellectual property, corporate transactions, procurement, and litigation. Reid has evolved into a business-oriented lawyer, calling herself “a partner to management.”

Rachel Reid SVP, Deputy General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Chief Privacy Officer Voya Financial

Leading by example, Reid often invites team members to her home. “At the end of the day we’re all just human beings with families and interests outside work,” she says. “Yes, work is extremely important, and the company has a mission that we’re all passionate about, but work is much more enjoyable when you like the people you work with.”

During her evolution at Voya, her knowledge and sophistication in business matters, technology, operations, and finance have grown considerably, making her nimble, efficient, and effective. Initially negotiating technology vendor contracts for the strategic sourcing team, she was eventually given responsibility for privacy, intellectual property, outsourcing, government affairs and corporate governance. Most recently, she’s added the role of corporate secretary.

Reid attributes much of her success to the relationships of trust and respect she’s built over the years. “I know how things work and I understand the business objectives,” she explains. “Even though I might not have subject matter expertise in a particular area, I’m able to effectively support and advise the business, supplementing with outside counsel support where needed for subject matter expertise.”

In addition to her various roles, Reid is a passionate advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), including hiring and mentoring diverse talent within Voya’s legal department.

“It’s not the glass ceiling, but to get to the most senior levels of management, it’s often as much about relationships as it is about performance.”

“We have both formal and informal mentoring programs, as well as employee-led councils for racial and ethnic groups, LGBTQ+, and allies. We also established a DEI task force to increase equity and inclusion and serve as a foundation to generate ideas and focus on different communities that have historically been marginalized,” says Reid. When engaging outside counsel she has asked those firms to bring a diverse group of attorneys to the work they do for Voya. She’s delighted that most are not just willing to comply but take the opportunity to make positive diversity, equity, and inclusion decisions at their firms.

It took Reid many years before she received the mentorship she needed—a common refrain in the profession. With that in mind, she is quick to advise young lawyers to find a mentor early in their careers. Although Voya has a mentorship program, not all corporations do. Since many seasoned lawyers started their careers without mentorship, they are often eager to accept the role.

“Take time to get to know people and seek out someone who might be a good mentor,” she says.

United Front

When it comes to protecting an innovative data solutions company like Commvault, understanding engineering and technology matters. That makes Aleksandra King the perfect person for the job.

By Zach Baliva

ALEKSANDRA KING’S BATHTUB WAS leaking into her downstairs neighbor’s apartment, while her landlord covered peeling walls with spray paint. When she dared to complain, he threatened to evict her for owning a cat. He knew she had a four-legged companion even though the lease forbade them. King, who came to the US from Moldova at age ten, had no choice but to learn

how to use our legal system to stand up for herself. She researched New York City landlord-tenant law, fought back, and won.

King says the victory was “empowering.” But, although she discovered an aptitude for understanding legalese and navigating the court system, she wasn’t immediately convinced that she should pursue a career as an attorney.

After all, she had always been more interested in technology, engineering, and science. King dismantled gadgets as a child and had already double majored in astronomy and computer science at Boston University. The young professional even had a promising career launched with software engineering positions at Yale University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

However, a conversation with a friend who was about to start law school put King on a new path. As that friend explained the world of intellectual property, something clicked. “I saw IP as the perfect union of my interests,” she reflects. “It applies the law to technology and innovation while letting one be at the forefront of advancements and make the world a little more fair.”

King was convinced. She took the LSAT, enrolled at Rutgers Law School, and got involved with groups like the school’s Intellectual Property Society and Women’s Rights Law Journal . When she graduated in 2008, she started the

Aleksandra King Senior Patent Counsel Commvault

Oksana Sorochan

second chapter of her career at Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto.

That’s where the attorney learned the power of mentorship. A mentor who was just a few years more senior than King pulled her into a high-stakes billion-dollar drug case that was about to go to trial. As she worked with her colleagues around the clock, she got a front-row seat to all parts of the process.

After three years at this large IP boutique law firm, King had grown her practice in pharmaceutical arts, and then moved to a small IP group within Hogan Lovells. At Hogan Lovells, she expanded her skill set, working on complex software engineering cases. She worked closely with a senior partner who assigned her significant responsibilities involving direct access to clients and participation in depositions and hearings. This senior partner quickly became one of her most instrumental mentors.

“I had wonderful mentors; the biggest thing I learned was how much it matters to enjoy your job and the people you work with,” King says. “That has become the most important

thing I look for—the people are more important than the prestigious firm or the big paycheck.”

That approach guided King as she looked for her first in-house role. She accepted a role as patent counsel in 2018 with the cutting-edge data protection and information management solutions company Commvault. For King, her current role is ideal as it unites her passions in tech, science, and law. She works with the company’s engineers, whom she touts as being “talented” and “a pleasure to work with,” drafting patent applications to protect their innovations.

King also manages patent litigation matters involving Commvault as a party. As these and other matters unfold, King has found she’s able to leverage her big-firm experience and the training and expertise that she developed alongside mentors. Now, she looks to provide the same experience to others. She sits on the board of New Jersey Intellectual Property Law Association, where she participates in a mentorship program with other likeminded lawyers.

“I saw IP as the perfect union of my interests. It applies the law to technology and innovation while letting one be at the forefront of advancements, and make the world a little more fair.”

Knobbe Martens is proud to join in recognizing our friend and client

She encourages anyone hesitant to find a mentor to take the plunge. “Mentorship can seem intimidating or scary at first, but it doesn’t always have to be formal or even limited to one person. Mentors are everywhere, and everyone I’ve ever asked for advice has been honored to be asked. Have the courage to approach those who might seem unapproachable,” she says.

Data protection and security is a fast-moving and competitive space. To date, Commvault has invested over $1 billion into research and development, yielding more than a thousand patents worldwide. As the organization pushes for growth while remaining at the forefront of innovation, King will continue her mission to diligently protect the company and its intellectual property.

Knobbe Martens congratulates Aleksandra King on this well-deserved honor! Knobbe Martens is a leading intellectual property law firm that specializes in patent, trademark, and copyright matters. Contact Sean Ambrosius or John R. King at 1-949-760-0404.

“Mentors are everywhere: everyone I’ve ever asked for advice has been honored to be asked.”

Aleksandra King of Commvault Systems

A Guide for the Journey

Gracious mentors helped Amanda Scandlen develop her skills in private practice and adjust to life in-house at Willis Towers Watson. Now, the head of corporate litigation is looking to do the same for others.

By Zach Baliva

AS THE FIRST LAWYER IN HER FAMILY, Amanda Scandlen didn’t have a lot of professional mentors. She’s relied on raw talent, effective training, and seeking out her own professional assistance to craft a long legal career. Now, law students and rookie lawyers often turn to Scandlen, the head

of corporate litigation at Willis Towers Watson (WTW), for advice. Her words to them are simple. “Be vocal about what you want. Take a lunch with an executive you admire, and don’t be afraid to ask for input,” she says. “Everyone is willing to help.”

That’s exactly what Scandlen herself has done. She was born in New Hampshire but grew up in cities in the Midwest and along the East Coast. A middle school class trip to Colonial Williamsburg sparked her interest in law and government. She studied political science at the College of William & Mary, received a scholarship to Arizona State University College of Law, and graduated in 2001.

Scandlen got her first taste of mentorship during her time in private practice at Jennings, Strouss & Salmon and McGuireWoods. During that formative era, she worked closely with partners and veteran attorneys who taught her how to perform thorough research and write effective briefs.

Three years into her career, Scandlen saw an opening for an in-house counsel at Watson Wyatt & Company. Companies often require five or even ten years of experience for similar roles, but Watson Wyatt was looking for a junior lawyer. Her litigation experience had prepared her well to seize the rare opportunity.

Nearly twenty years later, Scandlen is thriving atop the corporate litigation team for the specialized consulting company now known as Willis Towers Watson. During her tenure, she’s continued to engage with dedicated leaders willing to help her evolve and develop alongside the organization.

In 2004, Wyatt & Company had 12 lawyers and 6,500 employees. General

Counsel Walter Bardenwerper wanted everyone in the legal department to act as sole practitioners. He and others made sure Scandlen was equipped and empowered to take on issues related to litigation, securities, commercial matters, and anything else that came across her desk.

“Working in-house as a generalist gave me a quick education in all the legal issues we face and helped me cater my services to this specific organization and industry,” she reflects.

In 2010, Watson & Wyatt merged with Towers Perrin in a $3.5 billion deal. Kirkland L. Hicks soon replaced the retiring Bardenwerper and employed a new model. Scandlen and her colleagues were asked to specialize. She accepted a promotion to senior counsel, and later, associate general counsel. In her current role, she manages litigation for WTW’s large health, wealth, and career business line.

Doing so effectively requires the leader to stay close to her colleagues in all parts of the organization. “Strong

in-house leaders still have to look for opportunities,” she says. “Really listen to the business to understand its goals and help manage risks. That’s what leads to growth and success.”

Scandlen also credits her success to developing strong relationships with external counsel who are leaders in their respective areas of expertise.

“High-stakes litigation is a team sport, and Mandy is the ultimate fivestar player,” says Alex G. Romain, partner at Milbank LLP. “She is tough, smart, wise, strategic, and pragmatic. And, simply put, it is an absolute pleasure to work with her.”

Scandlen is one of many longtenured WTW employees, a fact she credits to strong corporate culture. Her two decades there have helped her understand how to advocate for the company and it influences her approach to litigation. Scandlen tries to keep clients even when managing disputes with them.

“Issues come up in business, but WTW is client focused. Our consultants

“Be vocal about what you want. Take a lunch with an executive you admire, and don’t be afraid to ask for input. Everyone is willing to help.”

provide great work, and we can work amicably though matters that arise without losing clients or damaging our reputation,” she says.

The modern WTW is a very different organization than the one Scandlen joined in 2004. Now, the company has a large legal team led by Matt Furman and annual revenues topping $9 billion. Scandlen has built the litigation team she manages and looks to honor the mentors who invested in her by giving the same opportunity to other younger lawyers today.

As Scandlen coaches others both formally and informally, they often talk about finding a balance between their work and home lives. Scandlen is a mother to four school-age children. In different stages of life, she’s worked 60, 80, and 100 percent of her full-time hours. She’s worked remotely for more than seven years, and WTW allowed her to move to Beaufort, South Carolina, where she enjoys both meaningful work at a global corporation and the pace of life that only a small town can offer.

While parenting can sometimes draw women out of the legal profession, Scandlen is glad she stayed in the game. “I can now flourish professionally in a way I wouldn’t have if I had left the workforce for a time,” she says. “I’m living proof that being in-house can lead to a dynamic career.”

Driven to deliver exceptional results for our clients, we push boundaries and challenge assumptions.

With offices in the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America, Milbank offers diverse expertise, specialties and tailored solutions that are needed for unique challenges.

World of Opportunities

Allstate Investments’ Davida

Osei

seeks

to empower others to find mentorship and build careers they love

By Karen Schwartz

DAVIDA OSEI’S JOURNEY FROM FOCUSING ON elementary education in college to law school student to deputy general counsel at Allstate Investments has taught her a lot, to say the least.

Growing up in a small town in Ohio, it was a college internship at the Ohio House of Representatives that opened her eyes to more diverse career possibilities. The opportunity started her on the road to Sidley Austin and then Allstate, where she has been for nearly twelve years in various legal capacities.

At Allstate, the Ohio State University grad leads a team of lawyers and support staff that give strategic advice and counsel to the Allstate family of companies on the management of its approximately $61 billion dollar investment portfolio. Her teams’ work consists largely of regulatory advice and counsel and transactional work structuring, negotiating, and closing, complex investment transactions. Her favorite part of the job is bringing people together and empowering them to own their work. “We are a close-knit team and try live by the philosophy that our careers and our lives should be mutually rewarding, not mutually exclusive,” she says.

Before joining Allstate in 2011, Osei spent five years as a lawyer with Sidley Austin in the international law firm’s insurance and financial services group. There, she honed her skills

Davida Osei Deputy General Counsel Allstate Investments

on corporate work for insurance companies. “The industry has undergone so much change in the last two decades, and it has been an incredibly exciting practice area to be in,” she says. “I was thrilled to find myself working at a world-class law firm, surrounded by accomplished practitioners.”

As she talked with lawyers who had moved to in-house roles, she became increasingly drawn to the opportunity to understand the inner mechanics of a company and to provide advice tailored to its specific business and legal needs. She started her career with Allstate primarily doing investment deal work. Then, she was asked if she was willing to join the insurance operations law team as lead counsel for one

“When you look for mentorships, I think of advice someone shared with me early on in my career: don’t just look up, look in all directions—I’m certain I’ve learned just as much from peers and team members as I have from people senior to me.”

Congratulations to Davida Osei for her ongoing contributions to Allstate Investments.

Seyfarth is proud to work with Davida, Allstate Investments Deputy General Counsel, and salutes her for this welldeserved recognition by Modern Counsel.

www.seyfarth.com

of the property and casualty regions. “It was a new world for me, but when I started the role I had a ton of support from peers, mentors, and a fantastic boss who helped me navigate the change,” she reflects.

Osei moved on to become chief legal counsel for Allstate’s commercial insurance business unit, a broader, more generalist role that gave her the chance to tackle new problems and build her business acumen while working closely with the leadership team. Then, about five years ago, she moved back to investments in a more senior position.

Her current role requires simplifying the complex, she says. “I like having the opportunity to bring people together, figure out the problem, build consensus and bring it to conclusion,” Osei adds.

Mentorship has played a large role in her career, both in the advice she’s gotten and the advice she’s been able to give. “Anytime I raised my hand to say, ‘I’m ready for a change,’ or, ‘maybe I’d love a new challenge,’ someone was around to help me land those opportunities,” she says.

The DGC has also been able to pay that forward by helping to build out Allstate’s mentorship programs, which within the law department have included individual mentoring, peer-to-peer mentoring, speed mentoring, and a diversity mentoring program.

“It showcases Allstate’s commitment to career growth,” she says. “Having people you can lean on for advice and career growth is critical. I find those relationships incredibly valuable and meaningful and a great way to build your personal board of directors.”

Osei advises younger attorneys to recognize the agency they have over their career choices. “Don’t be afraid to ask for a new career opportunity,” she says, adding it doesn’t have to mean a promotion. “Trying something outside of your wheelhouse can only add value to a lawyer’s career.”

She adds that it’s important to not underestimate the power of networking. “When you look for mentorships, I think of advice someone shared with me early on in my career: don’t just look up, look in all directions—I’m certain I’ve learned just as much from peers and team members as I have from people senior to me. Don’t go it alone, it’s important to have people who can help you celebrate the wins and get through the challenging times.”

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

The Right Kind of Risks

As assistant general counsel of complex litigation, Jeffrey Koppy mitigates risk for General Motors, but his willingness to take a chance on himself is perhaps most inspiring

By Billy Yost

Jeffrey Koppy

Assistant General Counsel of Complex Litigation General Motors

Caryn Ashley

WE ALL HOPE TO AGE LIKE JEFFREY KOPPY.

His willingness to take chances hasn’t diminished over nearly thirty years in law. He left a prestigious partner position after nineteen years to go in-house at General Motors (GM), where he currently serves as assistant general counsel of complex litigation. Despite having an incredibly young family of his own, Koppy and his wife agreed to move their family to São Paulo, Brazil, for nearly four years to serve as regional general counsel for GM’s South American region.

“Sometimes in life you just have to go with your gut, take a chance, and see what’s out there,” Koppy explains. “See how you can grow your outlook and develop yourself, and put yourself into different or uncomfortable situations. It ultimately makes you a better lawyer and a better person.”

It’s an easy axiom to hold onto early in one’s career, but Koppy has managed to maintain his edge, his curiosity, and his desire to seek out new experiences, even if they may seem challenging at first. His journey is a reminder that living the best life often requires going out on a limb and embracing the unknown.

Straight out of law school, Koppy earned a prestigious clerkship with the Honorable Judge Suzanne Conlon, who served as United States District Judge of the Northern District of Illinois. According to the AGC, Conlon ran a tight ship and expected clerks to issue opinions at a rapid clip.

“At the time, she had the fastest docket in the district,” Koppy remembers. “She would issue her opinions about two weeks after the response brief came in. She did not permit any reply briefs, so we would

have to get a draft opinion to her within about a week so that she could think on it and make sure it was in alignment with her views.”

Koppy estimates that he wrote somewhere between eighty to one hundred opinions in the year he was there. The experience was invaluable, and the young lawyer felt like he was working in tandem with the judge to issue a decision. “You really got the sense that you could have some influence in how to approach an issue,” he says. “It was incredibly gratifying coming right out of law school and getting that type of exposure to real-life trial work and litigation.”

Over the following two decades, Koppy would amass extensive litigation experience at the firm Jenner & Block. He loved his job, he loved living in Chicago, and he fully expected to finish out his career as a partner. But as his experience accrued, so did his curiosity.

“As I got more senior at the firm, I had more exposure to different corporate clients, and I became interested in the business side of things quite a bit,” he reflects. “When we talk about our in-house role, we have this partner/guardian model where we’re both a partner to the business and, at the same time, we need to be a guardian of the company’s resources and reputation. That really started to appeal to me.”

The genesis of Koppy’s coming to GM leads back to a faulty ignition switch. The automotive manufacturing company was forced to recall sixteen million vehicles in 2014 when it was discovered that an unintended ignition-switch rotation could inadvertently shut off power while the vehicle was being operated, preventing airbags from inflating. Jenner & Block was hired to

Passion for Pro Bono

Jeffrey Koppy is willing to take a chance, and he’s done so for people whose lives literally depend on it. The lawyer has been involved in significant pro bono work throughout his career, including helping individuals facing the death penalty get their sentences commuted to life in prison. In fact, he worked pro bono on four death penalty cases, even arguing in front of the Florida Supreme Court.

Koppy was also able to help reunite a family from Mexico after a father killed his wife and left his young children’s lives and their citizenship status in peril. Helping to secure visas and custody arrangements for the two children was a high point of Koppy’s career. “One of the girls texted me a couple of months ago to let me know she had become a US citizen and that they’re all doing well,” he says. “That feels pretty good.”

perform an internal investigation to figure out just how long the problem had been known to the company.

Koppy spent weeks flying between Detroit and Chicago, often working until midnight. One of those nights, the lawyer was asked if he would give any consideration to coming in-house. “It had been such interesting work getting to know GM, and I thought it was an incredible organization,” Koppy explains. “It seemed like an exciting place to come and practice law. It would also be a chance to come home to the Detroit area where I grew up.”

In 2014, Koppy joined GM as executive director of its litigation group and subsequently rose through different roles, including a position that required a move abroad.

“Jeff is a remarkably creative thinker because of his varied experience,” says John Nadolenco, partner at Mayer Brown LLP. “He represented GM as outside counsel before going in-house. And within GM, he’s seen multiple aspects of

GM—international and domestic. He’s got a true bird’s-eye perspective and is able to combine practical with legal advice.”

When Koppy was asked if he’d consider relocating to Brazil to oversee the South American region’s legal efforts in 2017, the smart move would have been on a hard no. He had three kids, all under the age of five, including a newborn. They had spent the last three years adjusting to life in a new city, and who would possibly consider moving an entire family unit to South America?

“I talked about it with my wife, and we decided to take that risk,” the AGC says. “A colleague once told me that opportunities never come without some sacrifice or risk. It’s proven so true, and I always keep that in the back of my mind when I’m considering anything, really.”

The Koppys learned Portuguese, the children attended international school, and the lawyer not only oversaw attorneys navigating the legal systems of Brazil, Columbia,

“It can be tough to leave a safe situation, but, for me, it’s just turned out so great. See what’s out there, take a chance, and see what happens.”

Ecuador, and several other countries, but also amassed incredible business experience that continues to inform his work today.

“I just soaked up everything that I could,” Koppy says. “It was a real education in the law, in the drivers of business, and in leadership.” The lawyer even learned to love a caipirinha cocktail from time to time.

Koppy’s innate thirst for knowledge and strong critical thinking skills have served him well throughout his legal career. “Jeff is special: he has all of the important qualities of a great lawyer, such as absolute integrity, judgment, knowledge of the law, and an incredible work ethic,” says Richard Godrey, partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. “But what sets him apart is his ability to perceive, manage, mitigate, and when appropriate, take the risks necessary to achieve his client’s goals. It has been our privilege to work with him over the years.”

While Koppy and his family have been back stateside since 2021, he says making the choice to go to Brazil was one of the best decisions of his career. Whenever he talks to younger attorneys, he stresses the idea of what’s possible if one is willing to lean into a challenge.

“I experienced what has been the highlight of my professional career by being open to a new experience,” Koppy says. “It can be tough to leave a safe situation, but, for me, it’s just turned out so great. See what’s out there, take a chance, and see what happens.”

Lights, Camera, Legal

NBCUniversal’s Bridget Hauler takes us behind the scenes of employment law at one of the world’s biggest entertainment companies

By Zach Baliva

ALTHOUGH SHE GREW UP IN THE MID-ATLANTIC states and intended to pursue a career in peace and conflict resolution, Bridget Hauler has found her home as an in-house litigator in the Southern California office of one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies.

Hauler is vice president of litigation at NBCUniversal, and while her academic and career journey has taken some unexpected twists and turns, her current role perfectly unites various aspects of her personality, interests, and experience.

The Washington, DC-area native went to the University of Maryland without law on her radar; she was a political science major with an

Bridget Hauler VP of Litigation

NBCUniversal

internship at a non-governmental organization that helped protect the rights of ethnic minorities. After serving for four years as a public affairs officer with the US Navy’s Military Sealift Command, Hauler decided to make a change. She enrolled at Stanford Law School and extended the family tradition to its fourth generation by becoming a lawyer.

The top university that has produced twenty Nobel Prize laureates, four Pulitzer Prize winners, thirty-three MacArthur Fellows, and two Presidential Medal of Freedom winners inspired Hauler and prepared her well for a career in law. She stepped into the professional world as an associate at Quinn Emanuel, where she got early experience in complicated matters and large cases.

openings at the company and she joined as litigation counsel in fall 2012.

The move from the firm to the corporate world was not one Hauler made without careful consideration. In fact, she admits to being more than a little reluctant. Soon, though, her fears were assuaged.

“At big law, you have this idea that you’re doing the most important and interesting work and that any other route will only bring work/life balance at a sacrifice,” she explains. “But I’ve found that being in-house gives me the opportunity to be surrounded by bright lawyers doing super interesting things while working at the strategic part of cases and developments in law and the entertainment business. I’ve not only achieved better work/life

That experience included time as a lawyer on Mattel v. MGA Entertainment regarding rights to the lucrative Bratz fashion doll and merchandise empire. Mattel, a Quinn Emanuel client, alleged that former Barbie designer Carter Bryant originated the Bratz line under his employment with the company, thereby making the design Mattel’s intellectual property and the Bratz dolls infringing.

A jury in Riverside, Californiafound Hauler and her colleagues’ arguments compelling, awarding $100 million to Mattel while MGA was compelled to cease and desist the production and marketing of the toys, dolls, and accessories in question. That decision was appealed, there was a retrial, another appeal, and other iterations of the case in state court.

Hauler’s exit from the firm in 2012 was motivated in part for a better work/life balance. After a colleague sent a good report regarding employment at NBCUniversal, Hauler started looking for

balance in-house, but I’ve found a greater ability to grow as a lawyer.”

When Hauler joined NBCUniversal, she replaced an employment lawyer who supported the Company’s West Coast television clients. The company’s legal department was fairly siloed then. The company had approximately 250 lawyers worldwide, including about a half dozen litigators in Los Angeles. Hauler had little opportunity to venture outside of television; however, in 2015, the litigation team was restructured so that litigators would support clients across the company. Now, as vice president of litigation, Hauler supports internal clients across the breadth of the company, including in television, film, and theme parks, providing litigation support in areas as varied from employment to personal injury to IP to real estate to environmental health and safety.

The unified structure and the diversity of NBCUniversal’s business keeps Hauler fulfilled in

“I’ve not only achieved better work/ life balance in-house, but I’ve found a greater ability to grow as a lawyer.”

her in-house role. “I thrive in this setting because there is something different every day that I have to be prepared for, and no two days are the same,” she says.

Hauler might deal with workers’ rights and hourly wage issues at theme parks one minute and respond to concerns and queries from a feature film crew the next. Her phone is likely to ring if ambitious producers want to know if it’s safe to send a crew to a new remote location to film an adventure reality game show. California Assembly Bill 5, the gig worker bill that reclassified contract and full-time employees in 2019 combines with other unique employment laws to create a nuanced and complicated backdrop for her work.

Talented, collegial colleagues help Hauler navigate the challenging environment. “Entertainment clients and producers need an answer quickly because they are in production and have time, money, and jobs on the line,” she says. “We have to balance things and provide the right guidance without slowing them down.” She does that by putting issues into three buckets: low risk, medium risk, and high risk. Only after identifying the risk level can she customize her approach and prioritize her response.

Employment law within the entertainment industry is a good fit for Hauler because she gets to support safety and workers while helping creative people tell important stories and bring joy to audiences around the world.

As Hauler moves forward, she’s monitoring changes to existing employment laws and also keeping an eye on shifting trends in the worlds of television, film, digital media, and live experiences. “The way people consume content is changing so much, and we have to keep an eye out on all the related issues,” she says, pointing to specific areas like licensing and profit participation.

A decade at NBCUniversal has given Hauler the chance to step into leadership, deepen her expertise, and find a place to thrive. She hopes those following in her footsteps are fortunate enough to do the same, and she encourages others to craft their careers with intentionality.

“Young lawyers should really think about not only the specific industry, but the kind of work environment they want to be in,” she says. “Think about what you find rewarding. Think about the kind of people you want to be around and the kind of work you want to do . . . and then go do it.”

Taking Flight

From PR maven to in-house legal powerhouse, Charlene Wandrisco reflects on her journey to American Airlines

By Marcos Chisholm

GROWING UP

IN TEXAS DURING

THE 1980s, Charlene Wandrisco watched her childhood hero on TV.

“Clair Huxtable was so impressionable on me,” Wandrisco says. “It was just really striking to me that not only was she a fantastic lawyer, but she was shown in action. She was also this fantastic mother on top of it. So, for me, it was that I can have a career as a person of color, but also as a female.”

Of course, Huxtable did more than just influence generations of female lawyers in television sitcoms. She inspired women of color to become attorneys. And she mastered work/life balance before it turned into a buzzword coined by corporate America.

If you want proof, look no further. Wandrisco serves as the director, senior attorney, and assistant corporate secretary at American Airlines (AA). However, her journey to arrive where she is today required a winding path.

Upon graduating from Southern Methodist University (SMU) in 1999, she began her career as an account manager at Alexander Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. During the dot-com bubble, she leveraged her strong writing ability to draft news items, press releases, and product placements. Plus, she managed relationships with Fortune 500 clients.

“Getting to write a lot really helped me,” Wandrisco reflects. “When I think

about that fundamental basis that I had before going to law school, that was such a great training ground for me. I don’t think I could have picked a better entry into that than PR.”

Then, Wandrisco accepted an offer to work on the corporate communications team at Thomson Reuters. But the door for law school wasn’t closed. The media company offered a program to reimburse employees for their law school tuition, and she enrolled in the SMU Dedman School of Law and kept her job until life happened.

“After my first year—and I was married at the time too—I got pregnant with our first child,” Wandrisco remembers. “I thought it was a little too much

Natalie Perez

Charlene Wandrisco Director, Senior Attorney, and Assistant Corporate Secretary American Airlines

to write a lot really helped

When

to have a full-time job, being in the hospital, and having a child. I ended up resigning from Thomson Reuters and just focusing on my law career at that time.”

Wandrisco successfully went on to juggle law school with motherhood. As she wrapped up her first year, she landed a summer internship with her current employer AA. However, the airline could not hire her full time immediately after law school because the legal department required in-house attorneys to have previous law firm experience.

Just before she finished her second internship, Wandrisco attended a conference with a motivational speaker. Former Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith shared his advice with a small crowd with Wandrisco in attendance. “He said, ‘You need to have goals, but they don’t really become real goals until you put them down on paper. Go home today and write down five goals,’” she says.

On the surface, Wandrisco figured it was worth a try. So, she

wrote down her career goals, which included making a return to AA within a decade. And, sure enough, she joined the airline company on a full-time basis in 2015.

“I had written that paper and put it away, and I literally had never seen that thing again until we moved last year,” Wandrisco says. “I was cleaning out drawers and things like that, and I found that piece of paper. It was so cool because every single thing that I’d written down had come true.”

Whether or not you call it a comeback, Wandrisco hit the ground running at her favorite airliner. She helped bolster the legal framework AA applies to its benefits programs from two insurance providers. She also spearheaded agreements with its loyalty program AAdvantage, real estate partners, and procurement. Additionally, Wandrisco oversees all tech transaction as well as partnerships with AA’s oneworld alliance.

She considers her efforts during the pandemic in an industry-record $10 billion securities deal backed

“Getting

me.

I think about that fundamental basis that I had before going to law school, that was such a great training ground for me.”

by the AAdvantage program a turning point in her career. “I was stepping out of my comfort zone,” Wandrisco explains. “To be able to get through that stress, it was just such a moment of pride for me to help the company in that way.”

Nevertheless, when asked to offer her advice for young attorneys aspiring to follow her career path, Wandrisco still sounds more like Clair Huxtable than she does Emmitt Smith.

“Relationships are the key; never burn bridges,” Wandrisco says. “The legal community is so small. You will inevitably run into people all the time, so you never want to treat anybody badly. I would have never gotten my job had I not made those great relationships while I was an intern and continued to keep them.”

We are grateful to have partnered with Charlene and her team on many important matters and we thank her for sharing her talents with the firm.

Husch Blackwell LLP:

“Our entire aviation team enjoys working with Charlene. We really appreciate her strategic perspective in expertly managing numerous legal projects from inception to completion and value her strong and thoughtful support of DEI initiatives.”

—David Agee, Partner

Winstead PC:

“No task is too much for Charlene. She wears many hats, and yet she’s unflappable, collaborative, professional, and easy to work with. Our team feels incredibly lucky to call her a client and friend.”

—Brad Levy, Shareholder

Patently Important

It’s not uncommon to make career changes. But Dell Technologies’ David Kuznick decided to become a lawyer after twenty successful years in software engineering—a radical transition that came with some built-in advantages.

By Russ Klettke

DAVID KUZNICK WAS WORKING IN artificial intelligence (AI) before it was cool—long before most even knew what it was. And about two decades after that career began in 1988, he made a major career change: earning a law degree.

Today, he is senior legal counsel of intellectual property litigation at Dell Technologies, largely involved in defending Dell in patent matters. It may seem like a logical area of law to pursue for this former software engineer, but patent law was not his first choice of practice. “I was interested in criminal defense law,” he says, denying that his interest in jurisprudence was about achieving a salary hike.

Nonetheless, given his background, he was offered a summer law firm clerkship after his second year of law school, one that had him concentrating on IP. After being offered a permanent position, he discussed the offer with one of

his criminal law professors who was well aware of what Kuznick thought he wanted to do. That professor strongly encouraged him to follow the IP opportunity. He did, he ended up liking it, and now a dozen years later, he’s defending the work of technologists who are versions of his former self.

It’s work with a lot riding on it. Patents are the lifeblood of not just the tech sector, but the economy overall, providing the protections needed to develop and monetize such things as renewable energy, advanced manufacturing, computers, storage, digital security, and related products. Dell currently holds more than twenty thousand patents, adding thousands more each year.

While Kuznick thrives in this role, the transition into the legal field presented a few challenges.

First there was law school in his forties. He didn’t work while

studying, but dove into a fulltime program. Was it a culture shift, if not altogether hard at that age? “It was an interesting time,” he remembers. “I had already had a full career of experiences, so that means I knew how to handle myself professionally. In the first IP firm where I worked, I liked being surrounded by other technical people. Also, a lot of them had a dry, sarcastic sense of humor. Which I like.”

He also found himself at an entry level in law, but it didn’t seem to bother him. “I’m humble enough for that,” Kuznick jokingly quips. Which isn’t hard to imagine, given his curiosity and penchant for learning, which was key for his advancement in the job.

Patent-related law isn’t for everyone. But it is possible to become a patent agent without going to law school if the individual has a hard science bachelor’s degree, and also in some cases, computer science. They can take the Patent Bar Exam, which is the same exam taken by patent attorneys. Kuznick encourages people who might be able to follow that track to give it consideration before law school. Both can prepare, file, and execute applications for patents.

Patent attorneys like Kuznick have a broader range of responsibilities and are able to participate in the full spectrum of litigation—sometimes with the technical expertise of a patent agent who might be better versed in the specific science or technology involved.

David Kuznick

Senior Legal Counsel of IP Litigation Dell Technologies

As Kuznick digs into any particular case it’s a big advantage to have some familiarity with the technology. “I don’t have to start from scratch,” he says.

His other advice for aspiring attorneys is to make, keep, and nurture academic and professional contacts. This matters in large companies such as Dell, which has more than one hundred thousand employees. For Kuznick, who claims to be an introvert, this took intentional effort. But he says he’s good at staying in touch with people. “I find in business there are people with whom I share interests and I enjoy conversations with them,” he says.

Dell has a standing policy of encouraging its employees to participate in community work. But Kuznick’s pro bono endeavors are far removed from the day-to-day work of intellectual property. Instead, he applies his courtroom and writing experience to, among other things, helping immigrants obtain permanent residence in the US. One of his proudest achievements is getting green cards for two young people. “They were escaping abuse in their home countries,” he notes.

And while the AI that Kuznick helped pioneer in the 1980s is now a part of everyday life, it’s interesting to think about how recent immigrants to the US will use AI applications in this century. At the core of it are patents, and patent attorneys, that incentivize businesses to be innovative.

Editor’s Note: Any opinions expressed are those of Modern Counsel or David Kuznick, not Dell Technologies.

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.

www.gibsondunn.com

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP: “David manages complex litigation smoothly, bridging the gap between his business and outside counsel. His communication and strategic thinking are critical to the successful resolution of his cases, and he is an invaluable team member.”

—Brian Rosenthal, Partner

Courtesy of Gilbert Wong

Gilbert Wong

Global Head of IP Block

Reps Matter

Gilbert Wong continues to evolve as a legal leader as global head of IP at technology conglomerate Block

By Billy Yost

AN INTERVIEW WITH BLOCK’S GLOBAL head of intellectual property felt more like a TED Talk than a casual conversation, not in an unnatural way, but the lawyer knew what he wanted to say and how to best get it across. Gilbert Wong doesn’t believe in winging it. That might be his master’s in electrical engineering or his bachelor’s in physics showing through.

The lawyer whose previous roles include Facebook (now Meta) and a host of private firm experience is able to apply an engineer’s and physicist’s brain not just to legal work, but professional development and team building. When he urges younger lawyers to see failures and feedback as an opportunity to tweak their approach, to practice it every day, and to get it right,

it’s advice coming from an attorney who is relentless about growth for himself.

Considering Wong’s track record, it might be easy to think that he’s just one of those people, born to lead, born to practice, a natural speaker, and able to offer advice despite having never had to truly struggle in a role. It’s just not the case. Case in point: Wong was flat out told he wasn’t ready for a promotion he was seeking at a prior company.

Wong thought he was a prime candidate for a leadership position that opened years ago, but while traveling with a company vice president, the leader was fairly decisive about his advice.

“He said that I needed more time in my role,” Wong remembers. “I needed to

experience more, I needed to work on executive presence, and a number of other areas he felt I needed to grow into. I walked away thinking about how painful that conversation was. I wasn’t sure if I should leave the company or what.”

But here lies one of Wong’s superpowers: reflection. He wasn’t being discouraged. He was being challenged. The VP had brought up several people who he thought Wong could look to for advice and counsel. So, the lawyer made a plan.

“I went through everything we talked about methodically, working through every developmental area,” he says. “I would work on it every day until I got it. It was frustrating because I would often receive the same feedback over and over again even though I was working on addressing the development area. That’s just how the process works. I had to be OK with being uncomfortable. I had to learn to seek out feed-

back even if it meant feeling frustrated about not making progress. I knew that I would get there over time if I kept working at it.”

In order to grow into leadership positions, Wong needed to lead teams in areas where he may not have been the subject matter expert. But the attorney brought much-needed context and resources and a keen understanding of interpersonal relationships. So, while he may not have had every answer, he learned how to support his people and to be a true servant-leader.

“I’m not here to dictate how you should do your job,” Wong explains. “That never works, and I see people do it all the time. You have to build that trust, and your people need to feel supported to succeed doing it their way. That’s how you unlock your team’s potential to innovate and deliver impactful results.”

Wong says that creating a framework for how work gets done is much

more effective than trying to do everyone’s job for them. His key components of leadership are: have a vision for the team, understand the people on your team, reserve time to think, and ensure that you have an operational strategy to achieve the vision.

As he has risen through roles, Wong says that time has become especially important for him to accommodate. “I’m in meetings all day getting information about the matters we handle,” Wong explains. “I need the time to think through all of these matters, so I block off big chunks in my calendar where I can just think. In any given week, I may not be able to tell you what my work product is, but I can show you how my team has moved from point A to point B over the course of three months, six months, or a year.”

“What really makes Gilbert unique is his understanding that the key to building a great team is empowering others,” says Rob Hartman, CEO and owner at Lee & Hayes, P.C. “He is an insightful and compassionate leader that makes people feel trusted and valued, which provides a foundation on which people can be the best version of themselves. We’re grateful we’ve had the opportunity to partner with and learn from Gilbert.”

There is an optimism to Wong that feels authentic. He says it’s probably due to an outlook he had to develop early on. As a child, Wong suffered from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, which prevented him from enjoying most physical activities. While his friends were playing sports, Wong says he was faced with a choice. He could either sulk, or he could find a way to be involved.

“Since I couldn’t participate in many physical activities, I had to make

“I had to be OK with being uncomfortable. I had to learn to seek out feedback even if it meant feeling frustrated about not making progress.”

the best of the situation. So, I decided to learn to watch people and to study behavior,” the lawyer explains. “I just became a really reflective kid and learned how to observe. There are skills I still use to this day that I learned during those years: analyzing facial expressions and body language, and empathy. Those come in helpful as a manager. I just tried to stay positive. Sure, there were days when I couldn’t get up, but I just tried to focus on other things like this.”

Wong advises younger professionals to take the time to become subject matter experts. If it truly takes ten thousand hours to become an expert in your craft, and two thousand hours are the average number of hours billed in a year, then they should probably think twice about leaving before they’ve truly gotten their reps (and years) in.

“You’ll hopefully find this continues throughout your career as you learn new skills,” Wong says. “I’m just now five years into my redevelopment as a manager and a leader. Try and maintain that growth mindset, and don’t be afraid to put the time in.”

“Gilbert

—Jonathan Lee, Shareholder

Greenberg Traurig:

has the rare ability to execute on a company’s strategic vision in a way that embraces the diversity of thought and background of his team. He’s a true leader and we feel honored to call him a colleague.”

Turning a Passion into Fashion

With an ardor for environmental sustainability, Christina Kaba helps CovationBio create high-performance, enduring products for apparel and carpeting

By Frank DiMaria

CHRISTINA KABA ALWAYS HAS BEEN passionate about the environment. As a child, the self-described “tomboy” was forever covered in mud and dirt. This passion fueled her decision to study geology and geophysics in college and graduate school.

“When faced with the choice of sitting inside a classroom or going on a field trip to study geology, I’d pick the field trip every time,” says Kaba.

As an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania and graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kaba envisioned herself as a professor, helping students develop their own passions. But she realized she enjoyed the practical applications of science and the advocacy components of environmentalism. “Being an academic is an incredibly valuable career, but it didn’t match

what I wanted to do in life. I wanted to make an impact on our every day,” she reflects.

After earning her master’s degree, she accepted a job with the Conservation Law Foundation, a nonprofit environmental law firm in Boston specializing in science-based environmental advocacy. “It was the perfect job. I got to spend all day reading scientific reports and explaining it in straightforward terms to a wonderful group of advocates and lawyers,” she recalls.

Today, Kaba puts both her passion for environmental sustainability and experience in environmental advocacy to use as general counsel and vice president of human resources at Covation Biomaterials (CovationBio). Formerly part of DuPont, CovationBio spun off in June 2022 with a mission to promote a more circular economy through the manufacture of bio-based, high-performance, sustainable products for apparel, carpeting, and beyond. Its flagship commercial product, Sorona polymer, adds stretch and softness to garments and carpeting with reduced environmental impact over petroleum-based products.

CovationBio, a value-driven company with an aggressive growth plan, excited Kaba from the start. “It’s not that sustainability is important to CovationBio or even a core value. It is the fabric of our company,” she asserts.

Kaba began her career at the large firm Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young in Philadelphia. She transitioned to Land Air Water Legal Solutions, a boutique firm, in 2012 to focus on environmental counseling and litigation. Kaba then moved in-house to Hewlett Packard Company where she was senior social and environmental responsibility counsel, and served in various

Christina Kaba General Counsel and VP of HR CovationBio

legal and business roles at FMC Corporation in its Philadelphia and Singapore offices.

Kaba joined the Biomaterials team at DuPont one year prior to the CovationBio spinoff with the intention of playing a key role in the carve-out of the company and its establishment, likening CovationBio to a start-up with a line of already proven products.

Being both GC and VP of Human Resources is a unique combination— one for which Kaba is perfectly situated. “I have always loved the strategic parts of being a lawyer,” she says. “By combining the GC role with the HR function, I have a broader view of how this company operates and can contribute more proactively to the key matters impacting the company. This dual role allows me to interact with a wide diversity of individuals across the company and push for greater diversity across our team.”

Bringing more women into the company is a key priority for CovationBio and driven by its unwaver-

ing dedication to creating a more sustainable future for everyone.

“Working in the sciences and manufacturing, I have had few female role models, and we need to change that for future generations,” she reflects. “Our team is a force of nature and increasing our diversity will only make us stronger.”

With an increased demand from apparel and carpet manufacturers for sustainable materials, the potential for CovationBio feels limitless. “Being able to start with proven products that reduce our dependency on petroleum and advance a more circular economy is an incredible opportunity,” she says, “but to be able to do that in an agile, lean start-up environment is the chance of a lifetime.”

A passion for environmental sustainability has been in the back of Kaba’s mind her entire life, and CovationBio will allow her to follow that passion for years to come.

“The future is really bright for this company and I’m excited to help it grow,” she says.

Greenberg Traurig is a service mark and trade name of Greenberg Traurig, LLP and Greenberg Traurig, P.A. ©2022 Greenberg Traurig, LLP. Attorneys at Law. All rights reserved. Attorney advertising. °These numbers are subject to fluctuation.

We applaud the leadership and accomplishments of Christina Kaba, General Counsel & VP, Human Resources at CovationBio.

We are proud to provide legal counsel to CovationBio and we look forward to continuing our work with Christina and the company.

“It’s not that sustainability is important to CovationBio or even a core value. It is the fabric of our company.”

CuriosityInspired Pivot

As senior counsel of marketing and trademarks at Restaurant Brands International, Carleen Griffith embraces the ups and downs that come with working from the idea room to the real world

By Claire Redden

Carleen Griffith Senior Counsel of Marketing and Trademarks Restaurant Brands International

GROWING UP AS THE YOUNGEST

of six first-generation Americans in Central New York, Carleen Griffith describes her family as a village.

“Being the youngest, I grew up having to navigate different personalities,” Griffith remembers. “But my siblings and I were all able to bond and build friendships. It taught me to appreciate people's differences and take folks as they are.”

When she enrolled in the University of Maryland, Griffith felt confident that her major would be communications. However, through different internships, she started to develop a curiosity in law. “You'd have a project, give it to the decision maker, and then they’d send it to legal. Then, when it came back, it'd either have a few tweaks or be completely revamped,” she says. “I was twenty-something years old, and legal was this other part of the company I always heard about, but had no idea what went into it.’

So, after completing her communications degree, Griffith had two choices: she could continue communications and go to graduate school or figure out what legal was all about. “That was my pivot—curiosity,” she says. “I took about a two-year break before going to law school, got some jobs at a couple of firms in the DC area, and studied for my LSAT. I got a fee waiver to apply to Washington University in St. Louis, and I got accepted along with a great scholarship offer.”

However, that also meant she'd be moving her life to the Midwest, a place she'd never been, far away from her family village. But, in time, Carleen found mentors among her female professors and classmates that

helped her through her classes and guided her in navigating her profession after law school.

“I think mentorship comes in many forms, and when you can get it, it's an amazing thing,” she says. “At the time, I hadn't known about imposter syndrome. Having a group of people to talk through that with, from all different walks of life, made me realize almost everybody has those moments.”

Through an internship in law school, Griffith got experience in marketing and advertising. By exploring different areas— from marketing agency agreements to drafting and reviewing scripts to litigation—she developed an appreciation for marketing, but she was still curious.

“You would send an email, give your advice, and then it'd go into the ether,” she

Zulie Mederos

reflects. “Sometimes the advice is difficult. You wonder: What are they telling the clients? What's happening on the other side? The only way you can learn that is by going in-house.”

Eventually, Griffith got to do so in a tech company in Northern Virginia. There, she saw the other side and liked it. Being a part of the process, working with the business teams, understanding their goal, and going beyond just explaining the law to execute a strategy were all things she enjoyed. But there were still things that she missed. That's what brought her to Restaurant Brands International (RBI).

As senior counsel of marketing and trademarks, the attorney handles all communication and marketing legal reviews for the company's four brands. Supporting them from the development stage to seeing their product in a television commercial, she has faced many challenges. “It's an absolute rollercoaster,” she admits. “Laws can change, new laws can get implemented, perceptions can change, supply chains can become stressed—but it's all problem-solving.”

Building the necessary legal work around these ideas also comes with its unique challenges, which Griffith describes as a balance between getting the essential protections and timing. This proved an important element of her work with Burger King during its recent worldwide rebrand.

“The business brought us in early enough to plan it out and get the right timing,” she recalls. “For the entire year before, we were all working on it; coming up with the strategy, making sure we could file things globally, and figuring out the right filing mix. It was a long journey with several people on board.” When Griffith is driving down the street and sees the brand's new logo on a billboard, she remembers that journey and feels proud of the team.

Today, the senior counsel prioritizes being a mentor for the junior lawyers on her team or in the business. “I've had that benefit in my career; people have taken that chance on me. So, if I can be that person for others, I will,” she says. But she also believes that mentorship should start much earlier. For this reason, Carleen also finds it important to spend time working with the youth in her community.

As for her advice to others, Griffith encourages young people to be curious. “You don't know what you don't know, so ask questions. There are so many people willing to answer,” she says.

Kim Brooks once thought the law was tired and boring, but an in-house role at Red Bull has the litigation and employment attorney energized for what’s ahead

By Zach Baliva

SHE’S THE SENIOR LEGAL COUNSEL of litigation and employment for the most popular energy drink brand on the planet, but there was a time when Kim Brooks rebelled against the very idea of becoming a lawyer.

Growing up, Brooks demonstrated both the personality and the aptitude to practice law. She remembers family members suggesting the legal field as a career. That was part of the problem. “I hate being told what to do,” Brooks says. “And I used to think that the practice of law was stiff and boring.”

There was another problem. Brooks, who is of mixed-race heritage, lacked role models. Nobody on either side of her family worked in law, and she had never interacted with female or minority attorneys. And her sleepy hometown only gave her one example of what a lawyer might look like: a gruff neighbor she describes as “scary.”

So Brooks did what any good adventurer would do—she ran in the opposite direction and studied communications and Spanish at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). First, she accepted internships in marketing and public relations, but an advertisement in UCLA’s campus newspaper, the Daily Bruin , caught her eye. A Beverly Hills law firm needed a legal assistant and they were willing to pay more than minimum wage. Brooks applied and got the job. Little did she know that it would change her life and set her on a new path.

The job was for a solo practitioner, who Brooks describes as an “effortlessly glamorous, funny, and charming lawyer.” The skilled, kind, and confident woman, who also was of a minority background, became Brooks’s first role model in the legal field. The attorney mentored Brooks, invited her to important meetings, gave her meaningful work, and showed her that lawyers can make an impact and have fun at the same time. Perhaps best of all, Brooks felt comfortable expressing herself and proudly commuted to work on her pink moped.

After five years at law firms, first in San Diego at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP and then in Beverly Hills at Ervin Cohen & Jessup LLP, Brooks was ready to make the leap to an in-house role. Her dream was to join a company with an established legal team and a diverse workforce, one that would welcome her outside interests and passions, like travel and live music. She found the perfect match in Red Bull and joined the organization in early 2021.

Working for the energy drink company has been a refreshing change of pace for Brooks. “People know Red Bull for our flagship product, but we have a broad workforce and various business lines, and that brings exciting opportunities to an attorney in the employment space,” she explains.

Today, Brooks provides on-call daily support to Red Bull’s HR teams as her

Kim Brooks

Senior Legal Counsel of Litigation & Employment

Red Bull North America Inc.

Greenberg Traurig and Ashley Farrell Pickett are proud to congratulate

Kim Brooks

We applaud Kim’s leadership at Red Bull and are honored to partner with Kim and the entire Red Bull team.

colleagues look to her for guidance on employee relations, management of employment claims, and oversight of workplace investigations. She is also responsible for reviewing and updating various employee-facing policies and training materials. She looks to customize her approach based on each internal audience and always diligently stays updated on emerging trends and topics in employment law.

When it comes to issue spotting, being based on the West Coast has its benefits. “Living and working in California is like looking into a legal crystal ball because the state is a leader in pro-employee laws and protections,” says Brooks.

Brooks has settled in nicely at Red Bull and says she appreciates the company’s strong culture and welcoming environment. She makes the most of holidays and paid time off by fueling her passion for international travel. This year, she’s managed to travel to Costa Rica, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand, among other closer-to-home destinations.

Brooks has stayed true to herself while forging her own path in the legal field, and she advises others to do the same. “Law students and new lawyers often choose practice areas that sound good or that they think will offer high pay, but they forget to think about what truly makes them excited,” she says. “When you tune into what you’re really interested in doing, the work is more enjoyable and your work product is ultimately better.”

Although Brooks once tried all she could to pursue another path, she is now flourishing as Red Bull’s senior counsel in litigation and employment. Red Bull, a company that “gives you wiiings,” has helped Kim Brooks soar to new heights.

Greenberg Traurig, LLP:

“Kim is a bold and strategic thinker. Her strengths are perfectly suited to her role as an in-house legal department leader. Kim’s contributions to Red Bull have been immense and partnering with her as Red Bull’s outside counsel is truly a pleasure.”

—Ashley Farrell Pickett, Shareholder

People know Red Bull for our flagship product, but we have a broad workforce and various business lines, and that brings exciting opportunities to an attorney in the employment space.”

Traurig is a service mark and trade name of Greenberg Traurig, LLP and Greenberg Traurig, P.A. ©2022 Greenberg Traurig, LLP. Attorneys at Law. All rights reserved. Attorney advertising. °These numbers are subject to fluctuation.

Scott

& Chair,

Leading with Creativity & Empathy

Beyond diversity and inclusion, Hank Turner cultivates collaboration and compassion in his role as VP and chief counsel of litigation at Conagra Brands Inc.

By P. Ellen Lose

Henry “Hank” Turner VP and Chief Counsel of Litigation Conagra Brands Inc.

HENRY “HANK” TURNER TOOK

several calculated risks while finding his true legal calling.

Upon graduating from the University of Michigan Law School, the attorney spent five years at Jones Day in Cleveland, before moving to Chicago to spend ten years at Valorem Law Group, a litigation boutique. By transitioning to a smaller firm, Turner was able to connect more deeply with his business and in-house clients to understand their business goals and risk tolerance, and do so earlier in his career, compared to the typical practice at an Am Law 100 firm. This approach would ultimately prepare him for his current role as vice president and chief counsel of litigation at food and beverage giant Conagra Brands.

In his role, Turner and his team spend a lot of time trying to get ahead of potential issues, instead of only dealing with pending litigation. “I am working with different business functions to guide the best resolutions for the company as a whole, so I need to understand their personal motivations, business pressures, and true objectives,” he says.

Clarity of approach is key to Turner’s empathetic style of management. The VP guides others to employ a similar strategy. When working with outside counsel, he encourages his team to come from a place of empathy and understanding. He acknowledges that there are hard days and difficult truths to relay, but instructs his colleagues to take others’ pressures and motivations into account as they formulate their strategy.

Turner adds that he wants every person to feel comfortable speaking their mind. “I should have a team full of people who are smarter than I am about what they’re doing, and I do,” he says. “I respect them. I consider

them experts. I may help shape their strategy, but I want them to feel complete ownership over what they’re doing.” He acknowledges that this leads to passionate work from his team and utilizes all their creativity.

Another way he extends empathy is through the promotion of a creative work environment stemming from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which Turner says educated employers about the viability of remote options. As a result, he is a supporter of providing flexibility in the workplace, adding that greater options have helped foster a more inclusive work environment.

This approach also proved important during times of social unrest following the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. “The goal was to stay on task while also giving space to process the larger social context,” he reflects. “To create an environment where people could say, ‘I need a little space, I will get my work done, but let's not be blind to the fact that there were and are some tough things happening in the world.’”

In fact, taking a step back is something that Turner suggests that his colleagues do on a daily basis. It is something that he has gotten better at in his own life, as well. Now, Turner has a regular rhythm of biking to and from work each day; this is his time to detach. He says the city streets of Chicago create an artificial constraint to take his focus off of work.

Turner is also open about addressing his mental health. He encourages his colleagues to do whatever it takes to maintain a healthy state of mind and to not beat themselves up about seeking that help. He coaches himself to be realistic about what can wait. “If responding to an email cuts into dedicated detachment or

Intentional DEI

At Conagra Brands, Hank Turner broaches solutions to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). As the extended leadership team for the Conagra Black Employee Resources Group (CBERG), the attorney supports a pipeline model effort. “It’s about making sure people get in the door, that they have a good experience, and that they have the right skills and mentorship to advance,” he explains.

Recruitment, advocacy, and development are the core pillars of Conagra’s enterprise-wide DEI efforts, and the foundation of CBERG’s activities. Turner’s role includes guiding participants to the group and educating them about what resources are available to reduce friction points for their development.

“DEI needs to be elevated in the legal profession and should be just as important as financial goals,” he says. “Any company still asking, ‘Why is this important?’ is behind the times.”

family time, and it will have the same outcome if dealt with tomorrow, deal with it tomorrow,” he says. It is a daily struggle and even sometimes it takes Turner saying out loud to himself, “You don’t need to solve this right now. Take a break. It will be okay.”

Along with advising young lawyers to set boundaries, Turner emphasizes the importance of taking calculated risks and being intentional to maximize learning from each professional experience. The attorney also advises that titles do not always mean everything. In fact, sometimes a lateral move leads to a broader skill set. “Think internally instead of trying to keep up with the Joneses,” Turner says.

Unfortunately, Turner laments, not everyone will achieve a highly paid job, which is required to pay back debt from law school. “It worries me that there are talented people who want to be lawyers who just can't see the path because of the high barrier of entry,” he says. “We as a profession, with law schools taking the lead, need to think hard about alternative and more cost-effective models to prepare people to be lawyers.”

Climb Together

Senior Counsel of Litigation and E-discovery

Michelle Bogosh helps nurture new and diverse talent at Archer Daniels Midland

By Billy Yost

MICHELLE BOGOSH HAS BEEN AN avid rock climber since 2015. The hours spent at the indoor climbing facility Brooklyn Boulders near her home in Chicago are the only times all week that the senior counsel of litigation and e-discovery doesn’t have to multitask. She only has to focus on that next hold, the shifting of her weight, and navigating the right path to the top.

“Before you start, you try and map out your plan, but, inevitably, that is going to change as you make your way up the wall, and you have to be able to adapt quickly,” she explains. “You’re constantly reassessing as you move forward while still staying true to your original plan. I think that’s a spot-on analogy for what I do every day in litigation.”

Bogosh knows a thing or two about adaption. After graduating law school in the late 2000s, the young lawyer entered one of the worst job markets in modern history.

Initially thinking she would stay in the government or nonprofit sphere (Bogosh earned her stripes in the often-heartbreaking world of abuse and neglect cases in Chicago’s Cook County), suddenly no one was hiring.

The lawyer moved into contract work and ultimately found her way in-house. Bogosh’s nontraditional path hasn’t been easy to navigate. Perhaps that’s why she is spearheading diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work at food processing company Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in addition to her already extensive list of responsibilities.

She has found a way to support women in niche areas like trucking and maritime law that skew heavily, heavily male. The path may not have been clear, but Bogosh has continued the climb and is now pulling up those behind her.

At ADM, Bogosh says she’s proud of how committed her organization is to issues

Michelle Bogosh Senior Counsel of Litigation & E-discovery

Archer Daniels Midland

Andrew Collings

of innovation and sustainability. She notes that her team is always eager to innovate, whether it’s sourcing out new products to enable faster and more efficient ways of searching and reviewing data or her litigators examining new ways to assess cases early.

The senior counsel says she’s greatly enjoyed partnering with ADM’s transportation team to continue finding new ways of making transportation more sustainable. The innovation in that space, particularly, is fascinating to the lawyer and she enjoys helping carve a path for that growth.

With such a wide purview, it’s incredible that Bogosh has also become the de facto leader of DEI efforts at ADM. “This isn’t about a role or a title,” she says. “This is just an issue that has become more and more important to me over the years, and I’ve taken a lot of time to help us continue to grow in this space.”

The senior counsel says the women’s employee resource group at ADM has “exploded” over the last two years, and it’s made issues of representation, mentorship, and development all the more relevant. Bogosh makes decisions for whom ADM hires as outside counsel, and in that role, she’s able to encourage those firms to provide diverse candidate pools and to make sure it’s not just some kind of box-checking exercise.

Bogosh also makes it a point to work directly with young outside counsel in ways that don’t just ensure a good working relationship between ADM and the firm. Instead, she provides coaching and support that will one day make them great in-house counsels in their own right.

“Those younger associates often don’t get to see the whole team, so I make it a point to ask to work with everyone involved, so I can give them feedback and hopefully be a resource for them as they grow throughout their career,” she says. “I think one of the best

things you can do for diverse talent is to help them grow throughout their career.”

The next generation of lawyers is noticing. While speaking on a panel for Tulane Law’s Admiralty Law Institute, Bogosh and the rest of the all-female panel was approached by two younger female attorneys. “They said it was the first time they had seen an allfemale panel speak on a substantive topic,” she recalls. “We were speaking about indemnity and defense in insurance and contracts, not being female lawyers.”

It’s an important distinction. While Bogosh and her counterparts were aware that a panel of women might be seen as novel, they were more focused on the fact that it was a chance to speak on a subject they all had significant experience in. Just years ago, an all-woman panel for its own sake would have been the goal. Now it was just a happenstance. That’s real progress.

“It reminded me that it matters that people see you out there doing these things,” the lawyer says. “We’re moving forward. It’s taking time, but we’re moving forward.”

It’s a phrase that is as applicable to Bogosh’s day-to-day as it is to her time on the rock wall.

Cozen O’Connor:

“Cozen O’Connor is proud to support Michelle Bogosh and everyone at Archer Daniels Midland in their mission for sustainability and innovation. We are pleased to celebrate their continued growth and success.”

—Tia C. Ghattas and Jeremy J. Glenn, Members

Salley Hite Mercer & Resor LLC:

“Michelle is a clever strategist, passionate advocate, and fearsome opponent. Salley, Hite, Mercer and Resor are proud to partner with Michelle on the complex litigation she manages throughout the United States. Michelle not only understands the intricacies of her cases, she excels in creating collaborative teams.”

—Amy D. Hotard

DrivenBy Community

Meredith Miles knows that connecting with people inside and outside of work is the key to success at Altria Client Services

By Rebecca Rakowitz

MEREDITH MILES HAS THE mind of a lawyer and the heart of a social worker. It’s hard to know where the former came from—she certainly didn’t expect to go to law school—but there’s no doubt the latter was nurtured by her mother. Growing up, she saw her mother working with at-risk youth, adding her whole life has been dedicated to other people. Much like her mom, connecting with and understanding people is at the center of everything Miles does.

When Miles graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English, she packed up her Toyota and drove from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to Washington, DC, taking a job in sales that she really enjoyed. “I realized that sales is about empathy,” she reflects. “It’s about learning what the needs are and what motivates the person on the other side.”

What frustrated her, though, was having to let other people make and deliver the product. After four years in sales, she decided to go to law school where she noticed a distinct difference between the two professions. “In law, you sell what’s in here,” she says, motioning to her head. “You get to advocate and

argue based on your analysis. The product is you.”

To build a better “you,” she tells aspiring attorneys to work before going to law school, explaining that life experience of interacting with different people prepares you to better understand cases. Being plugged in allows you to see more sides to issues, which leads to more thorough analysis. “Working first and being engaged in your community really does help you be a better lawyer,” she says.

After graduating, Miles spent seven years as a civil litigator before joining Altria Group, the parent company of some of the nation’s leading producers and marketers of tobacco products for adults twenty-one and older. In order to focus its business on cigarette alternatives for smokers, the tobacco giant sold its Michelle Wine Estates business to Sycamore Partners for $1.2 billion in 2021. Over the course of her twenty-year tenure, Miles has held multiple jobs at the company and is now senior assistant general counsel for Altria Client Services.

The business is currently realigning its organization against its vision of Moving Beyond Smoking, leading the

way in moving adult smokers away from cigarettes by taking action to transition millions to potentially less harmful choices, of which the attorney is especially proud. The ultimate goal is to help adults who can’t or won’t quit using cigarettes transition to smoke-free products. Per usual, Miles sees it all through the compassionate lens of a social worker, understanding just how difficult change can be. It’s why she says everything Altria is doing to implement this new vision is so worth it.

Within her team, Miles leads with a focus on teaching and collaboration. Building trust and making time to check in and mentor each member of the staff, especially young folks, is a priority. “The team is like a machine, and trust is the lubricant that keeps us going,” she says. “They know they can reach out to me morning, noon, or night about work or personal matters, and I’ll have their back.”

Even with this at-the-ready attitude, Miles learned early in her career the importance of having a life outside of work. She stays physically active and says that gives her the energy to do her job. She is also active in her

Meredith Miles Senior Assistant General Counsel Altria Client Services

community and serves on the board of the Virginia Repertory Theater, a local theater organization that produces musicals and plays, has traveling shows, educational programming and camps, and is focused on ensuring the entire community has access to all it has to offer.

And it will come as no surprise to learn that Miles does an extensive amount of pro bono work—her favorite being in landlord/ tenant law. “It’s amazing because I get to educate my clients on what their rights and obligations are under their lease and on the law, and help them get fair treatment,” she says.

Miles has a tremendous amount of experience and expertise to share, but

Working first and being engaged in your community really does help you be a better lawyer.”

Casey Templeton

even she is still learning. In fact, the day before speaking with Modern Counsel , she had attended a company presentation about imposter syndrome that she said was fascinating. “I recognized the younger me during the presentation,” she admits.

It got her thinking about these feelings of phoniness that, unfortunately, many people feel. Over the course of her career, as she’s learned more and taken on higher roles, Miles has started to feel more like “heck yeah, I deserve this spot!”

Her hope for young attorneys is that they are able to feel the same way. Even if they aren’t sure of themselves, they can know that someone is sure of them. “Whoever hired you did it for a reason because you are really smart and can do whatever project is given to you,” she says.

Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP: “Meredith has a consistent approach to solving complex problems. She focuses on what’s important and asks hard and thoughtful questions.  She is also very reasonable and practical, and extremely easy to work with.”

—Matthew Eisenstein, Partner

The team is like a machine, and trust is the lubricant that keeps us going.”

Congratulations to our client and friend Meredith Miles

Assistant General Counsel, Altria Client Services LLC—on Modern Counsel’s recognition of her considerable contributions to her personal and professional communities.

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

Litigating Cryptocurrency

As VP and deputy general counsel of litigation and employment, Deborah McCrimmon helps Ripple Labs fight the SEC in New York’s Southern District

By Frank DiMaria

BORN WITH A SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY and a commitment to community, Deborah McCrimmon is naturally inclined to help others. As an undergraduate at University of California, Davis, she was torn between earning a master’s degree in social work or attending law school. “Which path did I want to go down?” McCrimmon says. After careful consideration, she chose law, thinking it would open more avenues to assist others. Being a lawyer, she says, is the best of both worlds.

McCrimmon serves as the vice president and deputy general counsel of litigation and employment at Ripple Labs, a San Francisco-based, business-facing technology company leveraging crypto to transfer funds across international borders. Since its founding in 2012, Ripple has used crypto and blockchain solutions to improve moving value.

McCrimmon initially joined Ripple in 2018 as director of litigation. Almost three years later, the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Ripple. The SEC alleged that the company raised funds through an unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering, contending that the digital asset XRP is an investment contract under the Securities Act. “We vehemently disagree with that characterization,” says the attorney.

She spends most days managing Ripple’s SEC litigation. “We have been litigating with the SEC on that issue since late 2020, and we believe strongly that the SEC is wrong on both the facts and the law,” explains McCrimmon. At press time, the case was being litigated in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The SEC is stretching the Howey Test, which determines whether or not

Deborah McCrimmon VP and Deputy General Counsel of Litigation & Employment Ripple Labs

something is an investment contract, well beyond recognition, according to McCrimmon. “They are reaching far beyond the authority that was granted to them by Congress and trying to regulate a space that Congress never intended them to regulate,” asserts McCrimmon.

She adds that rather than making rules, the SEC is choosing to regulate by enforcement; the SEC should clearly state industry-wide rules, but instead it’s suing players. Then, based on the outcomes of those cases, it expects the industry to determine the rules of the road moving forward. “It’s a terrible approach,” she says.

McCrimmon, a litigator for twenty years, calls Ripple’s SEC lawsuit the most interesting and challenging work in which she’s engaged. “It’s a cutting-edge, industry-defining case,” she says. “It’s going to be precedential, not just for Ripple, but for the entire crypto industry. It’s being watched by the entire industry.”

“Deborah is a brilliant and insightful lawyer,” adds Andrew Ceresney, white collar & regulatory defense partner and cochair of litigation at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. “On the Ripple matter, she has led our team as we made significant strategic judgments in this cutting-edge, precedent-setting litigation. Deborah has internalized the massive record and helped make common-sense, practical decisions as we battle the SEC. She is a fierce advocate, and one of the very best in-house lawyers I have worked with.”

Fresh out of University of California, Hastings College of Law, McCrimmon signed on with Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich LLP, which eventually merged with Piper Rudnick LLP and DLA & Partners to become DLA Piper,

Amani Photography

Expertise Spotlight

Debevoise & Plimpton is home to one of the most premier securities practices in the country. With almost one hundred years of combined experience at the highest levels of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, we have an unparalleled, comprehensive understanding of the regulatory, compliance, and enforcement issues that impact investment advisers, broker-dealers, and other regulated entities.

Debevoise is a leading law firm with market-leading practices, a global perspective, and strong New York roots. Our clients look to us to bring a distinctively high degree of quality, intensity, and creativity to resolve legal challenges effectively and cost-efficiently. Deep partner commitment, industry experience, and a strategic approach enable us to bring clear commercial judgment to every matter. We draw on the strength of our culture and structure to deliver the best of our firm to every client through true collaboration.

one of the largest law firms in the world. McCrimmon counseled Silicon Valley tech start-ups, many of which were navigating business litigation for the first time. “I spent my time learning new technology, new products, and new rules for businesses. That was really exciting,” she says.

McCrimmon committed herself to helping small businesses achieve their visions and missions and embraced what they were trying to build. When she saw the opportunity to move to Ripple Labs, she seized it. “I learned about Ripple and all their big goals of trying to improve and build and achieve this internet of value. That resonated with me,” she says. “I wanted to be a part of that.” She signed on as employee number 210 and the fifth lawyer on Ripple’s legal team. Today, Ripple is seven hundred employees strong, with the legal team growing threefold since McCrimmon came on board. Although crypto and blockchain had been around for years, they were nascent, and McCrimmon was still trying to “figure out the rules of the road,” she says.

Before COVID-19 restrictions, she traveled to immigration detention centers in Texas and Georgia, offering pro bono legal assistance to recent US arrivals. “Navigating legal issues without counsel is almost impossible,” says McCrim-

mon, who worked mostly with women and children. “I’d help them navigate the asylum process.”

Her experience with immigrants gave her a new perspective on transferring funds and in a small way led her to Ripple. Immigrants who use traditional payment rails to send money to family abroad face high fees in an inefficient and opaque system that’s prone to failure.

“I remember when I was interviewing with Ripple and hearing about their products and vision of nearly instantaneous cross-border payments, I thought about how that could really transform people’s lives, particularly in the immigrant community,” McCrimmon reflects. “That was one of the reasons I joined Ripple.” For example, if someone needed to send cash to a family member in Guatemala for a surgery, by using cryptocurrency the funds could be available in just minutes, compared to five to seven days using traditional rail transfers.

Ripple’s vision struck a chord with McCrimmon, who advises those entering the law profession to find something they care about, something they’re interested in, and something that challenges them. “When you believe in what you are fighting for and what you are doing, that makes working hard and going to work so much easier,” she says.

Don’t Be Afraid to See Where It Goes

Brittany Misich’s decade-long tenure at GKN Automotive started long before she was a lawyer. Today, she helps guide the over 250-year-old brand in a new chapter.

By Joseph Kay

Jamie Vandewinkle

BRITTANY MISICH APPLIED FOR HER FIRST legal job on a whim. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for; as a sophomore at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, she was studying business administration and looking to get off the retail floor. When she was invited to interview at GKN Automotive, she didn’t know what to expect.

“I had no idea what GKN Automotive was prior to applying for the patent internship. No experience with patents or law. I didn’t think I had a chance,” she recalls. “I was definitely excited but nervous, and later confirmed that it was right fit for me as GKN Automotive has a willingness to teach.”

That was ten years ago. Since then, she has earned three promotions and a law degree. She is now GKN Automotive’s corporate IP counsel and serves as an expert in a field she was once didn’t know existed. In her role, Misich closely engages with engineering and commercial personnel to draft and negotiate the terms of IP agreements; she also manages the organization’s trademark portfolio.

Registered in England, GKN Automotive Limited is a global engineering organization providing electric drive systems, powertrain solutions, and more for many major automotive manufacturers. While GKN Automotive isn’t a traditional consumer-facing brand, their parts and patented systems make their way into many familiar vehicles around the world. With the explosive growth of electric vehicles, Misich and her team are crafting new relationships and contracts with exciting start-ups.

“In the automotive world, we’ve been used to traditional customers who say, ‘These are the terms, take it or leave it,’” Misich explains. “New manufacturers don’t have that track record. We have the ability to negotiate terms and come to a happy medium.” She handles those customers from start to finish, from initial confidentiality agreements through production and supply agreements, and says it’s an especially rewarding process. A lifelong learner, she appreciates the opportunity to see how business relationships emerge and teams interact.

By growing with this one organization, Misich has been able to expand her areas of expertise and put that knowledge in context. The legal team holds goal-setting sessions each year, and she hopes to develop her interest in M&A in addition to her primary responsibilities managing the trademark portfolios and IP contractual matters. Her mentor and supervisor—the same supervisor who steered her internship program—provides guidance and a safe space to grow. GKN Automotive has a strong learning environment, Misich says. In fact, it’s okay to make a mistake, and it’s almost never irreparable.

She’s seen profound changes inside the company as well. In 2018, GKN Automotive was acquired by Melrose PLC, a turnaround firm specializing in purchasing companies, improving operations, and selling them again. Colleagues were nervous, and they didn’t know what to expect from new management. “We’re in a better position now than we were prior to the takeover,” Misich says. “It forced people to look at how we operate and make

Brittany Misich Corporate IP Counsel

GKN Automotive

Jamie Vandewinkle

improvements, rather than saying, ‘Well, this is just how we’ve always done it.’

“I just kind of embraced the change with a positive attitude and outlook,” she adds. “We were adapting to new management, new philosophies, and a new environment, but whatever was going to happen was going to happen.”

Coincidentally, Misich was studying takeovers in her business organizations at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law while the process was happening and was able to apply and understand the concepts that she was learning in school to a current real-life situation she was experiencing.

She enrolled in law school a few years into her employment with GKN Automotive; she studied at night while working part time. During her law studies, she often heard the advice to join a firm before even considering the possibility of going in-house. But due to her professional exposure, she knew another course was possible and the path she desired for her future legal career.

“In law school, there isn’t a lot of exposure to in-house positions,” she recalls. “That pushes people away from even realizing that this is a career path you could pursue, but young associates and law students need to know that this is feasible.” Misich advises students to reach out to organizations that interest them and, if available,

take advantage of law school internship programs that have in-house positions available. Above all, seek out the opportunities that will expand your comfort zone.

It was never easy to study and work at the same time, but the attorney encourages other working students to remember to live their lives and find balance between school, employment, and personal obligations. “Of course, you need to be focused and disciplined to do well in law school,” she says, “but I think it’s important to be aware that it’s not just about landing the clerkship or the private practice internship. It’s about taking in the entire law school experience and being open to opportunities that push you outside of the classroom.”

While law students are typically eager to finish school and hit the ground running in their chosen professions, she likes to remind young professionals and students that it is OK to slow down and explore all areas of the law before committing to a specific field.

“[The takeover] forced people to look at how we operate and make improvements, rather than saying, ‘Well this is just how we’ve always done it.’”

Living the Dream

A lifelong football fan, Cyrus Ghavi utilizes his legal acumen to support the National Football League’s thirty-two teams, team owners, and the organization as a whole

By Brittany Farb Gruber

FOOTBALL HAS PLAYED A MAJOR ROLE

in Cyrus Ghavi’s life for as long as he can remember. The Atlanta native grew up a Falcons fan and remained true to his hometown roots even after becoming a New York transplant. In fact, he spent numerous football seasons with family and friends flying to games and cheering on the team in person.

Roughly a decade ago, while at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, the practicing attorney learned of an opportunity to turn one of his favorite pastimes into a career. “People realized I was a huge football fan,” he recalls. “A mentor who was working with me at the firm said, ‘Hey, I came across this job posting, and I thought you’d be interested. I know you love football.’”

The job happened to be at the National Football League (NFL). “It turned out they were looking for someone with my kind of legal experience,” Ghavi says. “Although I wasn’t actively looking for a new opportunity, I was very fortunate that [my colleague] was aware of my interest and pointed it out to me.”

Ghavi joined the NFL as an assistant counsel in 2013 and has since risen through the ranks of the legal department to become associate counsel, counsel, and, most recently, senior counsel. In his current role, he advises and supports stakeholders of the league’s thirty-two teams on a wide range of matters, including finance and governance, stadium projects and leases, team ownership policy, and transactions. He also supports the NFL owners’ Finance and Stadium Committees. He credits his previous law firm experience with setting the foundation for much of his in-house work today.

“Like a lot of young associates early in their careers, I was involved in several different corporate matters,” the senior

counsel explains. “I did capital markets work, some corporate governance, and a little bit of M&A. All of this training proved extremely beneficial and provided me invaluable insight for when I joined the NFL.”

In addition to serving as a leader on the legal team, Ghavi’s work requires him to collaborate with other departments within the organization. “We do a lot of both policy-related and transaction work and help support the Finance and Stadium Committees,” he says. “Every day, I’m working with colleagues across the organization, from our club or labor finance teams to the club business development group, which focuses on supporting local team business. We also work directly with NFL teams

on their respective ownership and stadium matters.”

Working across departments proved particularly important when COVID-19 hit. The NFL, as well as the entire sports and live entertainment industry, had no choice but to pivot. It also would prove to be one of the most interesting times of Ghavi’s tenure. In fact, the experience of revising policies and contingency planning during the height of the pandemic remains relevant today.

“COVID-19 came out of nowhere, and a lot of people never expected anything like that to ever happen,” he reflects. “In a way, it helped strengthen the communication between the legal and business sides. We always had the

Cyrus Ghavi Senior Counsel National Football League

common goal of being prepared for anything and managing risk in the event of unforeseen circumstances, but the pandemic helped put that into sharper focus for legal and nonlegal personnel alike. Now everyone has a lived, firsthand understanding that unimaginable things happen, which is why we negotiate and implement safeguards to protect the business.”

Other highlights of Ghavi’s career include serving on the NFL’s diversity counsel for the legal department as well as the New York City Urban Debate League’s Lawyers’ Advisory Council. His passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion stems from his childhood. Growing up as the son of two Iranian immigrants, Ghavi realized at an early age that he was different than a lot of people around him, and that that reality came with both challenges and advantages. Today, admiration for his parents’ sacrifices, strength, and commitment to building a better future for their family inspires the attorney to remain true to himself in both his personal and professional life.

“There’s a fine line between adapting to your environment and holding on to your individuality. As a son of immigrants, I never had to be taught this lesson; I kind of just lived it,” he says. “I understood from an early age that my perspective was unique to me because my experience was different than a lot of people around me. In turn, that helped me recognize that other people may have different perspectives and their own set of challenges.”

147

He continues, “It’s important to help open doors and facilitate growth, because opportunities don’t always reach everyone who is deserving or could benefit from them. I’m trying to make sure that I help where I can.”

Ghavi advises the young attorneys he mentors to always keep their eyes open for opportunities, as you never know when that dream job will present itself. “It’s all about being openminded, being cognizant of the opportunities that are available, and jumping on those whenever they are open,” he says.

of

for his innovative leadership and professional dedication.

“Cyrus combines deep substantive knowledge and creative thinking with an ability to look for and find practical solutions.  He is an incredible asset for the League and a joy to work with as outside counsel.”

—Peter Zern, Partner

Hogan Lovells:

“Congratulations to Cyrus for this welldeserved recognition. He is an exceptional transactional lawyer and we are proud to collaborate with him to achieve creative and strategic solutions for the league, its owners, and its partners.”

SPORTS LAWYERS

Hogan Lovells is proud to join Modern Counsel in recognizing Cyrus Ghavi on the many accomplishments during his distinguished career

© Hogan Lovells 2022. All rights reserved. BT-REQ-970

© 2022 Covington & Burling LLP. All rights reserved.

Covington commends

Track Her Journey

Rebecca B. Gregory reflects on her career as assistant VP of commercial litigation at Union Pacific Railroad and beyond

By Marcos Chisholm

REBECCA

B. GREGORY SET HER SIGHTS

on a career in law from a very early age.

“I knew I wanted to be an attorney pretty young,” Gregory says. “I would say fifth or sixth grade, I kind of set my eyes on it. Obviously, I wouldn’t have known for sure that that’s what I wanted to do at that age, but the more I learned about it, the more certain it became.”

Sure enough, Gregory spoke it into existence. Fast-forward to the present, and she serves as the assistant vice president of commercial litigation at Union Pacific Railroad. The Harvard Law School product and former judicial

clerk has entered her fifteenth year at the Fortune 500 company, where she rose up the ranks of its legal department. She takes on its largest commercial litigation cases while leading a team of legal professionals.

Gregory sets high expectations for herself and her team. “I believe people always strive to meet expectations, whether you set them low or high, so I try to always set high expectations,” she explains.

Since Gregory joined Union Pacific in 2008, she has received promotions to general attorney, senior general

Rebecca B.

Gregory

Assistant VP of Commercial Litigation

Union Pacific Railroad

“Say yes to every trial; don’t let fear stop you. Be prepared; preparation can often outdo talent.

Even if you’re a young attorney, you can generally compensate for your lack of experience with your level of preparation.”

attorney, senior counsel, operating chief of staff, and assistant vice president of commercial litigation.

When Gregory first started at Union Pacific, she took on all sorts of cases: property damage, contract, employment, antitrust, and even argued an appeal before the United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit. “I was able to handle cases in-house, which I think is unique. Not many companies have their in-house counsel showing up in courtrooms or arbitration hearings [and] handling the cases personally versus engaging outside counsel to do so, so that’s been an exciting and fun thing that you see at Union Pacific.”

Once Gregory established more relationships across Union Pacific, she started to defend the company in more and more high-profile cases and pioneered a practice within the law department focused on pursuing claims where Union Pacific would be the plaintiff. “I developed a name for myself that I was willing to go into the arena and fight,” she reflects.

Gregory has served in leadership roles in Union Pacific employee resources groups, most recently as the executive director of Lead Educate Achieve Develop (LEAD), which provides professional development opportunities for all employees, but is particularly focused on women. It holds training and workshops on all sorts of topics and is committed to Union Pacific’s goal of doubling the number of women working for the railroad.

“LEAD provides an opportunity, especially for those that are newer to the company, to demonstrate leadership ability that they might not get in their day-to-day

job, and also an opportunity to get outside of your department and meet people cross-departmentally with whom you have a shared interest,” Gregory says.

Still, she credits her past experiences for shaping her career success. She was a judicial law clerk at the US District Court of Idaho, where she learned the ins and outs of the legal system under Judge B. Lynn Winmill. Then, she spent four years at Husch Blackwell in Omaha. Within her first twelve months at the firm—let alone as an attorney—she represented clients who were on trial. She explains how the nature of trial leverages her competitive spirit.

“While at the firm, I had some terrific mentors that really influenced me,” Gregory says. “They gave me numerous opportunities to learn, encouraged me, and were hard on me when needed. So, I’m very grateful for the example they set.”

Gregory is far more than just a high achiever who climbed the career ladder; she fosters an upbeat work environment and encourages her team to be more than simply coworkers. “Because you never want to let your friends down, establishing friendly relationships is key,” Gregory says. “You’re going have their back, so I try and foster that camaraderie.”

The lawyer advises attorneys who are less advanced in their careers to never underestimate their potential. “Say yes to every trial,” she says. “Don’t let fear stop you. Be prepared; preparation can often outdo talent. Even if you’re a young attorney, you can generally compensate for your lack of experience with your level of preparation.”

Our attorneys o er clients deep and precise knowledge, backed up by years of courtroom litigation experience and hard-fought settlements. However, we also understand legal situations seldom involve clear-cut issues. We prepare and present cases in a manner focused on avoiding the minefields of devastating negative publicity in high profile and emotionally charged cases. We also work to contain legal costs and move cases forward quickly and e ciently.

Acquiring Superiority

A couple of key transactions are making S&P Global a climate change data powerhouse

By Will Grant

THE NAME S&P IS SYNONYMOUS WITH financial analytics. The 105-year-old company dates back to the days before automobiles were everywhere, when the railroad ruled the land. Over the last century, it has evolved into one of the few mainstays of Wall Street.

S&P Global Ratings are treated as gospel, and S&P Global Market Intelligence insights are vital sources of real-time information for billion-dollar banks, the casual day trader, and everyone in between. If your company makes it to the coveted S&P 500, one of the five hundred largest companies listed on stock exchanges in the US, you have truly arrived.

In January 2022, S&P Global moved to enhance its ability to predict out-

comes that have become increasingly critical not just to the business environment, but to humanity’s survival. With the acquisition of the Climate Service, it drastically increased its ability to provide complex and comprehensive climate data, models, and analytics.

The Climate Service had made a name for itself since its 2017 founding and had won several awards for its ability to analyze climate risk. S&P recognized that the realities of climate risk are already far too apparent, and their effects could downright cripple not just businesses, but entire economies of the world.

The acquisition is a further buildout of S&P Global’s ESG focus, Sustainable1, the company’s all-in-one

source of essential sustainability intelligence that includes a full suite of data, analytics, benchmarking, evaluations, and indices for customers to get the full view of how to enhance and achieve their sustainability goals.

“We are passionate about providing the market with the essential information it needs to make smart decisions in the face of climate change,” James McMahon, CEO of the Climate Service, said in a statement. “Together with S&P Global, we will take our climate risk capabilities to the next level and be able to deliver insights at scale that the world urgently needs.”

The acquisition was no doubt vital to S&P’s September 2022 announcement about how its updated physical

risk database assesses the ways that company and asset-level valuations could be impacted by climate change incidents.

S&P can also provide actionable data for investors who want to drive ESG initiatives. The database combines asset-level data with future climate hazard predictions that, while notoriously difficult to model, are becoming better understood as humanity continues to grapple with the effects of global warming. The database also contains information on more than 870,000 global assets and more than 20,000 companies. Users can seek out ratings on companies or assets that might be at high risk of climate-related business downturns.

According to S&P, 92 percent of the world’s largest companies hold at least one asset that is likely to be exposed to climate risk by 2050, even under the best-case models where global temperature changes are kept below two degrees Celsius—an unlikely feat.

With that information in mind, S&P made another move to strengthen its climate research capabilities. In December 2022, it announced the acquisition of Shades of Green, an independent, research-based second-party opinion (SPO) provider of a company’s financing and framework through an environment, social, and governmental (ESG) lens. Shades of Green was the first green bond framework issued by the World Bank in 2008, and since then, it has

become a leading provider of SPOs, winning multiple awards for its transparency on climate risk.

While climate change continues to pose significant present and future risks to businesses, Jesse Kramer has made the best of a bad situation. The associate general counsel, who heads up mergers and acquisitions at S&P Global, has no doubt played an invaluable role in helping the organization become a climate information giant in an incredibly short period of time.

As S&P has sought to evolve its climate prediction and modeling capabilities, it’s absorbed some of the most prestigious names in the game to get there. Kramer must be credited for helping S&P bring ESG issues to Wall

Cahill has thrived for a century by focusing on the most significant opportunities and complex challenges facing the top financial services firms and other multinational corporations.

A passion for challenging and distinctive work is at the heart of our firm culture and explains why Cahill consistently wins cases and ranks among the most active firms in the financial league tables year after year.

Street. “Climate-exacerbated disasters cost companies and investors billions,” according to S&P Global Sustainable1’s homepage. “Natural capital costs were 77 percent higher than net income for major global companies in 2019, and 66 percent of such companies will have at least one asset under high physical risk in 2050.”

“We are fortunate to have partnered with Jesse and S&P Global on several transactions over the years. Jesse’s commercial knowledge, sharp legal skills, and decisive leadership allow him to efficiently execute the most complex deals,” says Kimberly C. Petillo-Décossard, cochair of the M&A and Corporate Advisory practice group at Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP.

S&P Global continues to usher in a new age of climate research and data with the goal of avoiding a climate catastrophe. With initiatives like Sustainable1 and S&P’s continuing appetite for climate-data acquisitions, nobody can say we didn’t see it coming.

Cahill is proud to celebrate the achievements of Jesse Kramer and applauds the leadership and commitment he brings to his role at S&P Global.

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

Wachtell Lipton congratulates Manav Kumar of AECOM on his leadership, accomplishments and recognition by Modern Counsel.

Jesse Kramer

We are proud to partner with Manav and his team on transformative transactions.

Wachtell Lipton congratulates of S&P Global on his leadership, accomplishments and recognition by Modern Counsel.

We are proud to partner with Jesse and the S&P Global team on their transformative transactions.

People & Companies

Michelle Bogosh P124 Archer Daniels Midland

Kim Brooks P115 Red Bull North America Inc.

Shelby Bruce P27 3M

Michael Callahan P18 Eversource Energy

Ana-Paola (AP) Capaldo-Aoun P40 TD SYNNEX

Kristine Carpenter P60 Wabtec Corporation

Kristina Fink P14 American Express

Cyrus Ghavi P144 National Football League

Rebecca B. Gregory P149 Union Pacific Railroad

Bridget Hauler P92 NBCUniversal

Lance High P46 Kubota North American Corporation

Daniel W. Bir and Mathew R. Groseclose Shareholders Polsinelli 310.203.5306 dbir@polsinelli.com

Daniel Bir and Matthew Groseclose have extensive experience representing clients in products liability, commercial, business, and consumer protection litigation across the United States.

Regina Himelfarb P54 The Weir Group PLC

Giselle Huron P32 Google

Jan Liu Managing Partner LexField Law Offices 0086.10.85253366 jan.liu@lexfieldlaw.com

Jan’s focuses are strategy counseling on trademark, copyright and anti-unfair competition matters, trademark portfolio management, IPR enforcement, litigation, and dispute resolution.

Mark Jones P64 Shelter Insurance Companies

Christina Kaba P108 CovationBio

Aleksandra King P72 Commvault

Jeffrey Koppy P84

General Motors

Jesse Kramer P152 S&P Global

David Kuznick P101

Dell Technologies

Deborah McCrimmon P134 Ripple Labs

Andrew Ceresney Partner, White Collar & Regulatory Defense Group, Co-Chair of the Litigation Department Debevoise & Plimpton LLP

212.909.6947

aceresney@debevoise.com

Andrew Ceresney represents a broad range of clients in federal and state government investigations and contested litigation in federal and state courts.

Carleen Griffith P112 Restaurant Brands International

Meredith Miles P128 Altria Client Services

Brittany Misich P138 GKN Automotive

Tiffany Norris Nolan P10 Sidel

Davida Osei P80 Allstate Investments

Rachel Reid P68 Voya Financial

Alyssa Sandrowitz P24 Gates Corporation

Amanda Scandlen P77 Willis Towers Watson

Henry “Hank” Turner P120 Conagra Brands Inc.

Charlene Wandrisco P96 American Airlines

Gilbert Wong P104 Block

In honor of our cover star Giselle Huron, check out these most-Googled legal terms.

Supreme Court Justice Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson

Supreme Court Case Roe v. Wade

Government Agency United States Environmental Protection Agency

Legal Controversy Dobbs Leak

Criminal Charge Arson

Law Firm Brown Rudnick LLP

Judicial Term Civil Liberties

Plantiff Johnny Depp

Defendant Anna Sorokin

Law School Harvard Law School

Legislation Foreign Policy

Legal Movie The Lincoln Lawyer

Legal Television Show Law & Order

*Source: Google Trends, January 2023

PASSION FOR INNOVATION BENCHMARK US

Quinn IP Law takes pride in their long-standing reputation as a forward-thinking law intellectual property law firm focused on quality over billable hours. Quality, timeliness, and fixed-fee pricing are primary reasons why we are trusted by some of the world’s most prolific and innovative international companies, institutions, and universities, ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies.

“BENCHMARK US” is more than a marketing slogan. Benchmark our abilities and achievements against our competition to understand why clients select Quinn IP Law for patent and trademark procurement and prosecution, anti-counterfeiting and brand protection, IP monetization and global IP portfolio management services.