Modern Counsel #37

As director of patents at Netflix, Rich Butler relies on his other role as a sustainable farmer to help fuel his creative side P32

W O N L X M Z C Q A W B U

I P O A M U P E R D S I O A

I N T E L Q I P L B N E P U

Q C X M A L E C T U A L X

R M U G A R J W S E W C S

R D K N B H E I C T L R W Z

H K X P R O P E R T Y U B

F D O J Y G E W I O N U X Z

M Q P F C A M N Q A D B I

Our IP issue features in-house counsel who have dedicated their careers to the ever-evolving and exciting practice P30

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Implement

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Karen Morao thrives in her fast-paced in-house role as senior counsel of regulatory and litigation at Hyundai Motor America

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Omron Management Center of America’s Jennifer Quinn encourages attorneys to prioritize their passion and their purpose

Feature

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Alex Frisbie’s willingness to step outside her comfort zone inspires her work as associate director of IP at Carrier

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With a degree in microelectronic engineering, an MBA, and a JD, Richard Leach is well-equipped to oversee Bosch’s intellectual property

Lead

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Deputy General Counsel Dawn Ehlers prefers to lead her team at Cengage Group by setting them up for success

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Seth Jewell helps FedEx Express tackle litigation and risk management in his role as managing director

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Ryan Miller (Morao), Courtesy of Richard Leach (Leach), Webb Chappel (Ehlers)

Pivot

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As senior corporate counsel of litigation, Juliette Campbell strikes a challenging balance at T-Mobile with compassion

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Halliburton’s John Poliak leans on his decorated background in business, engineering, and law to help companies use technology to solve problems

Focus

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Tasha Grinnell utilizes her impressive collection of leadership lessons in her role as general counsel at the Container Store

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Senior Counsel of Insurance Litigation Beth Wendle is excited to embark on something new at DoorDash

Evaluate

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Ed Diggs brings nearly thirty years of experience to his role as senior counsel and manager of construction claims at Bechtel Corporation

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When Joy Langford joined PartnerRe, she embraced new challenges—from leading legal initiatives to reshaping the insurance industry from the inside

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I’ve been eating a lot of pizza lately.

Despite living in one of the best pizza cities in the country, I haven’t had to rely on Chicago’s restaurants for my pies. Instead, I’m benefitting greatly from my husband’s latest interest.

As someone who never thought he would work from home, 2020 proved to be a major turning point for his law career. What began as just a couple of weeks working remotely to flatten the daunting COVID-19 curve, soon morphed into several months, then a year. The permanency of the situation seemed to set in sometime around year two, which led him to an important realization: he needed a hobby.

Without hours spent on a commute or lunches devoted to catching up with colleagues, he found himself with much more time on his hands. He purchased a knife sharpener and successfully sharpened every knife in our kitchen. He took up a new weight training routine until it nagged a previous shoulder injury. He reread his favorite Game of Thrones novels and rewatched several seasons of Doctor Who. Nothing seemed to really stick until he stumbled across a YouTube video about pizza making. And the rest is history.

I’ve lost count of how many pizzas my family has consumed in 2023, and, as the primary family cook in years past, I haven’t complained about the break in my kitchen duties. Also, perhaps most rewarding, my husband has found an interest independent of his legal job or fatherly duties.

As I spoke to Rich Butler during his interview for Modern Counsel’s latest cover story, I was reminded of the importance of having a creative outlet. The director of patents at Netflix has proven himself to be a leading intellectual property attorney, with an impressive resume spanning stints as IP counsel at tech giants such as Sony Electronics, Cisco, and Roku.

His talent and passion for patent law is clear, but Butler also wears another hat as a farmer. Alongside his husband and son, he runs Verdant Hills Farm in McMinnville, Oregon. The first-generation farmers are passionate about humane, sustainable farming, aiming to give their animals the best quality of life and produce healthy food for their customers. When he isn’t leading Netflix’s patent team, Butler is responsible for planting, managing, and harvesting forage in their pastures to nourish their cattle.

“I find that my farming practices help fuel my legal profession side,” he says. “It helps fuel my creativity so I’m not spending 24/7 focused only on one side of things. It’s so important for me to find that balance of being able to relax and do something different. For me, farming is a passion. It helps me stay grounded in something tangible when my work is oftentimes very conceptual.”

With that, I invite you to sit back, grab a slice, and enjoy Modern Counsel ’s latest issue featuring some of the nation’s leading IP attorneys.

Brittany Farb Gruber Managing Editor

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

Challenge Accepted

Karen Morao thrives in her fast-paced in-house role as senior counsel of regulatory and litigation at Hyundai Motor America

By Karen Schwartz WHENEVER KAREN MORAO MET

in-house attorneys, she was always impressed. She admired how wellrounded they were, and how having a one-client focus helped them hone their ability to spot key issues with precision and focus.

“It just struck me how clearly they could see things, the way they could speak to the intersection of law and business,” she remembers.

So, in 2015, Morao made the career-changing decision to move from private practice—where she handled commercial litigation, including international arbitration work conducted entirely in Spanish—to an in-house position at Hyundai Motor America. The transition was an opportunity to grow and challenge herself

as an attorney, she explains. “It’s such a unique experience in how it can further hone your skills and abilities as a lawyer, as a communicator, as a collaborator,” she adds. “It just really opens up your skill set.”

At Hyundai, she began by handling nationwide consumer litigation. Then, after a handful of years, she started advising on the company’s emissions warranties. Adding expertise on these consumer-facing warranties to her knowledge base expanded the scope of her role at the company and led to her work on environmental regulations. In her current role as senior counsel of regulatory and litigation, she facilitates and manages collaboration between the different groups that shape Hyundai’s electrified future.

Karen Morao Senior Counsel of Regulatory & Litigation Hyundai Motor America

Ryan Miller

Ryan Miller

“We’re focused on collaboration across many different business units and put a high value on the input from stakeholders,” she says, adding that the open communication benefits them all. “Across the company, even overseas, there’s a real sense that we’re all working together towards the same goal.”

Her calendar is full of meetings with departments across the organization, with R&D, product planning, mobility strategy, government affairs and more. Encouraging teamwork helps give the workplace additional momentum and contributes to a start-up feel, she adds, pointing to a working group she’s in that focuses on green vehicles. “You definitely want to avoid silos when you’re as big a company as Hyundai,” the attorney says.

Morao, who attended the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign

Service at Georgetown University, took an interest in law after she worked as a receptionist at a startup law firm for a part-time summer job.

“I was answering calls and filing paperwork, but I was interested in what they were doing, and the more questions I asked, the more they started to include me in the substantive parts of their jobs,” she says. “They took the opportunity to teach me, and I ended up falling in love with the job. The skills they were utilizing really spoke to me.” She went on to work as a paralegal, then applied to law school.

She attended Georgetown Law and continued working for the firm before relocating to California, where she spent the better part of the next decade at Dorsey & Whitney. The international arbitration work she did there helped inform how she interacts in cross-country

“Having the confidence to say ‘no’ if you’ve got too much on your plate is the same as having the confidence to say ‘yes’ to something outside your comfort zone.”

recognition!

Karen,

Morao Senior Counsel, Regulatory and Litigation, HYUNDAI MOTOR AMERICA, INC.

relationships and business transactions. “I gained a deeper understanding of the law at an international level, how you need to conduct yourself given cultural differences, and how you can learn from those differences,” she explains.

Additionally, being a litigator taught her to be persuasive and quick on her feet. “In litigation, you’re always having to convince someone of something, and constantly engaging in quick thinking and being persuasive in your communications,” Morao observes. “I think those skills translate very well into my current role.”

The attorney says she’s been well-served by advice she was given as a first-year associate: don’t be afraid to say no. “When you’re a first-year associate, that’s a hard thing to understand and do because you’re so new—you’re working on billable hours, you’re working at the discretion of partners who are so intimidating,” she says. “But,” she adds, “having the confidence to say ‘no’ if you’ve got too much on your plate is the same as having the confidence to say ‘yes’ to something outside your comfort zone.”

Which leads to her second piece of advice: not to be afraid to seize opportunities when they arise, no matter how small. “Talk to that partner or executive,” she recommends. “Those are the little steps you can take that may open doors for you in ways you didn’t expect.”

“Talk to that partner or executive. Those are the little steps you can take that may open doors for you in ways you didn’t expect.”

Bringing Home the Hat Trick

With eyes toward a greener future, Valero Energy Corporation is named the “Energy Company of the Year”

By Will Grant

BY THE END OF THE NIGHT, VALERO Energy Corporation had walked away with all of the hardware. Every December, S&P Global’s Platts Global Energy Awards recognizes energy companies from the United States, United Kingdom, Denmark, Uzbekistan, India, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates who are finding new ways to innovate in the energy space.

Valero Energy was the clear winner of the 2022 event, taking home gold for “Energy Company of the Year,” “Corporate Impact Award for Sustained Commitment,” and “Strategic Deal of the Year.” According to the awards panel, Valero Energy’s “clear and viable roadmap” for creating a greener future was primarily responsible for landing the company these honors. Factors including the company’s investments, carbon capture sequestration projects, and renewable diesel projects were specifically highlighted.

It was a year of highlights for Valero Energy as the PGA Tour’s Valero Texas Open celebrated its one-hundredth anniversary, the third oldest PGA tournament in existence. The Valero Texas Open has raised over $209 million for various charities during its century-long run, and 2022 was the perfect moment to celebrate a

profound milestone. This year alone, the event raised a record-breaking $22 million for charity.

Kirstin Silberschlag’s tenure with Valero Energy may not be a century-long, but it’s still incredibly impressive. The senior vice president and deputy general counsel has been in-house since 2004. Silberschlag has netted seven promotions during her nearly nineteen years at the company and has many other accomplishments under her belt. The lawyer has routinely been recognized as a “Best Of” San Antonio lawyer in both “Business” and “International Oil and Gas” categories. Additionally, Silberschlag has been recognized as San Antonio’s “Outstanding Woman in Law” and Inside Counsel’s “R-3 100” list of women ready for general counsel roles in the next three years.

At present, Silberschlag oversees legal teams in multiple regions including the US, Latin America, Canada, and the UK. The lawyer acts as senior legal and regulatory affairs counsel, but also has deep commercial, operations and development, governance, and international trade experience.

Prior to going in-house, Silberschlag amassed experience with judicial clerkships in both New York and Texas along

with litigation and international trade experience at a San Antonio firm. Along with her global role, Silberschlag has also found time to dedicate to causes that matter to her. The lawyer is a member of the board of trustees at the McNay Art Museum and is also a former board member of the Christian Assistance Ministries, the DoSeum, and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.

It’s assuredly an interesting time to be helping shape energy policy, as big oil more than doubled its profits in 2022, amassing a new record of $219 billion, despite the volatility of energy prices brought about by multiple factors, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

With energy companies like Valero Energy putting that cash toward more renewable projects, sites like its Diamond Green Diesel operation that produces more than 700 million gallons of renewable diesel will become more common and less of a novelty in the energy space.

From Underdog to Leader

Micah Galindo’s nontraditional path to USAA taught him how to believe in himself and relate to others

By Noah Johnson

MICAH GALINDO IS A HOMEGROWN attorney—born, raised, and educated in San Antonio.

And he’s happy to have found a unicorn opportunity in his hometown through hard work and fate. He is currently associate general counsel of enterprise litigation for USAA, a Fortune 500 leading financial services company that serves the military community. The company’s San Antonio roots and military-focused mission are a perfect fit for Galindo, who grew up with friends who served and whose grandfather served in the Marines.

Through a nontraditional legal path, he learned lessons that have made him an asset in his role. He handles high-profile class action, consumer finance, and intellectual property litigation, providing business advice and serving as a trusted partner for USAA Bank, one of the company’s three lines of business, which also include property and casualty insurance and life insurance.

Galindo is a firm believer that everyone’s experience matters. However, he admits that he wrestled with this idea as it related to his own journey. An interest in constitutional

Micah Galindo

Associate General Counsel of Enterprise Litigation

USAA

law drew him to law school, but upon graduation, he struggled with how to begin his career. He ended up at a small general civil litigation firm, where he was hired to support a partner. “On my first day, I remember them being like, ‘Well, you’re on your own now,’ and expecting me to bring in business,” he recalls.

Though it was a challenge, Galindo learned to build his own practice and litigate. While most early-career associates were drafting motions or working on discovery, he had the opportunity to work all kinds of civil law cases from beginning to end.

His next role involved taking on consumer finance litigation work for the first time. It’s also where he was thrown another career curveball. The firm’s senior managing partner and staff left the firm abruptly a few months after Galindo started, leaving him to handle cases and wind down the firm’s local office on his own. He managed it well, retaining part of the client base, which led to him starting his own firm.

“I’ve always dealt with imposter syndrome, but doing the work on my own taught me to believe in myself and . . . about the consumer finance world,” he reflects. “I wouldn’t be where I am if I didn’t have that experience of having only myself to rely on.”

Galindo went on to serve as the vice president of legal at Assessment Technologies, a property tax consulting firm. There, he was a jack of all trades, working in litigation, building the company’s client base, negotiating contracts, and handling collections for delinquent accounts. These experiences now inform his work today,

“I’ve always dealt with imposter syndrome, but doing the work on my own taught me to believe in myself and . . . about the consumer finance world. I wouldn’t be where I am if I didn’t have that experience of having only myself to rely on.”

where he is the lead litigation attorney for USAA Bank.

He advises young attorneys to have self-confidence. “Even in those times when you don’t believe you have a shot, you just have to close your eyes and take the next step to put yourself out there,” Galindo says.

Beyond his legal role, he is a leader who brings people together and makes them feel like they belong by valuing their experiences. “I’ve made it my goal to further integrate my litigation team with the subject matter experts and the business client so we can learn from each other’s knowledge and perspectives,” the AGC explains.

As a result, Galindo has helped foster a greater level of cross-departmental collaboration. He also has helped effectively navigate lawsuits by maintaining an open mind.

“When you’re open to different or diverse points of view, you’re open to more out-of-the-box solutions,” he observes. “In litigation, you’re dealing with courts and opposing and outside counsel. But, at the end of the day, you’re really dealing with people who have different perspectives on things. When you’re more open minded, it helps make the litigation process smoother because you can understand where people are coming from instead of creating a more adversarial situation.”

McGlinchey Stafford PLLC:

“Micah is a pleasure to work with as outside counsel. He is thorough and clear, and his knack for developing innovative legal strategies while staying focused on the bigger picture makes him stand out. Congratulations on this well-deserved recognition.”

—Megan Starace Ben’Ary and Daniel T. Plunkett, Partners

Polsinelli:

“Micah has unparalleled vision and provides thoughtful and pragmatic solutions on a wide range of complex issues. His legal instincts and acumen are second to none. It is an honor to have gained Micah’s trust and confidence for so many years.”

—Marc

D. Cabrera, Shareholder

Polsinelli congratulates our friend and client Micah Galindo on this well-deserved recognition in Modern Counsel for his exceptional leadership, accomplishments, and outstanding contributions at USAA Federal Savings Bank.

We are proud to partner with Micah and USAA Federal Savings Bank.

An Unexpected Journey

Francesca Silverman didn’t set out to have a career in IP. However, a unique opportunity to join Mastercard as its first dedicated trademark attorney was too good to pass up.

By Josephine Adele

AS THE SECOND-LARGEST

payment-processing corporation in the world, it’s no secret that Mastercard offers a wide range of financial services. Originally known as Interbank, the company began in 1966 as an alliance of several regional bankcard associations. The collaboration was a direct response to the success of Bank of America’s BankAmericard, which later became known globally as Visa.

Fifty years later, in 2006, after a long evolution of partnerships, mergers, acquisitions, technological advances, and everything in between, Master-

card went public and continued to establish itself as a corporate powerhouse. With power comes great legal responsibility, especially in the area of intellectual property. And, in 2016, Francesca Silverman was brought on as the organization’s first trademark and brand attorney.

Currently, the attorney serves as vice president and senior managing counsel of IP, where she is responsible for all aspects of Mastercard’s global trademark and copyright portfolio. In her role, she is engaged in strategic planning, clearance, prosecution, enforce-

ment, and licensing. Silverman also advises the corporation’s business teams on IP-related issues concerning brand development and protection, marketing, technology, advertising, sponsorships, and commercial transactions.

She brings extensive experience in structuring, drafting, and negotiating licensing and other commercial agreements related to IP rights to her in-house leadership role at Mastercard. Prior to her position at Mastercard, Francesca was an IP associate at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP and served on the firm’s cybersecurity committee and

its first women’s initiative committee. In her role, she aimed to improve the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women lawyers as well as increase the representation of women in leadership roles.

During her tenure in private practice, Silverman also gained valuable litigation experience appearing before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board as well as in state and federal court on matters relating to trademark infringement, copyright infringement, unfair competition, false advertising, and antitrust violations. Additionally, she counseled clients on issues relating to brand development, social media, internet law, technology, domain names, privacy, rights of publicity, and unfair competition.

While the attorney is certainly an expert in all things IP, she didn’t necessarily set out to be at the onset of her education. She studied classics and art history as an undergraduate at Columbia University and went on to Harvard Law School where she participated in the Criminal Justice Institute.

As a law student, Silverman interned at the United States Attorney’s Office, where she researched and drafted legal memoranda relating to financial crimes and the law of criminal organizations. She also ventured out of the US to conduct extensive legal research and writing concerning the application of American law to Israeli legal issues as a law clerk for the Supreme Court of Israel.

Silverman’s diverse résumé was certainly advantageous upon entering the legal career market, and her varied experience shows her inherent willingness to take on great chal-

lenges. Global credit card companies face numerous challenges, pressures, and opportunities in today’s financial technology marketplace.

For instance, Mastercard currently has eighty patent applications filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for developing unique, new-age blockchain-based systems. It also has filed fifteen crypto-related nonfungible token (NFT) and metaverse trademark applications with USPTO. One trademark filing for the company’s “Priceless” slogan includes artwork, text, audio, and video that are authenticated by NFTs, while another shows Mastercard’s red and yellow logo for processing card transactions for goods and services in the metaverse and other virtual worlds.

As an expert patent and trademark attorney, Silverman certainly has had her work cut out for her as a leader within Mastercard’s legal department. Her impressive pedigree and willingness to take on challenges has made her a power player in an industry that seems to be changing by the minute.

We bring clarity and strategy to intellectual property law. Leason Ellis LLP

Leason Ellis congratulates Francesca Silverman, our client, colleague, and friend, for her outstanding contributions as Mastercard’s Vice President and Senior Managing Counsel for Intellectual Property.

Francesca’s

recognition by Modern Counsel is well-deserved, and we look forward to continuing to partner with her and her team.

Leason Ellis:

“Few lawyers have the rare combination of trend-spotting strategic thinking, creativity, decisiveness, juggling-savvy, and practicality that make for a strong IP leader. Mastercard has all of that in Francesca Silverman.”

—Lauren Emerson, Partner

Find What’s Important

Associate General Counsel Jennifer Quinn encourages attorneys to prioritize their passion and their purpose at Omron Management Center of America

By Noah Johnson

ASK A FEW LAWYERS WHAT THEIR MOST treasured career experiences have been, and some might point to successful negotiations, complex deals, or expanding leadership responsibilities.

For Jennifer Quinn, it was being let go.

“I think it might’ve been the best experience I had in my legal career because it made me really think about what I wanted to do and what was next,” she reflects. “It made me realize that nothing is guaranteed and made me focus on what was important to me.”

Up to that point, she had spent over a decade in a private practice firm before moving in-house at the company that fired her. Quinn’s experience as an associate and a partner at Ungaretti & Harris (now Nixon Peabody) taught her how to navigate challenging legal issues, how to find alternative solutions to problems, and how to look at things from different perspectives. When she went in-house, she paired those skills with a passion for understanding a business and its goals, and helping that business drive strategy towards achieving those goals.

Even with that decorated résumé, it was tempting to play it safe once she was out of work. The attorney could have accepted one of the many jobs offers she received from law firms, reverting to private practice where she had over a decade of experience. So, why didn’t she?

“I opted to choose my happiness and to focus on where my passion was, to wait until I found the next in-house role that

made sense for me, and to trust that I’m a good lawyer and a good employee,” she says. “The opportunity was going to come.”

And it did. Today, Quinn is associate general counsel and director of data governance and privacy at Omron Management Center of America Inc., the US regional headquarters of Omron Corporation, an organization that aims to improve lives and contribute to a better society in part through innovations driven by social needs.

In her role, she supports the company’s business development, sales, and supply chain by spearheading legal support of commercial transactions as well as supporting the company’s human resources and labor function, while overseeing support for data privacy and governance, trade compliance, and internal investigations. She is also the board secretary for the US manufacturing entities and is a participant on the management team for the North American automation business.

The AGC also continues to reap the benefits of choosing her passion for helping business—and others—succeed. She is a leader and a mentor who pushes the importance of working for a company that aligns with your purpose.

“When you work for a company that wants to make a difference, you can find your voice,” Quinn says. “It’s the passion of the people within the company that’s going to set the tone for the company as a whole. You can’t be a purpose-driven company when nobody actually cares about their purpose within the company.”

Diana Colleran

Jennifer Quinn

Associate General Counsel

Omron Management Center of America Inc.

She also stresses the value of not taking “no” for an answer when faced with obstacles between you and what you are meant to do. “If you feel strongly, you need to think about how to work-around the obstacle and make it happen by reshaping your methods or moving to plan B,” the AGC says. “Sometimes, you need to think about whether what you want to do is truly for you, but if you feel strongly, stick with it.”

That wisdom stems from an innate drive for independence and self-reliance that has always lived inside of the lawyer. They are values she got from her father, an entrepreneur who always taught her to control her own destiny, a mantra that drove her towards a career in law. Growing up in Albuquerque, she had dreams of venturing out on her own and succeeding in a big city. She got her chance after getting her bachelor’s in business with a concentration in accounting from the Anderson School of Business at the University of New Mexico. Upon graduation, she enrolled in law school at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Quinn’s law career began at Ungaretti & Harris LLP, where she would go on to work for twelve years. As an associate, she learned to work hard among some of the best and brightest lawyers while gaining experience in various practice areas and providing legal counsel to executives of companies. When she became partner, she represented businesses and private equity sponsors in connection with mergers, stock and asset acquisitions and dispositions, private securities offerings, and venture capital investments.

Quinn realized that her favorite part of her job was building relationships with her

“You can’t be a purposedriven company when nobody actually cares about their purpose within the company.”

business clients, learning their operations, and helping them reach their goals during M&A processes. However, she found herself wanting to know how businesses fared after transactions were completed. “You spend a lot of time building relationships with the business team, but once the acquisition was closed, your relationship was over, so you didn’t get to experience what came next,” she explains.

That’s only one of the reasons that inspired her to make a shift inhouse after serving five years as a partner. Quinn, who was pregnant with her third child at the time, wanted a better work-life balance. The decision was solidified by a conversation she and her husband had about what made them happy. Quinn walked away from the conversation ready for a career change. “I still wanted to work on difficult

transactions, but I also wanted more time for my family,” she admits.

She’s found that and more at Omron, which she says is the most ethical company she’s ever worked with or for. Others think so too. Recently the company was awarded for its environmental, social and governance efforts within the electronic equipment, instruments, and components industry for the second time in the row. “Every company has their purpose and vision and sometimes it’s just words on a plaque, but it’s living and breathing at Omron,” she attests.

Quinn has a wealth of advice for young attorneys aspiring to follow a career trajectory like her own. She encourages not to let others define who you are or what you should be doing with your career. “Your greatest weakness can also be your greatest strength,” she says. “You might need to refine how

and when you use it, but always think about the situation and how to use some of your natural abilities.”

She also advises young people to be visible at work. “Out of sight out of mind is very true,” the AGC says. “Make sure people know what you’re doing and take opportunities to connect.”

DLA Piper:

“I’ve worked with Jennifer for over ten years, across various corporate and commercial matters, and have consistently been impressed with her ability to provide practical strategic advice on all aspects of complex legal and business issues.”

L. Weil, Partner

—Andrew

“Your greatest weakness can also be your greatest strength. You might need to refine how and when you use it, but always think about the situation and how to use some of your natural abilities.”

We are proud to partner with Jennifer and the legal team at Omron. From trade litigation to import counseling and compliance, clients trust their customs and international trade issues to Faegre Drinker.

L L Y P Y C Z T Y H S O W F V F X J H P U S G K T O J C D O Y D I N T E L L E C T U A L P H J H E V S O A B E Z N S E M Z I J B N Z A Y O M T Q K D N C D Z A S D Y K H K N L M F Y W R Q T V D 3 2 A J S U F O N V Q K X J W N J Z R E I G Q R L L G 4 5 U G X N Y Q P W F N T N X X M S P J Y K G C U Q Y F Q U K N 5 4 D L Z M J Y U I X W C Y V Q D E I T D F V N G

V X I B H O N I U R Y T Q S S Y

O V H T V X J V D Q B M L G R

H R P Q L B L U I K K T Y X D F

Z R B P R O P E R T Y I E U R N

H X K E F N B F F C C A O F P

Six leading IP lawyers bring passion and diverse expertise to their highly technical roles

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V X P E R G F A I X L K Q F B N

ALEX FRISBIE CARRIER CORPORATION

L Z N F 4 0 H X V K U W N X H N K H Q X R X D O M W V A W

RICHARD LEACH BOSCH

Y V I Y B M V A 5 0 F U L Z P I E F U F M Y Q U P C O A H R G K A B 5 9 I L I R A Q M J U D

JEFF TANG CIRCLE

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B U I P O A M U P E R D S I

O A T H E Q I P L B N E P U

Q C X M A X R M U G A R J

W S E W C O R P S R D K N

B H E I C T L R W Z H N Q C

H Y G W K X O R A T E U B

F D O J Y G E W I O N U X Z

M Q P Y C A M L A D D E R

N Q A A D B E N X V D P D

Rich Butler credits commitment, passion, and strong problem-solving skills for much of his success at Netflix and beyond

P Z G P N I R W F L Q E F L

BY BRITTANY FARB GRUBER

N O W V G L O M A L X Q T

PHOTOS BY CASS DAVIS

Rich Butler became a lawyer by accident. Sort of.

As an undergraduate student studying engineering at University of California, Los Angeles, Butler found his coursework fun and intellectually stimulating. However, he realized during his first internship that a career in the field was likely not his life calling.

“I had all of these grandiose ideas of what being an engineer would feel like,” he reflects. “But I quickly realized that getting into the nuts and bolts of putting something together and doing a deep dive into technology wasn’t what I wanted to do. I thought more conceptually and knew I wasn’t going to be successful or happy going through the ranks.”

Despite this realization, he still graduated with a bachelor’s in engineering. “The uncomfortableness of realizing that I was graduating with a degree that I wouldn’t be using led me to law school. I tried to think of doing something completely different than engineering,” he admits. Little did the young Butler know that his background would lend itself well to patent law. “Once I started going through law school, I realized that the patent side was very interesting. It melded technology with law.”

Upon graduating from Santa Clara University School of Law, Butler joined Haverstock & Owens LLP, a full-service intellectual property firm in the Silicon Valley. There, he spent several years as a patent attorney where he gained valuable training in patent prosecution, but once again found himself reevaluating his career trajectory.

“I wanted to understand a higher level of strategy that companies employ, and that was my motivation to go in-house,” Butler says.

The attorney would go on to have multiyear stints at tech giants such as Sony Electronics, Cisco, and Roku, holding a range of IP roles. With a plethora of valuable experience under his belt, he founded Rich Butler Consulting and served as an advisor for a diverse array of clients, including Netflix. After working with the streaming giant for several years, he was offered the opportunity to go in-house as director of patents. Joining the wasn’t a decision the attorney took lightly.

“I always loved working with Netflix as a client, and my decision to go in-house as a full-time employee was driven by the notion that I could do more of it. I could dedicate all my time and efforts towards Netflix,” Butler says. “It was scary at first, leaving

the rest of my clients, but knowing that the Netflix culture is so dynamic and so vibrant, and there’s so much autonomy, it was going to be a great fit.”

And it was. Today, Butler manages a small but mighty team for the always evolving organization. “We’re constantly reinventing ourselves,” he says. “I’m given the autonomy and the freedom to create something that works for the company.”

The attorney has made a career out of following his passion. Despite his professional success, he proudly proclaims that climbing the corporate ladder was never a priority. In fact, he views this mindset as a waste of energy especially for young attorneys establishing themselves in-house and even in private practice.

“I’ve always just focused on the passion for the work and my passion for problem-solving,” he says. “I think that gets recognized and rewarded along the way. I believe there is ultimate job security if you’re good at what you do and you’re passionate about it.”

The notion of being a workhorse early in one’s legal career may be commonplace among attorneys, but Butler offers an alternative viewpoint. “It’s not about paying your

“IT’S NOT ABOUT PAYING YOUR DUES SO MUCH AS GAINING EXPERIENCE EACH STEP OF THE WAY AND GAINING A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE. IN THE END, THAT MAKES AN ATTORNEY WHOLE.”

Rich Butler Director of Patents Netflix

“[FARMING] HELPS ME STAY GROUNDED IN SOMETHING TANGIBLE WHEN MY WORK IS OFTENTIMES VERY CONCEPTUAL.”

dues so much as gaining experience each step of the way and gaining a different perspective,” he attests. “In the end, that makes an attorney whole.”

While his zeal for patent law is palpable, Butler wears another hat: farmer. Alongside his husband and son, he runs Verdant Hills Farm in McMinnville, Oregon. The first-generation farmers are passionate about humane, sustainable farming, aiming to give their animals the best quality of life and to produce the healthiest food possible for their customers. When he isn’t leading Netflix’s patent team, Butler is responsible for planting, managing, and harvesting forage in their pastures to nourish their cattle.

“I find that my farming practices help fuel my legal profession side,” he says. “It helps fuel my creativity so I’m not spending 24/7 focused only on one side of things. It’s so important for me to find that balance of being able to relax and do something different. For me, farming is a passion. It helps me stay grounded in something tangible when my work is oftentimes very conceptual.”

Another passion for Butler includes serving as an LGBTQ+ advocate. He recently helped start Netflix’s first LGBTQ+ mentorship program, which allows employees to mentor fellow colleagues to not only create more representation for the community but also a support system.

Staying in the moment has proven to be a pivotal part of the recipe for Butler’s success, but he still has several goals in mind when mapping out his next move. “Stay nimble, be able to change, be able to pivot, and see what life brings,” he says.

In a fast-paced, competitive industry like law, Butler’s secret sauce of following what feels right proves to be a nontraditional, but equally powerful ingredient, to success.

Artegis Law Group:

“Rich has a sixth sense about which inventions are most important to a business, which has enabled Rich to develop clean and comprehensive filing strategies that are strongly aligned with longterm business objectives.”

—John Carey, Managing Partner

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

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

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There’s a unique detour in Alex Frisbie’s already nontraditional journey. After building an impressive resume as an intellectual property lawyer in both private practice and in-house, she found herself at an impasse. She didn’t want to leave her position at Carrier Corporation, but with two small children, she was unable to make the move to Florida that would be required for her to continue in her role.

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Alex Frisbie has an unrivaled IP career, but her willingness to step outside her comfort zone inspires her work as associate director of IP at Carrier

BY BILLY YOST

At the eleventh hour, Frisbie was asked if she would be interested in working in a different position at Carrier, one outside of legal, in product safety.

“At first, I thought it was crazy,” she admits. “It wasn’t patent law. It wasn’t even law. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized there were similarities between product safety and IP. I’m so glad I took a chance. One of my mentors once told me, ‘When you have an opportunity to try something different, it can be a great thing to take a leap of faith.’”

Frisbie, who currently serves as associate director of IP at Carrier, is, in many ways, an open book. She freely shares her experiences in hopes of providing the next generation of leaders motivation and inspiration for finding their own path.

She failed her first bar attempt in Ohio (before ultimately passing, and going on to pass the infamous and combined New York/New Jersey bar on the first try), and says it’s important for aspiring lawyers not to be discouraged if they weren’t necessarily ready for that first test.

Her experiences span from HVAC and refrigeration systems to smoke and security alarms to elevator and escalator components to fuel cells to packaging for pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and even media. If you’re keeping count, Frisbie, with a few exceptions, has touched almost any product that can have a patent.

But it’s the lawyer’s willingness to step outside of her role that can hopefully serve inspiration to more lawyers looking to grow their practice areas in unique ways. While initially resistant, Frisbie says at one point during her tenure in product safety, she thought she might never go back to law.

“Obtaining patents in order to protect someone’s invention takes a great deal of time,” she explains. “In product safety, there were outcomes that were so much more immediate. You knew you’d prevented a potential safety issue or other negative outcome in real time. That’s incredibly gratifying.”

Frisbie eventually returned to IP. And, considering her history and family, it’s no surprise. The daughter of a journalist and an architect, one can easily draw the throughline to IP attorney. She draws upon the meticulous engineering of her mother’s architectural work and her late father’s emphatic focus on perfect grammar and love of lexicology.

However, her early brush with IP was a frustrating one. In the mid-1980s, her brother Chris, who Frisbie describes as “an absolute genius,” disassembled his mother’s Polaroid camera and his sister’s tennis shoes. The result? “He discovered that the battery pack from the camera was flat, so if he cut out some space for the pack, cut holes in the sole and inserted some LEDs, the shoes would light up when you applied pressure (or stepped down),” she explains.

“ONE OF MY MENTORS ONCE TOLD ME, ‘WHEN YOU HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT, IT CAN BE A GREAT THING TO TAKE A LEAP OF FAITH.’”

Alex Frisbie Associate Director of IP Carrier Corporation

Frisbie’s brother thought his parents would be furious, but instead they encouraged him to submit his idea to a national competition sponsored by a battery company. There, he won second place. His father, who worked for a fashion industry trade journal, submitted the ideas to several footwear companies on behalf of his son. None of them expressed interest in the idea, but the following season, one company rolled out the idea on its own, providing no credit or acknowledgement.

“Had we gotten a patent, I’d probably be on a yacht right now,” Frisbie says, laughing. “But I was in eighth grade. I wasn’t a lawyer yet. Every time I see those shoes now, I get a little angry. I use that whenever I’m helping an inventor protect their invention. I want to fight for them like I wished I could have fought to protect my brother’s amazing idea.”

Today, Frisbie is as resolute about helping the next generation of IP lawyers as she is about acknowledging the mentors who helped her find her way in her own career. These mentors include the late Ed Baranowski, her early IP mentor at Porter Wright Morris & Arthur; John Torrente, senior counsel at Cowan Liebowitz & Latman; Marylee Jenkins, partner at ArentFox Schiff; Lisa Bongiovi, vice president and general counsel at Carrier Europe, Middle East,

and Africa; Dan Rush, retired vice president of product safety at Carrier; and Meghan Toner, vice president and general counsel of Carrier’s Fire and Security Products business.

Frisbie also has done her own coaching, both in and outside of law. The former rower has coached crew teams throughout her life and still finds a way to connect her day-to-day with the sport she loves.

“Crew is unique. Since you practice and compete on the water, there is always a safety aspect you must be aware of and respect,” she explains. “I learned how to keep the team motivated and how to drive each person to be the strongest and best rower they could, while also working together to be a strong, synchronized, and fast boat.”

Sometimes that means trying something new and sometimes that means taking a chance. But, if Frisbie is the metric by which lawyers should consider stepping outside of their comfort zones, the overwhelming answer should be yes.

Cantor Colburn LLP:

“It’s been a pleasure working with Alex over the years. Her diverse legal and technical experience is invaluable in resolving intellectual property issues. She is a wellrespected role model for future leaders.”

—Phil

Colburn, Comanaging Partner

Cantor Colburn is committed to providing top quality, comprehensive, responsive, and costeffective intellectual property legal services to a diverse roster of domestic and international technologybased clients.

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Motorola Solutions continues to lead the way on multiple security and safety fronts

A D B E N X V D P D P Z I N

BY WILL GRANT

Public safety and enterprise security products are in more demand than ever,” said Motorola Solutions’ CEO Greg Brown on CNBC’s Mad Money on September 2022.

Motorola Solutions is set to benefit from a $1.9 trillion COVID19 relief bill that includes dedicated public safety investment funds. The timing pairs perfectly with a radio refresh that occurs every seven years. Whether it’s fire departments, police stations, or emergency medical technicians, they’re likely all using Motorola products.

“The demand is the best, record backlog. The funding is the best, and the innovation coming out of this company and the acquisitions we’re making, there’s a lot of room to run,” Brown told CNBC.

The company followed up with the launch of its new Avilgilon physical security suite in March 2023.

Avilgilon has served as the centerpiece of Motorola’s video and security business which has netted over $1.5 billion in annual sales.

The security system is the result of strategic acquisitions made by Motorola Solutions: Avigilon in 2018,

Openpath in 2021, and Ava Security in 2022. “Individually, Avigilon, Ava Security, and Openpath offer excellence in their fields; together, they’re exponentially more powerful,” said Motorola Solutions’ John Kedzierski, senior vice president of video security and access controls, in a prepared statement.

He added, “The new Avigilon security suite makes enterprisegrade physical security accessible to businesses of any size, with modular layers of security that can be tailored to protect them from the increasing number and complex nature of threats around the world. It fills a critical void in the market today, bringing together the necessary capabilities to help keep people, property, and assets safe.”

The company’s continuing focus on safety and security has led to the company being named a leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Video Security as a Service Vendor Assessment. The report is an indepth, qualitative, and quantitative assessment of VSaaS providers.

Motorola has also been busy publishing its own findings. The 170page report, titled “North America

Public Safety Wireless Communication Market,” investigates the information and communication technology industry to examine trends and economic potential for the future.

Paul Bartusiak, lead intellectual property counsel at Motorola Solutions, has spent an incredible twenty-seven years enabling innovative technology and helping creators bring their inventions to market. The attorney is responsible for strategic IP and patent licensing, litigation, transactions, and IP portions of mergers and acquisitions.

Over the course of his career, Bartusiak has also gained significant experience in both offensive and defensive patent licensing, claim charting, invalidity and infringement analysis, licensing negotiations, and settlements.

The lawyer’s deep underside of the products he supports cannot be underscored enough. Bartusiak spent eight years, including three in-house at Motorola, in lead engineer and technical roles. The lawyer doesn’t just have his JD, he also has a bachelor’s and master's in electrical engineering.

EXPERTISE SPOTLIGHT

Kirkland & Ellis LLP is an international law firm that serves a broad range of clients around the world in private equity, M&A and other corporate transactions, litigation, white collar and government disputes, restructurings, and intellectual property matters. We offer the highest quality legal advice coupled with extraordinary, tailored service to deliver exceptional results to our clients and help their businesses succeed. We invest in the brightest legal talent and build dynamic teams that operate at the pinnacle of their respective areas. We believe in empowering our lawyers, encouraging entrepreneurialism, operating ethically and with integrity, and collaborating to bring our best to every engagement. These principles have guided us in building successful long-term partnerships with clients since our founding in 1909.

Winston & Strawn applauds Paul Bartusiak for his vision, leadership, and commitment to Motorola Solutions.

For more than 160 years, Winston & Strawn has served as a trusted adviser and advocate to companies in a broad array of industries. The firm has built a global law practice based on an uncompromising commitment to quality and client service.

SOUTH AMERICA

winston.com

During his engineering career, Bartusiak worked on the radar seeker for the Harpoon missile, as well as research involving energy bandgap manipulation and semiconductor optimization of hetero-junction transistors. He also designed integrated circuits for satellite subscriber units and covert communication systems.

Bartusiak has also been willing to share his wide skill set, presenting for organizations like the Association of Corporate Counsel, Centerforce, and other groups. Outside of the office, the lead IP counsel has published multiple spy and science thrillers, including Source*Forged Armor ; Indomeneo, Cool Jazz Spy ; and Pencils Down, Faces Up

With a degree in microelectronic engineering, an MBA, and a JD, Richard Leach is well-equipped to oversee Bosch’s intellectual property

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BY FRANK DIMARIA

As a fifth grader, Richard Leach walked into his neighborhood Radio Shack, purchased four books on AC and DC circuits, and read them cover to cover. “I made little circuits; for example, one used a small LM3909 oscillator to blink an LED,” he remembers.

With that blinking LED, his passion for electronics was born and has never ceased. This passion led Leach to earn a degree in microelectronic engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). “RIT’s was the only program I believe in the nation that had a semiconductor fabrication facility and a degree focused on every aspect of microelectronics from designing to actually building chips,” he says.

Decades later, Leach went on to earn a law degree from University

of Detroit Mercy Law School and is director of intellectual property at Bosch, overseeing IP for Bosch’s Research and Technology Center (RTC) and the Bosch Center for Artificial Intelligence. Bosch manufactures a diverse line of products in mobility solutions, industrial technology, consumer goods, healthcare, and energy and building technology. Although its portfolio is diverse, Leach feels at home, thanks to his microelectronic engineering degree from RIT and his extensive background in semiconductors.

“[Bosch] stretches me in all different directions . . . My job is to serve Bosch’s research groups by speaking their language. There’s no way I can completely understand the technology to the same level they do . . . but I can speak their language,” Leach says. “The environ-

Richard Leach Director of IP Bosch

ment at Bosch is very positive. The culture cultivates great people and great leaders.”

Leach reports to the vice president of Bosch North America and has one direct report. He spends most of his time managing outside counsel and Bosch’s growing docket of IP cases while drafting numerous patent applications yearly. As a research leader in several fields, Bosch enjoys a robust collaborative relationship with many universities, such as the Carnegie-Bosch Institute with Carnegie Melon University in Pittsburgh, a collaboration that yields numerous research findings and papers. “In research, there’s a lot of opensource software, university relations and IP contracts and IP agreements,” he says.

Before earning his JD, Leach had stints as an electrical engineer at

Courtesy of Richard Leach

some of America’s most innovative electronics companies. He even served as a police officer on his way to Bosch. While studying electronics at RIT in 1986, Leach entered a cooperative program at National Semiconductor in which he worked as a product engineer for discrete and linear devices and design engineer for microcontrollers.

“It was very hands on,” Leach reflects. However, sensing that National’s market share was waning, he moved to Motorola in 1992, where he worked on its PowerPC microprocessor. “At the time, the big name was Intel and PowerPC was supposed to be the next major architecture for microprocessors,” he says. While at Motorola Leach earned an MBA.

He moved to Cirrus Logic in 1998 just as music files were shrinking and MP3 players were making music even more portable than Sony’s Discman. MP3 players were using a hardware decoder that limited bitrate and format and reduced audio fidelity. Cirrus Logic used an innovative solution based on the ARM architecture, which interfaced seamlessly with CODECs to create MP3 players

which decoded a wider range of audio standards and offered listeners a variety of bitrates. At its height, Cirrus Logic had about 70 percent market share.

Leach’s career in electronics was abruptly halted by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. With few prospects in the electronics field, Leach found a job with the Austin Police Department walking a beat. Then, out of the blue, a college roommate in Detroit enticed him with a job at NEC Electronics, supporting the Detroit auto manufacturers. Reluctantly, he moved to Detroit, applied to the University of Detroit Mercy Law School, and earned his law degree while working full-time at NEC. Leach accepted a job as a technical specialist with Brooks-Kushman Law Firm just before earning his JD and remained there until 2018 when he moved to Bosch.

Leach has always had a passion for technology and electronics and encourages young lawyers to follow their own passions. “You have to have something that’s your passion and that you really enjoy,” he advises. “If you’re just doing it as a job, you can still do it, but the

passion is what really drives you to excel and go above and beyond.”

“We have been fortunate to partner with Richard Leach and the Robert Bosch legal team to serve their patent legal needs,” says Matthew Jakubowski, shareholder at Brooks Kushman. “Richard has done an admirable job managing and growing an active docket, and he supports and enables us as outside counsel to succeed with inventors and the client. He also supports his community through his volunteer activities, which speaks to his caring character.”

When Leach is not counseling at Bosch, he volunteers with the Troy Fire Department in the greater Detroit area as a lieutenant and with the Pine KnobSki Patrol—jobs that are not dissimilar than being a lawyer. “Your job is to protect and counsel people. Your job is to help people. It’s really all about serving other people,” Leach says.

Maginot, Moore & Beck LLP:

“Richard uses his deep knowledge of patent law to provide Bosch with superior legal counseling.

We are proud to work with Richard and feel privileged to have been providing legal services to the Bosch group of companies for over twenty years.”

—Paul J. Maginot, Founding Partner

“YOUR JOB IS TO PROTECT AND COUNSEL PEOPLE. YOUR JOB IS TO HELP PEOPLE. IT’S REALLY ALL ABOUT SERVING OTHER PEOPLE.”

MMB congratulates Richard Leach, Intellectual Property Counsel at Bosch, for his professional success and recognition by Modern Counsel magazine. We highly value the opportunity to work with Richard and the accomplished Bosch Intellectual Property legal team.

CONGRATULATIONSTO

RICHARD LEACH

At Maginot, Moore & Beck, we engage exclusively in the practice of intellectual property law. We provide patent, trademark and copyright legal services to domestic and multinational clients across a broad range of industries.

www.maginot.com

for being recognized for his innovative leadership, commitment to the community, and professional excellence.

www.BrooksKushman.com

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Throughout her decades-long career, Juniper Networks’ Tao Zhang never shied away from following her passions, even if it meant taking on new challenges

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BY NOAH JOHNSON

Not many people have followed their passions like Tao Zhang.

She started her career as a college student enamored with physics. So much so, that she left her home country to learn more, earning a PhD at Stanford University and working as a research and development engineer at HP. While she enjoyed playing a pivotal role in helping innovative, vertical cavity surface emitting laser products hit the market (which earned her four patents), she developed a curiosity about the business aspect that went into developing each product.

This inspired her to try product strategy and supply chain, where she developed a love for contract negotiation. Her success opened doors for her to be recruited to HP’s IP licensing department. There, her hunger for knowledge led her to pursue a law degree while still working full time.

Today, she is vice president and deputy general counsel of intellectual property and product at Juniper Networks Inc., where she utilizes her diverse background to develop and optimize patent portfolios, product risk management, and IP transactions. Prior to joining Juniper in March 2022, Zhang worked at HP for twenty-three years before she went on to be a director and senior director of IP

strategy at Huawei and associate general counsel of IP and technology at ANSYS Inc.

When she reflects on her decades-long career, Zhang says one of the greatest drivers of her success was being willing to go where her curiosity and passions took her.

“Some people sometimes think, ‘Oh, it’s too late, I can’t really do this or do that,’ but it’s never too late,” she says. “Find your passion, follow it, and you’ll thrive. Also speak up. Sometimes we don’t feel perfect in our ideas or our voice, but don’t worry about it. Participate, contribute, be part of the action and then after that—learn from it. Jump in right now. Be willing to learn.”

In almost every job she’s had, people were willing to take a chance on Zhang because of her hunger for knowledge. While at Ansys, she was asked to build an IP department from scratch, including functions of the IP business she never had any experience with. At Juniper, she didn’t have any experience with privacy related matters when leadership called on her to spearhead that area.

Those experiences have inspired her to do the same for others. Recently, she was part of a US Department of State-sponsored TechWomen mentorship program. The program brings women leaders

in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to the US to learn about the country’s culture and technology to gain insights that they can take back home. Zhang had the opportunity to mentor a software professor from Tunisia, introducing her to Juniper’s technical leaders, general counsel, CEO, and inclusion and development head.

“It was such an enriching experience, and it made me feel like I can make a difference even for people that I don’t know because of the connections I have,” she says. “I

Michael Hawk

Tao Zhang VP and Deputy General Counsel of IP & Product Juniper Networks Inc.

“I ENJOY HELPING OTHER PEOPLE RECOGNIZE AND UTILIZE THEIR TALENTS, AND ENSURING THEY DISCOVER THEIR FULL POTENTIAL, SO THEY CAN BE THE BEST VERSION OF THEMSELVES.”

Outstanding leadership. Exceptional results.

At KPMG, we never underestimate the power of dedicated people.

That’s why we want to recognize Tao Zhang at Juniper Networks for her outstanding contribution to the technology industry and DEI. You’ve exceeded expectations. And made a positive impact in the lives of so many.

kpmg.com/us

Patent Protection. Engineered.

Shumaker & Sie ert recognizes Tao Zhang of Juniper Networks for her many years of dedicated client service and contributions to the IP industry

We assist the world’s most innovative and recognizable technology companies and research institutions with protecting their intellectual property.

Our high-quality patent application and prosecution services include:

Patent Prosecution

IP Strategy

IP Portfolio Engineering

enjoy helping other people recognize and utilize their talents, and ensuring they discover their full potential, so they can be the best version of themselves.”

That’s why the diversity and inclusion initiatives she’s working on carry a lot of meaning. One of those initiatives aims to increase women inventorship and to increase the number of women in STEM fields. Right now, she and her colleagues are coming up with creative solutions to make that happen.

“I want to be a proactive participant on this issue,” she says. “We’re taking actions and once we have best practices, we’ll share with other companies, so all underrepresented groups can benefit from these best practices. When you combine people from different backgrounds, it makes the solution better. Together, we are stronger.”

© 2023 KPMG LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG global organization of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Limited, a private English company limited by guarantee. NDP434606-1A

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As Circle’s senior counsel of IP, Jeff Tang thrives on the excitement and innovation of a start-up

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BY DONALD LIEBENSON

Jeff Tang jokingly refers to himself as the black sheep of what he calls his “traditional Asian family.”

The Potomac, Maryland-native’s parents were “super-focused” on education, he says. He and his older sisters were sent to different private schools— they attended an all-girls school while he went to an all-boys school. One sister became a doctor and chief medical officer of a hospital system, and the other is a lawyer and an appellate court judge in Maryland. Their brother’s path seemed clear, as far as his parents were concerned: engineer.

Although engineering was not his first choice, Tang grew up to appreciate it later on in life. After all, going through engineering coursework paled in comparison to what his parents went through. “They came to this country in the 1970s with very little,” Tang says, adding he was inspired by their work ethic. “They are self-made. They owned businesses, among them one of the most famous and best-reviewed Chinese restaurants in the DC area, and invested in real estate. Their sacrifices taught me and my sisters the value of working tirelessly until the job is done.”

His parents’ entrepreneurial spirit fostered an interest in start-up culture, which culminated in his current role as senior counsel of intellectual property at Circle, a global financial technology company that celebrates its tenth anniversary in October 2023.

Tang leads and sets the strategy on all aspects of IP litigation. “I like helping the business solve problems,” he says.

“IP is a backstage pass to everything because there is always an IP element involved in any business. What I like best about my job is educating management on what IP is and how they can use it to their advantage.”

Tang has had an unconventional career path, even though “one step leads to the other,” he says. He came to IP from mechanical engineering. “I always wanted to work with cars,” he says. “As an undergrad at the University of Maryland, I was in a competition where you build a race car from scratch and compete against other universities. That piqued my interest in technology. During college, Tang completed an internship at the US Patent and Trademark Office, which led to a full-time position.

Upon college graduation, Tang worked at a patent examining car doors, windows, and engines until he went to law school to become a patent attorney. “Through an internship with IBM, I learned more about different technologies, such as artificial intelligence, and it kept compounding after that,” he reflects.

Tang credits IBM with teaching him all about IP. He supported the flagship research department in Yorktown Heights, where he was exposed to a myriad of different issues and technologies. “It’s the top place you can learn intellectual property from,” he adds. “Any issue I’ve seen in subsequent companies for whom I worked I dealt with first at IBM.”

He leveraged this experience to lead IP and negotiate data licenses

at global broker ICAP. Eventually, he landed BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, where he negotiated a wide range of strategic agreements and helped create the IP program. However, working for large publicly traded companies ultimately didn’t appeal to Tang, who is now thriving in a fastpaced, start-up environment.

“Being at a start-up that focuses on technology is really exciting to me. I have a frontrow seat to building something,” he says. “You have ownership and autonomy to steer the direction of where you want to put the program. There are no bureaucracy layers; I prefer the agility and speed at which start-up culture moves.”

Tang currently sets IP strategy covering everything from patents, trademarks, and copyrights to trade secrets and open-source software. He also works with his team to manage license agreements and defend against IP infringement. This work helps ensure Circle’s freedom to operate in Web3’s nascent and ever-evolving field.

This technology is part of what drew Tang to Circle. “It’s a new field, a new technology and that comes with new legal issues,” he says. “The way we look at copyright and how we want to protect our innovations have changed over the

Jeff Tang Senior Counsel of IP Circle

Scott Dressel-Marin

past year. We’re helping write precedent in this space.”

Buying into Circle’s corporate mission is how Tang stays motivated and engaged. “There are a lot of crypto companies out there, but they are not as principled,” he states. “Circle is very transparent in trying to do things the right way.”

He also admires the company’s commitment to work/life balance. He recalls a former mentor telling him that there are three things in life: health, family and career. “If you don’t have the first two, everything falls apart,” Tang reflects. “The career takes a back seat to the rest of your life. Circle’s culture is very inclusive in that sense and very accommodating.”

Tang has been married for a decade and has an eight-year-old son and five-year-old daughter. Since moving to California to join Circle, his family has enjoyed the nice weather and the outdoor activities the area has to offer.

An overarching theme to his career, he says, is gratitude; gratitude for parents and gratitude for his wife, who supported his decision to spend the pandemic attending Cornell University to earn his MBA. “To be a successful intellectual property attorney is the intersection of three things: technology, law, and business,” he explains. “I have the law and technology background, but the MBA gave me the fundamental understanding of business and my client’s perspectives. It’s helped me give more effective advice to senior leaders.”

His advice for younger colleagues? “Doing well and working hard is table stakes. You also have to do the work to put special sauce on your résumé,” Tang says. “Certifications, being published—anything that makes you stand out from the field.”

Patterson + Sheridan LLP: “Patterson + Sheridan LLP represents Circle Internet Financial in intellectual property matters and works closely with Jeff. In his short time at Circle, Jeff has made significant improvements to their IP practice.”

—Bruce Patterson, Partner

ONE OF THE NATION'S LEADING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY + TECHNOLOGY LAW FIRMS

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

Culturally Aligned

John Bisordi stresses the importance of working for an organization that has a mission that you can buy into. He has found that at Vanguard.

By Frank DiMaria

AS DEPUTY GENERAL COUNSEL AT Vanguard, John Bisordi understands the value of being culturally aligned with the organization you work for. Not only has it kept him at the investment company for more than fifteen years, but it has also empowered him to be a mentor to lawyers aiming to follow in his footsteps.

“Part of what you can struggle with as a lawyer is always trying to put out fires and minimize risks, and that’s a part of the job. But, if you’re aligned with the company’s culture, you can add more value,” he says. “You can go beyond whacking down the issues that arise and get to the part of enabling the mission of the organization. You can be more proactive than reactive.”

At the heart of Vanguard’s culture is a strong reliance on a client-focused mission that values ownership. That value runs deep, so much so that the company is owned by those who invest in its funds.

“There are a lot of conflicts in this industry but this place is structured a bit differently and

that aligns everything we do day in and day out with the best interests of our clients,” the DGC says.

For Bisordi, that work is made possible through another key component of the company’s culture: collaboration. Through the company’s sponsorship program, he helps up and coming lawyers become what he calls “athletes.” That means a lawyer might come to the organization with specialized skills in tax, intellectual property, or employment, but is trained to understand all the legal and compliance issues the company deals with. The result? They have the opportunity to make a greater impact.

“That kind of flexibility helps you advise the business,” Bisordi says. “When you went to law school or a law firm like I did, you might think that would be your craft but understanding the broader business and legal issues is what’s important to the most senior people in an organization.”

He draws those lessons from his own career journey. After graduating from Villanova University in 2001, he started his first job at Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr (Saul Ewing LLP), a full-service national law-firm based in Philadelphia. Early on, he had a lot of chances to try cases and to learn through doing. Leadership at the firm also had a mind for mentorship, allowing him to figure things out on his own while offering guidance along the way. In that environment, Bisordi learned to think of his feet while falling in love with the financial services industry.

“What I like about it is that it’s very broad,” he says. “It goes from deep operational rules and regulations very few people understand to how you sell things, interact with customers, and how the markets operate. You can always be learning but at the end of the day, you’re helping people save for the future.”

Bisordi’s curiosity for the industry drew him to Vanguard in 2007. He was proud to

John Bisordi Deputy General Counsel Vanguard

Counseling clients since 1926, Stradley Ronon attorneys have helped private and public companies — from small businesses to Fortune 500 corporations — achieve their goals by providing pragmatic, value-driven legal counsel.

www.stradley.com

Pennsylvania Washington, DC New York New Jersey Illinois Delaware

join the ranks of a company that put its clients first and where he could continue to hone his skills. He initially served as associate and senior counsel in the legal department. In those roles, he supported retail brokerage, equity market structure needs in addition to providing legal support for regulatory inquiry and investigation functions until 2016.

Then, he became head of Vanguard’s retail investor group legal team, a group of attorneys and legal analysts that provided legal and regulatory support to the company’s retail businesses.

When he reflects on his initial transition from private practice to in-house, he says it was “a shock to the system.”

“When you’re in private practice, you’re very focused on the thing that’s in front of you,” Bisordi reflects. “When you come in-house, you have to learn an organization and how to manage it; you have to learn the law and how to apply it in ways you never have before.”

The DGC managed to find colleagues that were valuable mentors that helped him navigate his new, in-house world. Today, he brings that same level of support to his business unit legal team that provides support to the company’s US distribution businesses, including retail, institutional and financial intermediary businesses. He opens his network to try to connect team members with opportunities that will help them grow.

Bisordi also provides them with perspective and context on how their work impacts the broader organization. Additionally, he shares insights he gained from experience to teach them the importance of patience for their own career journeys.

He reminds young attorneys that no career trajectory is the same. “The best advice I ever got was to not think of your career as a ladder but a jungle gym,” he says. “There’s usually a method to the madness for opportunities you’re given and if you’re always looking up, you’re not seeing other chances to do different things.”

Stradley Ronon:

“John is admired widely for good reason. His knowledge of the financial services industry is extensive. His legal acumen is excellent. He expects, and gets, the best from himself and those who work with him.”

—Paula D. Shaffner, Cochair, Securities Litigation

Stradley Ronon is proud to recognize the achievements of John Bisordi Principal, Deputy General Counsel, Vanguard

From Shipping Dock to Boardroom

Mick Dragash leans on his previous experience as a trucking company operations manager in his current leadership role at Cavco Industries

By Peter Fabris

MICK DRAGASH’S UNCONVENTIONAL professional career path includes a laterthan-typical shift to law with considerable personal sacrifices, including sizable student loans, multiple cross-country moves, and postponing a family. Still, if he could go back in time, he wouldn’t change a thing.

Prior to earning his JD, the executive vice president, general counsel, corporate secretary, and chief compliance officer at Cavco Industries Inc., worked as a manager on the shipping docks for two national trucking companies. For part of his seven-year tenure, he also studied law at Ohio Northern University. Managing unionized dock workers and other support personnel gave him insight into how legal matters impacted the

company at the ground level. This led to a passion for the transportation and logistics industries.

After graduating from law school, Dragash enrolled in a master’s program for intermodal transportation systems and logistics management at the University of Denver. The curriculum provided a combination of legal and business principles that still benefit him today in a different industry.

Working on the front lines gave Dragash perspective on how corporate policies and personnel matters, such as hiring, disciplining, discharging and laying off or recalling employ-

ees, affected individuals and teams. Most importantly, Dragash learned how to manage conflicts and different employee personality types. This type of work experience is invaluable for any corporate lawyer, he says.

That insight became clear during his first year at law school. As a twentysix-year-old, Dragash wondered why his younger cohorts asked questions that anyone who had experience in the business world would not need to ask. The knowledge gap in some basic business concepts shows in the early years of a legal career for many. The common path for newly minted lawyers is to join

a law firm, which means they enter a professional setting equipped with knowledge of legal theory, but little to no real-world business experience.

“Many times, experienced paralegals know more than associates do, not only from a legal perspective, but also from a business standpoint,” Dragash says. He adds young lawyers often need a couple of years to acquire the basic knowledge to which they would have been exposed if they had boots-onthe-ground business experience prior to law school.

Additionally, Dragash’s background playing college football contributed to the foundation for his leadership style when he was an operations supervisor, and ultimately as a lawyer. “It set my mentality and drive,” he reflects. “It develops teamwork—something you need to be successful in business.”

While his prelaw business experience has been invaluable and highly informative to his career as a lawyer, a six-year stint as assistant general counsel at Walmart Inc.’s corporate headquarters also proves critical to his continued success. “From business, operational, and legal perspectives, I learned a ton—more than you can ever learn at a law firm or smaller business,” Dragash states. “I would not be in this position if not for Walmart, including my direct leadership with that organization.”

Working for the Fortune 500 retail giant exposed the lawyer to how a mature public company approaches and manages a legal department and regulatory compliance. This grounding in the intricacies of corporate law well prepared him for the challenges at his current employer Cavco, a publicly traded producer of modular and manufactured homes. When Dragash

Mick Dragash EVP, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Chief Compliance Officer Cavco Industries Inc.

joined the company in 2019, it was embroiled in an insider trading scandal that was being prosecuted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). After almost four years of investigation and litigation, the matter was recently resolved.

“Mick was extraordinary in helping the company face and resolve that crisis, and he’s as fierce a guardian as I’ve ever seen serve as general counsel of a public company,” reflects Philip S. Khinda, partner at Cadawalder, Wickersham & Taft LLP. Khinda served as outside counsel to Cavco during the SEC case.

Fortified with the Walmart experience and a couple of previous general counsel stints at major transportation companies, Dragash navigated a complex web of legal entanglements at Cavco.

“The company had grown fast with multiple acquisitions, and it had growing pains,” he reflects. “You find this happens a lot with publicly traded companies. Many times, they retain a small company culture that includes one person at the top controlling everything. That’s not the case with a mature public company that possesses the requisite corporate compliance and governance policies and procedures.”

The attorney was tasked with moving Cavco to a mature organization that functions within the typical boundaries of a publicly traded company.

Dragash and his team installed governance improvements, such as a new code of conduct and a formal preclearance process for equity trading.

The corporate maturation was a testament to not only Dragash and his team, but also to Cavco’s President and CEO William C. Boor. In addition to the corporate governance initiatives, Boor supported Dragash as he developed the organization’s legal and compliance functions. For example, prior to his tenure, the legal department had no e-billing, matter management, document management, or litigation hold systems. This was a glaring deficiency and made boosting the legal and compliance department’s IT capabilities a high priority. After implementation of these vital systems, Cavco’s legal and compliance teams now easily can track the progression of matters and run analytics to determine the financial impact on the business.

Dragash’s attitude toward leadership and work/life balance also has changed in recent years. In the past, he would be highly resistant to something as simple as a staffer requesting to work at home for an afternoon. The passage of time, recent pandemic, and especially the birth of his first child a few years ago have tempered his views.

“Having a child changes your viewpoint,” he says. “This has definitely impacted my leadership style.” Becom-

ing a parent later in life has led to a deeper appreciation for precious family time. As a result, Dragash readily approves requests for team members taking time off for things like attending a child’s high school softball game.

“I say ‘sure,’ as long as you can get your work done,” he explains. He believes his staff has certainly benefitted from the drastic change in management style. “I don’t think they would want to work for the Mick of twenty years ago. I wasn’t very lenient back then, but my perspective now has certainly changed.”

While his approach to managing people has evolved, Dragash’s belief that real-world business experience is vital for young lawyers hasn’t wavered. “If I could change law school, I would set it up like a top-tier MBA program,” he says. “You would have to have a minimum of two years of work experience prior to application and acceptance. That way, you bring practical experience to the classroom.”

Although the law community may be resistant to change, Dragash’s career trajectory and success certainly makes a good case for it.

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP:

“Mick is a natural as a GC, has been extraordinarily steady in the face of a corporate crisis that has been managed beautifully, and is as committed a protector of the institution as any general counsel I know.”

—Philip Khinda, Partner

“I don’t think they would want to work for the Mick of twenty years ago. I wasn’t very lenient back then, but my perspective now has certainly changed.”

Leading from the Back, Not the Front

Deputy

General

Counsel Dawn Ehlers prefers to lead her team at Cengage Group by setting them up for success

By Noah Johnson

Webb Chappel

DAWN EHLERS, DEPUTY GENERAL counsel at Cengage Group, keeps an important Post-It note on the wall behind her computer. Every day, it reminds her of how she wants to lead her team.

“Lead from the back, not from the front,” it reads, a notion that reminds her to constantly consider ways she can set her team up for success by making sure they’re given opportunities to shine, even if she needs to stay in the background.

She does this by trying to make sure she isn’t the only one from her team who speaks up on conference calls and taking steps that better position her team members as leaders, such as intentionally choosing not to join certain meetings, so her team members are seen as the legal point person. She also tries to provide continuous feedback on how they can grow in their role and in their careers.

It’s a leadership style that the DGC admits isn’t for the faint of heart, especially for in-house counsel who are often nervous about proving to their senior leadership that they are adding value. But she’s seen the impact her approach can have on a person. She’s even witnessed it in her own career, owing many of her successes to leaders and mentors who gave her opportunities.

“When I reflect back on people I’ve been managed by, I appreciated when they gave me a chance to do the work, even if it was a little bit of a stretch for me, but then also take the lead when it came time to present to the client,” Ehlers says.

The attorney got opportunities like that early on in her law career. After receiving her law degree from St. John’s University, she accepted an associate position at Epstein Becker & Green in New York, working

mainly on M&A-related matters. There, her mentors and colleagues helped her develop her skills and provided chances for her to showcase them.

About seven years into her tenure at the firm, a partner introduced her to the general counsel for the Thomson Corporation in Connecticut, at the time, an information provider in legal and regulatory, finance, health sciences, and higher education (now Thomson Reuters). He hired her to handle M&A work but also to help him with employment matters. But there was one problem: she didn’t know much about employment law.

“He believed, because I think my partner told him, that I could not only do M&A work, which is what I had been doing, but that I could also help with employment work,” she says. “So, joining Thomson was the first big challenge in my career because I had to teach myself an area of law that I had been exposed to but never really worked on and rely on my former colleagues to help me in those first few months and years.”

This area of the law turned out to be a better fit for Ehlers because she has always been a people person. She really learned to love employment law and eventually did quite well. Another opportunity presented itself when in 2007 the Thomson Corporation sold off then Thomson Learning, its higher education business, and she moved into a senior employment counsel role with the spin off, now Cengage Group.

As the product of a mom who was a dental hygienist in the public school system and a dad who was a high school physical education teacher and football coach, Ehlers' decision to follow the higher education business was largely due to her family’s strong ties to education.

Dawn Ehlers Deputy General Counsel Cengage Group

“It’s okay to see where things go and hope opportunities present themselves so you can take advantage of them, rather than setting some career path in stone.”

In her senior employment counsel role at the Cengage Group, she provided legal counsel and strategic support to HR, senior leadership, and the executive team on employment-related matters in all fifty states. More importantly, she was given a chance to be more than a lawyer. Even though she didn’t have any direct reports, she had leadership responsibilities and played a vital role in helping manage the legal team and guiding senior leaders with important decisions.

Those responsibilities grew as the business expanded and saw a change in management in 2012. At Cengage Group, an education technology company that supports millions of learners globally from middle school through graduate school and skills education, she continued to take advantage of opportunities thrown her way. As the business grew, Ehlers was able to hire an employment lawyer that would report to her directly.

“I soon realized how much I enjoyed working with this person, not just because she was a much stronger employment lawyer than I had ever been, but because of how much I enjoyed trying my best to mentor her and to make sure she was successful,” she reflects.

The experience lit a fire inside Ehlers that continued when she got promoted to deputy general counsel. “I had a number of the attorneys and paralegals reporting to me and that solidified how important my role as a leader was for me,” she says. “I still love the law, but helping employees be successful in their roles has been even more rewarding.”

Ehlers advises attorneys to keep an open mind as they look toward their future in law. “Younger people today seem to be forced to map out their lives with a little more particularity than people of my generation,” she says. “It’s okay to see where things go and hope opportunities present themselves so you can take advantage of them, rather than setting some career path in stone.”

Duane Morris LLP:

“You don’t often come across someone like Dawn . . . a consummate lawyer and manager of course, but Dawn brings a personal and caring dimension to the demanding work we’re doing for Cengage—it is her empathetic quality that sets her apart.”

—Mike Gibson, Partner

Ground Cover

Managing Director Seth Jewell helps FedEx Express tackle litigation and risk management

By Billy Yost

IT’S ONE THING TO SAY YOU LIKE A challenge, and then there is Seth Jewell. The managing director of risk management and litigation at FedEx Express has situated his career at the intersection of a rock and a hard place, by choice.

For a transportation company that drives about a billion miles every year (not to mention the initial flights that get packages, mail, and other immediately needed commodities to their relative geographic locations), accidents are an inevitable part of the job. Jewell, a former private practice attorney who gained immersive litigation experience at esteemed Little Rock, Arkansas-firm Wright, Lindsey & Jennings prior to going in-house, says one of the main reasons he came to FedEx Express was watching the plaintiff bar focus switch over the last half decade.

“If you drive down any interstate in America right now, you’ll see billboard after billboard for plaintiff firms seeking large paydays against large transportation companies,” he says. “The red car/blue car insurance litigation of the

past is not where plaintiff lawyers are focused anymore. Companies like FedEx Express have become big targets because of how many miles they cover.”

Additionally, Jewell says the mindset of jurors has also shifted over time, and plaintiffs are much more likely to secure judgments that far exceed the expected outcomes of the past. It’s a phenomenon known as social inflation, a general anticorporate sentiment that dates back to the financial crisis of 2008 and has seen plaintiffs racking up higher judgments.

While litigation experts seeking to go in-house would likely want to steer clear of this phenomenon, it’s what lured Jewell to FedEx Express.

“We have some of the best safety departments in all of transportation,” he explains. “I’m most excited about getting to tackle this challenge as we see our claim volume increase. There are always going to be accidents, but how do we get ahead of the current climate where we can curb trends on the frequency and severity of accidents? That’s the kind of challenge I’m here for.”

Seth Jewell Managing Director of Risk Management & Litigation FedEx Express

Jewell is eager to step outside of his comfort zone to lend a hand. When FedEx Express unionized pilots began contract renegotiations, Jewell looked for a way to get involved. “It’s happened a few times here over the years,” the managing director says. “I would just talk to a person responsible for hiring for a position about what their biggest challenge areas were. I’m just always interested to see where I can bring the most value. I want to be part of that solution.”

That’s how Jewell wound up in labor relations, which was undoubtedly made more difficult with the pandemic. When asked if he’d regretted seeking the move, the lawyer doesn’t drop a beat. “This was the biggest challenge this team had faced,” Jewell says. “Of course, I wanted to be there.”

In a legal environment where more lawyers are being encouraged to specialize early in their careers, Jewell offers an alternative to those lawyers who don’t feel that urge. “I think there are a lot of people like me who didn’t even know they wanted to go to law school, but they did,” he reflects. “They didn’t necessarily know where they belonged after that. I would encourage those people to learn to be adaptable, be nimble, and be willing to pivot.”

By purposefully seeking a more generalized experience, Jewell became a lawyer who thrives in almost every heavy situation and will find a way to drive results. Of course, not every attorney may be as excited to challenge themselves at the level that makes Jewell thrive, but that shouldn’t undercut the value of allowing yourself to experience some of the variety that a life in legal can offer.

Not every career needs to find its footing as quickly as an overnight package.

“There are always going to be accidents, but how do we get ahead of the current climate where we can curb trends on the frequency and severity of accidents?”

A Strong Sense of Self

Verisk’s Afigo Fadahunsi draws on both her private practice experience and her cultural identity to succeed in her first in-house litigation role

By Natalie Kochanov

ONE OF AFIGO FADAHUNSI’S EARLIEST onscreen encounters with the law was through the 1982 movie The Verdict , starring Paul Newman. “My family owned that movie growing up, and my dad and I watched it a lot together. The main character is a lawyer who turns his life around because of his strong desire to help people,” she explains. “That really spoke to me. I connected with the character even though we had completely different backgrounds.”

The movie helped Fadahunsi recognize legal practice as a form of advocacy—and as the career path she wanted to pursue, no matter the hurdles that might stand in her way. Her hard work and determination have landed her most recently at Verisk, a data analytics and technology company where she serves as chief litigation counsel.

Born and raised in Nigeria, Fadahunsi moved to the United States as a teenager. She had always been close to her family, but the move further deepened the bond between her, her siblings,

and her parents. “I saw my parents as the most reliable and incredible mentors in my life. They shaped the way I saw myself and the way I saw and interacted with other people,” she reflects. “They taught me to embrace other cultures and to look at people—regardless of where they’re from—as human beings.”

Fadahunsi’s parents instilled in her the importance of respect, discipline, and education. With their teachings guiding her, she went directly from college to law school, then into private practice. Over the next fifteen-plus years, she handled mass tort and product liability litigation in industries ranging from aerospace technology to pharmaceuticals. She also gained exposure to media and entertainment intellectual property law and developed a specialization in appellate matters.

At a certain point, however, Fadahunsi felt that she had achieved her personal goals within the realm of private practice. “I wanted to know what was next,” says the chief litigation

counsel. “I was particularly interested in how companies were run. As outside counsel, you’re focused on getting the results your clients want you to get, but you’re a little less focused on how things are being done and how decisions are being made on the inside.”

Fadahunsi knew that she could ease herself into an in-house role by choosing an industry related to her private practice experience—but she has never been one to take the easy road. “I’m a tiny bit competitive, and I like to be pushed beyond my limit,” she admits. “I really like challenges and what better way to challenge myself than to work in a field that I wasn’t directly familiar with?”

Upon joining Verisk in February 2021, Fadahunsi had her work cut out for her. “Verisk is a data analytics and technology partner to the global insurance industry, so we have a number of business units doing very, very interesting things,” says Fadahunsi. “I still feel like I’m on my business unit tour,

Afigo Fadahunsi Chief Litigation Counsel Verisk

learning what different groups do, but I find that connecting with the leadership of those teams and the people who work in those groups is invaluable in terms of understanding how to do my job.”

It has been all the more crucial for Fadahunsi to grow her understanding of Verisk as her role has expanded. Whereas she started out leading the company’s litigation, enforcement, and adversarial matters worldwide, she now oversees the resolution of human resources, labor and employment, and IP legal issues, as well.

“One very big focus of mine has been to help our business units understand the rapidly evolving litigation landscape, especially in the technology arena. My job is to help preserve the company’s reputation as a responsible data steward by finding the most efficient and effective ways to comply with the changing data privacy laws in various states,” Fadahunsi says. “While innovation is key, we need to place just as much emphasis on responsible data hygiene and stewardship.”

Beyond mitigating risks to protect the company from litigation, Fadahunsi supports Verisk by chairing its global women’s network. “I feel very lucky to get to help women come together; openly discuss challenges

associated with our roles as working professionals and as mothers, sisters, daughters, and caretakers; and recognize the benefits of those roles and how they can be applied in the workplace,” she says.

Fadahunsi also sees clear connections between her personal and professional lives. She continues to draw on her Nigerian values and heritage in each sphere, and she hopes to inspire the next generation to do the same.

“I’m proud to say that I am a Nigerian. Nigerians have a strong sense of self and a strong sense of culture,” she says. “I’ve taught my children that, while they are American, both their mom and their dad are from somewhere else. Helping them understand and connect with that somewhere else has been really important to us.”

Fadahunsi encourages new attorneys to hone their own sense of self as they embark on their careers. “What do you actually want to do with your professional life as an attorney? People talk about mentorship and sponsorship, and those things are very important, but you have to take responsibility for your trajectory, as well,” she emphasizes.

The chief litigation counsel advises identifying goals and working backward to determine how best

“Surround yourself with positive people who have every interest in seeing you succeed. And do the same for others. When you put that energy out, you get that energy back.”

www.mccarter.com

to move toward them. She is a strong proponent of connecting with peers in the profession, whether by getting involved in organizations like the American Bar Association or by simply picking up the phone. “Surround yourself with positive people who have every interest in seeing you succeed,” she says. “And do the same for others. When you put that energy out, you get that energy back.”

Fadahunsi speaks from experience, and from the position of someone who has found a caring community among her colleagues at Verisk—a place with an energy all its own.

“Verisk is a leader in the information services and technology space, and we’re living in the age of information more so now than ever,” she says. “I’m excited to be involved in the evolution of that space and to be part of a company like Verisk.”

Barnes & Thornburg LLP:

“Afigo is the perfect combination of aggressive and pragmatic, and deftly utilizes her talent to navigate a complex and demanding role. She is the kind of partner that outside counsel want in every client.”

—Thomas Haskins, Partner

Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP:

“Afigo’s skill and professionalism are inspiring. Her keen ability to find creative business solutions to complex problems makes her a formidable asset when addressing sophisticated legal issues. Also, her passion and wit are infectious!”

—Patrice P. Jean, JD, PhD, Partner

Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP:

“Afigo is a true professional—she’s smart and thorough. She fully understands the ramifications of issues under her purview yet finds a way to identify and mitigate legal risks as well as leverage the Orrick team on business-savvy solutions.”

—Aravind Swaminathan, Partner

We applaud the accomplishments of our client, friend, and colleague Afigo Fadahunsi.

We are proud partner with her and the entire Verisk team.

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

Investing Company and Community

John Kim leverages his expertise in finance and corporate governance in his leadership role at General Motors and throughout Metro Detroit

By Natalie Kochanov

A COLLEGE INTERNSHIP WITH HIS hometown congressman set the course for John Kim’s early career. The internship, with Fred Upton of Michigan, landed Kim a job offer that took him across the country almost as soon as he had his diploma in hand.

“I hopped in my car two weeks after graduation and drove to DC to start that job,” Kim remembers. “It was an entrylevel staff assistant job on Capitol Hill. I ended up staying there for a couple of years and holding a bunch of different roles, from managing the congressman’s schedule to giving tours of the Capitol to handling constituent mail.”

Beyond aligning with his interest in government and politics, Kim’s time on the Hill cemented his desire to become a lawyer. “I got to know the staff attorneys who supported various Congressional committees and realized that they were the subject matter experts—the ones really getting into the nitty-gritty of drafting and understand legislation,” he says. “That influenced my decision to go to law school. I wanted to have some real expertise.”

Kim has come a long way since then. He now serves as assistant corporate secretary and lead counsel of corporate governance, finance, and securities at General Motors (GM), where he prioritizes relationship-building to help the business achieve its strategic goals. Joining the storied auto manufacturer also brought him back to Michigan—a move that inspired him to deepen his connections to the community he hopes to call home for the foreseeable future.

He remained involved in the national political landscape throughout his time in law school. While studying at Georgetown Law, Kim worked on both the Senate Per-

manent Subcommittee on Investigations and the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. His experience on the committees made him consider staying on the Hill in the long-run, but, at the urging of his mentors, he first tested the waters at a law firm—and he never looked back.

Kim entered private practice at Latham & Watkins while the US was in the throes of the 2008 financial crisis. “Perhaps counterintuitively, I was super interested in finance and capital markets because that was the topic of the day,” he reflects. “Latham has a strong private equity and capital markets and M&A practice in DC, and I had a really great experience there.”

After over six years honing his finance expertise on high-profile capital markets projects, Kim was ready for his next challenge. “GM was looking for a securities lawyer at a time when I was really thinking about moving in-house,” he recalls. “It was 2016, so the electric vehicle push was just starting to ramp up, and it was a role where I would have an opportunity to leverage the capital markets work that I’d done while learning a lot more on the public company reporting and governance front.”

Kim joined GM during a period of change in the legal function. The internal shifts that occurred over the first few years of his tenure allowed him to take on progressively greater responsibility and broaden his scope to encompass corporate governance matters as well as securities and finance.

Along the way, Kim had a chance to contribute to a range of projects of significant importance to the company, such as a proxy contest that got underway shortly after he came on board. He points to efforts to revamp GM’s proxy statement and bolster its virtual annual meeting

Assistant Corporate Secretary and Lead Counsel of Corporate Governance, Finance & Securities General Motors

John Kim

Kristin Mann

as other major successes for him and his team. “We’ve really put some rigor around our shareholder engagement, and that’s helped drive strong results at our annual meeting, where our shareholders by and large overwhelmingly support the management team on our various proposals and initiatives,” he adds.

Kim’s grasp of GM’s business is apparent to his external partners, as well. “GM is lucky to have John,” says Keith Townsend, partner at King & Spalding LLP. “His exceptional grasp of corporate governance, capital markets and securities issues coupled with his deep knowledge of the business makes him an invaluable asset to the company. John also has an ‘x factor.’ He is gifted with incredible judgment and charisma. His clients seek his input knowing the end result will be better because of it.”

Since much of his role revolves around supporting GM’s board of directors, Kim has made sure to establish close ties to those individuals and to colleagues throughout the business. “I try to prioritize and emphasize my— and my whole team’s—role as a connector point across the business, across the management team, and with the board of directors,” he says. “I focus on building strong personal relationships so my clients and the board know that I’m dedicated to doing everything I can to help them achieve their goals.”

In facilitating those goals, Kim has played a part in initiatives that will touch not just GM, but the world at large. “I’m proud to lead a team that’s done some really strong work around financing our electric future. We supported a two-billion-dollar US Department of Energy loan with our joint venture, Ultium Cells LLC, which

makes cells for our batteries and helped develop GM’s Sustainable Financing Framework and launch its first ever green bond,” he says. “Both were a large undertakings and important projects for the company.”

“John is fantastic to work with,” adds Jean M. McLoughlin, partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. “He is a very talented attorney with strong technical skills and brings a valued commercial approach. He is deeply committed to helping GM realize its most important goals and always has his eye on the big picture.”

Kim has made a point of giving back to the community in other ways as well. He is a member of the board of trustees for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, an organization as committed to local outreach as it is to world-class classical music. “One of the things I can lend to these sorts of civic organizations is my corporate governance experience,” he says. “I hope that I can leverage my connections at GM and in the legal pro-

fession for fundraising and awareness and that I can get more people in my cohort to come down to Detroit and learn about the organization.”

For the accomplished attorney, engagement has been key to finding meaning in his work, inside and outside of GM.

“The more you can get invested in the mission of your internal clients, the more you’ll find the purpose behind the work that you do,” he emphasizes. “My advice to aspiring in-house attorneys is to dive into the industry, follow your company in the news, and ask thoughtful questions of your clients. There will be times when you’ll be thrown into the deep end, but if you take those opportunities and really knock them out of the park, it’ll lead to more and more interesting work.”

Kim speaks from experience and from the perspective of someone who is exactly where he is meant to be. “For better or worse,” he says, “this is what I was born to do.”

“I focus on building strong personal relationships so my clients and the board know that I’m dedicated to doing everything I can to help them achieve their goals.”

A Trusted Leader

Paul, Weiss congratulates John Kim, General Motors’ Assistant Corporate Secretary and Lead Counsel, Corporate Governance, Finance and Securities, for his steadfast leadership and crucial contributions to the company’s strategic initiatives.

New Ways to Perform E-Discovery

As American workers adopt new ways to communicate and collaborate, United Airlines’

Paul Noonan is utilizing alternative means to collect electronic evidence for civil cases

By Frank DiMaria

FEW INDUSTRIES WERE HIT HARDER DURING

the first year of the pandemic than the airline industry. While the pandemic was drastically changing how they do business, the litigation world was undergoing a similar change due to the realities of communication in a largely remote work environment. “COVID had a major impact on what I do . . . it completely changed my industry,” says Paul Noonan, counsel of e-discovery and information governance at United Airlines.

For a generation, the core of most civil cases was email. “That’s just the way people com-

municated as a default ever since email was invented,” Noonan says. As the pandemic forced most employees to work remotely, companies adopted a variety of technologies and practices to allow their employees to communicate and collaborate. “People email less than they used to. They are more likely to send text messages or use some form of chat tool.”

Microsoft Teams, Slack, and other tools now allow employees to collaborate without email. Rather than sending and receiving a flurry of emails with attachments, employees chat in Microsoft Teams and collaborate in

Paul Noonan

Counsel of E-Discovery & Information Governance

United Airlines

Kyle Bondeson

shared documents. “Our old workflows, focusing on the email exchange as the primary location for data doesn’t work anymore,” Noonan explains. “We have to be more versed in how to collect new, discrete types of evidence.”

Lawyers prefer tangible articles, like a piece of paper with evidence identifiers that they can hand to an individual on the witness stand. “You can do that with a printed email. It’s a little bit of a fiction, but an email is meant to look like a piece of mail,” Noonan says. Slack, however, doesn’t have a native message. “It’s not a thing that exists. If you print off one Slack line, it loses all its context and the back-and-forth that has taken place, as well as its links to other documents.”

The challenge of gathering electronic evidence in this new work environment has led to Noonan viewing evidence in a new way. Except for a screen shot, it’s a mistake for lawyers

to continue comparing electronic data to paper. “We’ve had to come up with entirely new ways of collecting, and processing data, making evidence searchable and useable, and leveraging AI [artificial intelligence],” the attorney says.

When Noonan saw this change looming on the horizon, he began collaborating with Microsoft and other vendors to learn how to preserve and collect evidence properly. “It’s still a pain because it’s green in terms of technology,” he observes. “We got our processes in place right away when we saw that happening, so we’re in a really good space because of it.”

After graduating from Marquette University Law School, Noonan moved to Chicago where he performed discovery for Robert Half. While working as a consultant to Sears Holdings Corporation, he helped to build their discovery program and was hired permanently.

Although a tech hobbyist, Noonan became expert in e-discovery.

Typically, when companies or law firms require e-discovery services, they hire an outside vendor. “It’s actually a big technology space,” Noonan says. But Sears was navigating a slow decline into bankruptcy and had little cash to spend on such services. In hopes of saving money, Sears gave him free rein to test a variety of e-discovery software and reduce the cash-strapped company’s spend on such services.

“We brought the software in house and learned how to use it,” Noonan recounts. “I was self-taught in e-discovery at Sears by virtue of having to be as cost effective as possible. It’s fairly simple to quantify your savings with e-discovery.”

One of Noonan’s biggest challenges in performing e-discovery is advising United’s outside attorneys to be more selective in terms of the evidence they

Kyle Bondeson

gather. “When you collect everything at the start of the case, it cascades spend,” he says. “For every extra gigabyte you collect on the front end, it’s going to be an extra $150 to $200 on the back end. It doesn’t sound like much, but it adds up quickly.”

Fortunately, the latest generation of e-discovery tools with their robust AI features allow lawyers to reduce the amount of processed data with no impact on the final data set.

Noonan’s team regularly accesses databases that have a steep learning curve, and those team members who are not well versed in their use run the risk of accomplishing very little. To ensure his team works efficiently, Noonan takes on the role of educator.

“I teach people with the goal of someday, sooner rather than later, advancing to either take my job or to open up opportunities wherever they may arise. You get the most bang for your buck that way,” he says. “If you don’t lead the way, you’ll eventually create resentment and have them stall out.”

Consilio:

“Consilio is honored to be a trusted partner to Paul Noonan and the United Airlines team. Paul’s innovative perspective and extensive experience are deserving of this great recognition by Modern Counsel.”

—Jane Funk,

Esq.

A partner to leaders.

The path to progress is lined with challenges and we know simply working with a leader isn’t enough. From helping legal teams find the right talent to powering legal hold & eDiscovery workflows with our award-winning Sightline platform, we partner with leaders at corporations and law firms everyday to evolve their legal consulting & services experience.

We invite you to discuss your goals and how we can help you lead. Together.

“I teach people with the goal of someday, sooner rather than later, advancing to either take my job or to open up opportunities wherever they may arise. You get the most bang for your buck that way.”

Satisfying Both Sides with Empathy

As senior corporate counsel of litigation, Juliette Campbell strikes a challenging balance at T-Mobile with compassion

By Noah Johnson

Juliette Campbell Senior Corporate Counsel of Litigation T-Mobile Abby Watkins

Abby Watkins

SOME SAY A GOOD MEDIATION concludes successfully when neither side is happy. As senior corporate counsel of litigation at T-Mobile, Juliette Campbell challenges that idea.

With her work on consumer and corporate litigation, she’s tasked with advocating for the company while being a champion of its customer’s needs. Campbell uses her strong compassion and empathy for others while settling disputes with a goal of making both sides happy.

“As I work through complaints and demands, empathy helps me make a connection with our customers and get favorable results for both them and my client, T-Mobile,” she says. “I take a look at what went wrong: what does this customer want and need? Because sometimes the want goes away if you can really understand the customer needs and are able to correct it. In my eyes, I do the best to make sure both sides are happy, and that happens when the customer feels heard and satisfied.”

Campbell’s approach developed years before she became a lawyer. She always had a strong sense of compassion, but certain things she experienced while pursuing an education career took that value to new heights. In college, she got

to spend her first year teaching in an at-risk school in Austin, Texas, while she simultaneously pursued her master’s degree. It was one of the most challenging times in her life.

“That opened my eyes to people from different backgrounds and the variety of struggles and hardships that people face when they are looking toward their future,” says Campbell, who’d go on to spend two more years teaching. “I can vividly remember helping several of my second-grade students who didn’t have many of the things that I took for granted growing up. Learning about their struggles and how they were overcoming those obstacles, while still showing up for school, taught me a lot about putting myself in someone’s shoes, not judging, and giving people the benefit of the doubt.”

That experience stuck with her as she transitioned to law, a field that piqued her interest since middle school. When she decided to make the career switch at twenty-five years old, she initially thought to continue her involvement with education but from a legal perspective. She wanted to help provide support to dedicated teachers like her dad and the colleagues she had encountered in her career. But, as she

“As I work through complaints and demands, empathy helps me make a connection with our customers and get favorable results for both them and my client, T-Mobile.”

progressed in her studies at Washburn University School of Law, she found herself drawn to technology and telecommunications.

“It was advancing so quickly,” she says. “It was always ahead of the existing law; it was constantly changing, and I found that to be very exciting—to be part of making the law for those areas.”

That’s why she was quick to accept a job offer from Sprint to join the tax group in 2002 upon graduating law school and passing the bar exam. In her early days in the company, it was an eye opener for Campbell to learn about the many departments needed to advance telecommunications and technology.

Throughout Campbell’s eighteen years at Sprint, she has learned new laws and has taken on several new subject areas. Campbell started in tax law, but as a lifelong learner, she continued on to other specialties, supporting around fifteen different areas of expertise. She settled litigation and dispute claims and advised on risk mitigation and regulatory requirements while also training litigation staff. Campbell recommends trying new areas of law; not every subject is a passion but be flexible, learn new specialties, ask for help, and be humble.

“Stay at a place long enough to learn some lessons and stay open to new opportunities so when you go on your next adventure, you’re going in wiser and willing to learn.”

“As I began my career as a lawyer, it was humbling to recognize I was there to support and enable the teams around me to get their jobs completed,” she admits. “As a team we work together, and it’s my job to find the supporting law and/or precedent that resolves an issue to everyone’s satisfaction.”

When Sprint and T-Mobile came together, she brought that same mindset to bare as she worked with new colleagues, noting they all had something to learn from each other.

Today, she resolves litigation and dispute claims involving consumer financing, product liability, cybersecurity, tax, risk management, and insurance, among other areas, drawing from her decades long career.

She advises young attorneys to try new things and to keep an open mind.

“Stay at a place long enough to learn some lessons and stay open to new opportunities so when you go on your next adventure, you’re going in wiser and willing to learn,” Campbell says. “Also, be open to helping the company be successful. Ask, ‘What can I do for the company, what assets do I have that I can use to better the company, and what can I learn to help the company succeed?’”

We congratulate Juliette Campbell on her professional accomplishments and success at T-Mobile. It is a privilege to work with you.

Turn Technology into Business

John Poliak of Halliburton leans on his decorated background in business, engineering, and law to help companies use tech to solve problems

By Noah Johnson

AS A YOUNG BOY, JOHN POLIAK OFTEN took things apart. He always wanted to see what was inside and to learn how things worked. “It was only later that I got better at putting them back together,” Poliak says.

That’s an understatement.

Today, as assistant general counsel of commercial at Halliburton, Poliak supports digital businesses, including cloud/SaaS, software licensing, professional services, and technology development agreements with various energy sector customers. With a tenured background in business, engineering, and law, he’s passionate

John Poliak

Assistant General Counsel of Commercial Halliburton Shannon Wright

about turning technology into business, finding ways to apply advancements to real life problems, and deploying them in a way that benefits both the user and the provider.

“That passion comes from a desire to enable growth, pursue excellence, make an impact, and to improve things,” he says. “It’s really fun and leverages a diverse set of skills that I have been fortunate to build over my career, while working with some great people and amazing technologies.”

Poliak traces those values back to high school chemistry and physics classrooms, where teachers walked him and his classmates through various science experiments. Examining practical examples that revealed how the world worked lit a fire in him.

The experience served as inspiration to pursue a chemical engineering degree in college, where his curiosity was sharpened by opportunities to analyze and solve problems. He also got a chance to participate in a research internship with the Timken Company and engineering co-ops with BP.

After graduating, Poliak became a process engineer at a BP chemical plant in Ohio. There, he went on to help supervise ammonia and urea manufacturing and lead the engineering team. His journey continued when a manager suggested he pursue an MBA to further his growth. He found a business law course to be just as eye opening as the science education he received as a teenager.

“Just as science, physics, and chemistry revealed the workings of the real world around me, the business law course did for corporations and contracts,” he reflects.

To supplement his business finance, strategy management, and engineering skills, he obtained a law degree focused on intellectual property. He’d go on to serve as acting commercial counsel supporting a BP Chemicals’ spin out including business restructuring, and M&A activities. He also worked at two IP boutique law firms before going in-house with BP’s legal department in 2009, where he would go on to support the renewable energy, upstream and downstream businesses as a senior IP counsel.

One of the many joys he derived from his work involved interviewing inventors. He always asked: ‘what do you think is interesting about your technology?’ “You could see the spark in their eyes,” Poliak remembers. “It was especially fun to see how these patent assets were then used in their business to add value.”

These experiences make Poliak the perfect fit for his role at Halliburton, where he leans on his sharp business acumen and legal knowledge to help the company reach its goals. At the leading oilfield services company that touts a strong commitment to IP, his main client is the Landmark Solutions business, which has over 1,500 employees and is used by most exploration and production companies around the world. A large part of his work involves supporting evolving business models amid a tremendous growth in the cloud applications and customers over the past five years.

The AGC embraces the challenge of solving problems related to contract

Shannon Wright

terms, which requires a balancing act between the needs of Halliburton as a supplier and their customers. He approaches situations with the same investigative and probing mindset he used during his time as an engineer. Having been in his customer’s shoes in previous roles, he knows how to find resolutions that help them thrive.

“I’ve been on the client side and on the lawyer side, so it allows me to have a better understanding of the needs they have, as well allowing me to frame up the issues in a way that they can understand the potential risks and impacts,” Poliak says. “My experience helps me quickly develop a rapport with my clients, because I understand the kinds of issues they’re dealing with.”

When he isn’t serving as a trusted advisor to Halliburton, he focuses on helping young attorneys get where they want to be in their careers. He credits much of his success to mentors he’s had along the way and wants to pay it forward to members of his legal team.

He advises his younger colleagues and those considering law school to speak with as many lawyers as possible, especially those working in the areas where they want to ultimately practice in.

“Ask if you can buy them coffee and have them tell you about their career,” Poliak says. “People like to talk about themselves. Also, seek out some people that went to law school and don’t practice law. There are many of them.”

He also emphasizes the value of practical experience such as internships and jobs.

“Most companies do not recruit law school graduates for their in-house law departments,” Poliak says. “They usually expect applicants to have a solid three to seven years of relevant experience at a law firm. Get that experience and keep building those networks along the way.”

Polsinelli:

“Polsinelli’s partnership with Halliburton is credited in part to John Poliak and his innovative and distinguished legal career. We are pleased to recognize John, our friend and colleague, for his outstanding accomplishments.”

—Matt Todd, Shareholder

Lights, Camera, Law

Tania Kricfalusi reflects on a professional life in entertainment law and leading litigation at NBCUniversal

By Billy Yost

EVERY MORNING, TANIA KRICFALUSI tries to split her hour of reading evenly. Half her time is dedicated to updates in the copyright field or legal news roundups. The other half involves catching up on the latest breaking stories from Hollywood via Deadline, the Hollywood Reporter, and TMZ. This isn’t a guilty pleasure; it’s required reading.

“I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve found out about an issue that’s going to be coming across my desk by first seeing it on TMZ,” Kricfalusi says, laughing.

The senior vice president of litigation and head of television and feature film litigation at NBCUniversal is a sixteen-year company veteran. Kricfalusi isn’t just a student of the law; she’s who you want on your trivia team. The attorney is an encyclopedia of popular culture because she has to be, and the famous names she’ll casually mention while telling a story requires one to quickly recalibrate what “a normal day in the office” can mean.

Kricfalusi’s demeanor isn’t Hollywood flash or smarmy in the least. The Texas-raised lawyer always seems on the verge of a laugh, and it requires a lot to surprise her. In fact, her reputation as the go-to person in a crisis has been well-documented.

She remembers how a former studio executive used to regularly call Kricfalusi when tensions were high. “It wouldn’t just be litigation; it would be talent or agents at an impasse. Tempers were flared, and I would get the call,” she explains. “He’d say, ‘Tania? Can you come in and just do your “Tania Thing.”’”

The so-called “Tania Thing” is a phenomenon wherein everyone involved in a dispute manages to walk away satisfied with the resolution. The lawyer says it’s a

Tania Kricfalusi SVP of Litigation and Head of Television & Feature Film Litigation NBCUniversal

mix of lawyering, couples counseling, and “just a pinch of being an adult” in a business where that attribute can be hard to come by at times. It’s a skill Kricfalusi first mastered by putting her studies at Yale Law School on hold to pursue a career in advertising.

Although her college essays declared her intention to become a congressperson or senator, internships at the Texas capitol and White House didn’t prove as fulfilling as Kricfalusi had hoped. Even though she found the work incredibly interesting, she ultimately realized politics wasn’t the life she wanted.

Instead, she amassed experience at Chicago-based advertising firm Leo Burnett doing client service work where her time in politics came in handy.

“There were definitely times I wound up taking clients out to dinner so they wouldn’t interfere with an ad shoot,” Kricfalusi reflects. It was an early proving ground for her talent for de-escalating dicey situations.

When she finally showed up at Yale Law in 2000, it was shortly before Legally Blonde was released in theaters, and the aspiring attorney felt the part.

“I was surrounded by people who already had patents or had started NGOs [nongovernmental organizations],” she says. She interned at the public defender’s office in Washington, DC, but found herself bringing the

work home with her in a way that was unhealthy. Politics were out, and so was criminal work.

Kricfalusi grew more interested in entertainment law that encompassed intellectual property, business, contracts, technology, employment, and more.

While working in private practice on the West Coast, Kricfalusi started amassing a treasure trove of experience and stories. She helped defend the National Enquirer in a defamation suit that involved Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Tara Reid, and a Canadian exotic night club. She also represented clients like Colin Farrell and Mel Gibson, and she worked for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, even acting as a seat filler at their most prestigious awards night.

“If you’re going to be a lawyer, you might as well be a lawyer who gets to go to the Oscars,” Kricfalusi jokes.

In 2006, she went in-house at what is now NBCUniversal. The lawyer says she’s frequently asked about how to go in-house in the entertainment industry. It’s a tough question because for Kricfalusi, it was a poker game.

As the young lawyer who thought about going in-house, she knew she needed to become more marketable as a transactional lawyer. So she completed an extension course at the University

of California, Los Angeles on legal affairs and contracts. Around the same time at a Beverly Hills Bar Association event, she met a lawyer who was part of a regular poker game of in-house lawyers from different studios—a surefire means of hearing about potential job leads before they went public.

“I said, ‘Well, I like poker,’ and I got in,” Kricfalusi says. “Many of those people are now GCs of other studios. Sometimes, that’s just how it works.”

The lawyer’s roles and responsibilities through the years are part reallife and part what you think a lawyer on a television drama does. There are the real-life issues like pre-publication review of investigative reporting pieces and hidden camera segments for news programs.

Have you ever thought to yourself, “how did they get to film that?” No doubt Kricfalusi was there for the conversation. That included being on an on-call rotation for the Today Show in case something wild happens overnight and needs to be addressed on the show.

“You get a call that Kanye West fell off a stage in Norway, and they want to use a video that’s on Twitter,” Kricfalusi explains. “Lawyers are drilled to just research, research, research. Early on, this job gave me an appreciation for operating in a time-sensitive environment. You have to learn that

“I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve found out about an issue that’s going to be coming across my desk by first seeing it on TMZ.”

big-picture vision and provide the best counsel you can. A lot of this business is going with your gut.”

Kricfalusi’s work spans a wide gamut: She might be providing counsel for Rachel Maddow against a lawsuit from One America News Network. She might be reviewing streaming agreements in an age where it’s still the wild west of new digital frontiers. Or, she might be called to address yet another in a long, long line of Real Housewives issues (let’s just say there are many).

The SVP is masterful at what she does, and she practices in an environment that is unlike any other. That’s what keeps her interested. Tomorrow’s big challenge is often tonight’s headline.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP:

“Tania is smart, quick. and knows her stuff. On top of that, she is a pleasure to work with and has a very team-oriented approach to problem-solving that motivates everyone working for her to do their best work. NBCUniversal is lucky to have her!”

—Scott Edelman, Partner

Jenner & Block:

“I’ve worked with Tania on many matters. She is smart, shrewd, and an excellent strategist. My favorite quality is how composed and unflappable she is—steady under pressure while never losing her sense of humor.”

—Andrew J. Thomas, Partner

work.

FOCUS: Retail

FOUR ATTORNEYS WHO HANDLE A WIDE RANGE OF LEGAL ISSUES AND SERVE AS PIVOTAL MEMBERS AT THEIR RETAIL ORGANIZATIONS

CHICO’S

DICK’S SPORTING GOODS

An Empathetic LEADER

TASHA GRINNELL BRINGS MORE THAN TWO DECADES OF IN-HOUSE EXPERIENCE AND LEADERSHIP LESSONS TO HER ROLE AS GENERAL COUNSEL AT THE CONTAINER STORE

BY BRITTANY FARB GRUBER

THE PATH TO BECOMING AN in-house counsel often involves several years of experience in private practice or litigating in the public sector. That simply wasn’t the case for Tasha Grinnell.

Following a prestigious judicial clerkship for the late Honorable Marc H. Westbrook in South Carolina, Grinnell married and followed her love to Texas, a state that she was not yet barred in. In order to immediately practice law in Texas, the young lawyer set her sights on in-house law. She joined Chubb Insurance in 2002, where she managed litigation for Fortune 500 clients throughout the country.

TASHA GRINNELL GENERAL COUNSEL THE CONTAINER STORE

She spent six years at the insurance giant before moving on to in-house roles at Dean Foods, Huawei Technologies, McAfee, and Neiman Marcus Group. She gained a diverse array of experience from practicing labor and employment law, litigation, compliance, real estate law, and everything in between.

“I've worked in every attorney position within a legal department,” Grinnell reflects. “There is not an area in the in-house legal department that I cannot do myself or help to mentor and advise a junior attorney to do.”

Notably, Grinnell had the unique opportunity to serve as the interim chief legal officer at Neiman Marcus for about six months, an experience she describes as “baptism by fire.” She credits this role, along with her two-plus decades of in-house experience, as preparing her for her current position as general counsel at the Container Store, where she leads a “lean but mighty” legal team.

“I'm over all of legal, as well as over compliance, corporate governance, ESG [environmental, social, and governance], and procurement,” the Teresa

Rafidi

GC explains. “We have a saying here at the Container Store that one equals three. One of my team members truly does equal three average employees. That’s how we're able to really be successful.”

Grinnell describes herself as a “collaborative leader” and credits her management style as contributing to a large portion of her career success. “The biggest keys to a successful in-house legal department are the ability to listen and communicate, have empathy, and be knowledgeable and positive,” she says. “I always try to make sure that I'm really

hearing my team members, listening and keeping abreast of what our external and internal needs are.”

Empathy is also an equally important part of her role as a leader. She cites emotional intelligence being just as important as her legal training in her role. “I am an empathetic leader,” Grinnell says. “I try to understand my people and the institution, and really put myself in their shoes. I must keep abreast of what’s happening in the legal world, so that I’m always knowledgeable and have an in-depth understanding of what our stores, partners, suppliers, and customers are really facing.”

As the oldest child in a military family, Grinnell has lived all over the world. Born in Germany, she has lived in Virginia, Florida, Hawaii, California, and South Carolina, and attended boarding school for students of Hawaiian ancestry.

Growing up Black and Hawaiian, and later attending a historically Black university, she learned

ONE OF THE THINGS THAT IS SO BEAUTIFUL ABOUT BEING A BLACK WOMAN IN THIS SEAT IS THAT PEOPLE CAN SEE THAT IT IS OBTAINABLE.

early on that her diversity was an asset and that her voice could positively impact society. “If I stood up and used that voice, be it in oratory contests or while lobbying the local legislature, I could be counted, and I could really make a difference,” she reflects. “Those are the things that shaped me as a child and ultimately caused me to decide to follow a career in law.”

As a leader, Grinnell leans heavily into her early experience on a daily basis. This inspires her to be an active supporter of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, as well as

serve as a mentor to young and diverse aspiring attorneys.

“The higher you climb in a corporate ladder, the more your voice can be used,” she observes. “One of the things that is so beautiful about being a Black woman in this seat is that people can see that it is obtainable. Representation truly matters. The biggest thing that I can do to move DEI efforts forward at a corporation is to be me, be myself, and to actually be present in the room where decisions are made.”

The GC also oversees ESG factors at the Container Store, a responsibil-

ity the entire organization prioritizes. The senior director of ESG reports to Grinnell and, together, they closely monitor global changes in ESG trends, frameworks, and legislation.

“Everybody in this company is engaged and committed to ensuring that the Container Store holds ourselves accountable and continues to ensure that we keep our climate and our people and our environment safe,” she attests.

Behind Grinnell’s resume, she is a mother of two daughters, who she proudly describes as “dynamic, young ladies.” The attorney reflects on her work/life balance as anything but perfect, instead encouraging fellow working moms to embrace flexibility.

“There really is no one-size fits all solution and work/life balance can mean different things for everybody,” she admits. “Unexpected things are going to arise at work, and they're going to arise at home, but we must remain flexible and understand a more achievable goal is integration. I’m a firm believer that when I’m happy in my personal life, I’m more likely to be energized, productive, and focused at work. And if I feel fulfilled at work, I’m more likely to be content at home.”

Stewart Law Group PLLC: “Tasha is a fierce advocate. Her reputation for being a detail-oriented and trusted advisor to her business clients is the foundation of her success in various in-house roles, including general counsel of the Container Store. Because of her intellect, business savviness, leadership, and passion for mentoring, Tasha is a consensus builder who delivers results.”

—Amy M. Stewart, Founding Partner

Teresa Rafidi

DoorDash

SENIOR COUNSEL OF INSURANCE LITIGATION BETH WENDLE IS EXCITED TO EMBARK ON SOMETHING NEW AT DOORDASH

Dine AND Dash

BY BILLY YOST

IN HIGH SCHOOL, BETH

Wendle wrote a letter to herself that her teacher mailed to her a decade later. Along with some steamy gossip, there was the expectation that Wendle was already a successful practicing lawyer. The relatively new senior counsel of litigation at DoorDash knew

she was going to be an attorney for as long as anyone had asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up.

“I think back on all of the times that my parents told me I should be a lawyer and just realize that was their nice way of saying I was argumentative,” she recalls, laughing. “But I’m

LICENSE TO HELP

Throughout her law career, Beth Wendle has made it a point to find ways to contribute to her community. “I feel like once you have a law degree, you have an obligation to give back,” she explains.

Wendle volunteers as a college coach for ScholarMatch, an organization that focuses on helping first-generation college students from low-income backgrounds prepare for their post-secondary journeys.

Additionally, she was active in Lyft’s pro bono program, participating in San Francisco’s Community Days of Service that provides desperately needed services for people experiencing homelessness. Prior to that, Wendle helped tenants facing eviction, individuals seeking asylum, and those navigating domestic issues that required lawful intervention.

BETH WENDLE SENIOR COUNSEL OF INSURANCE LITIGATION DOORDASH

Carlo Fiorillo

just lucky that I had parents who encouraged me to pursue what I wanted to do. The career always seemed possible, and I know that was a gift.”

It’s a remarkable time to be checking in on the accomplished lawyer. While speaking with Modern Counsel in March 2023, Wendle was just a little over a month into her new role at DoorDash, having spent the four previous years in-house at Lyft. Although she is still early in her career, her in-house roles already include two pillars of the gig economy.

Wendle’s rise is remarkable considering she jumped into practice assuming she would be a strict litigator. The lawyer had minimal interaction with transactions, and she went into plaintiff law straight out of law school. “I found out pretty quickly that I belonged more on the defense side,” she explains. “I eventually found my way over to a midsized firm doing product liability, medical device, and pharmaceutical work.”

However, her most informative role would also be her last firm stop prior to going in-house. Wendle spent two years at Wilson Turner Kosmo LLP, a womenowned firm that cultivated a strong reputation for smart attorneys, good work, and a significant lack of the childish bravado and petulance that, even after all these years, is still alive and well in firm culture. It’s also where she rounded out all of the experiences she would eventually need to go in-house, including taking depositions, preparing expert witnesses, drafting motions, and more.

“When you go in-house, you can eventually figure these things out, but I can’t

explain how valuable already having done some of this work was to minimizing that learning curve,” Wendle says. “When I’m providing feedback to my outside counsel now, it’s good to know it’s coming from a place of experience.”

While she hasn’t been in her current role for much time, Wendle believes that novelty can lend some help to enhancing the legal team at DoorDash. As the insurance litigation team expands, so does its ability to improve scalable processes and procedures, and Wendle is excited to be part of the new wave helping to create change for the long term.

“I’ve always been a builder,” she says. “In tech, where things move so fast, our team has a unique opportunity to positively impact the business. I’m so excited to take on this new role with such smart and supportive teammates.”

The lawyer advises younger attorneys to avoid shying away from asking questions. “I spent a lot of billable hours trying to Google things that I could have gotten answered by a mentor in a minute,” Wendle reflects. “Obviously, you need to keep that within the rails of not driving people nuts. Learn it. Write it down. But first and foremost, just ask.”

Wilson Turner Kosmo LLP:

“Not only is Beth one of my dear friends, she inspires me with her hard work, intelligence, and values. She exemplifies what it means to be a leader who supports and builds up others.”

—Parada K. Ornelas, Partner

A Trendsetter IN HER Own Right

THERESA MCMANUS BECERRIL WENT FROM CHANGING OIL TO PRACTICING LAW FOR MAJOR FASHION BRANDS AT CHICO’S FAS

BY BILLY YOST

AS A CORPORATE LAWYER WHO has built her career in the fashion space, Theresa McManus Becerril’s early years gave little indication of the industry she would ultimately come to know and love. A young Becerril was intent on proving to everyone, especially herself, that she could do anything she put her mind to, regardless of fitting a traditional gender role, but fashion was the farthest thing from her mind.

“I just always found myself doing things that girls in the ’70s were supposed to shy away from, and most of the time, my clothes paid the price,” the current senior director and corporate counsel at Chico’s FAS Inc. explains. “I camped in lean-tos and learned mountaineering, I had a paper route, I learned how to change the oil in my dad’s car, and how to fix stuff around the house. If my brother could do it, I wanted to do it, too. I really didn’t like

being told I shouldn’t try to learn what he was learning just because it wasn’t ladylike or because it would mess up my clothes.”

This mentality wasn’t due to a lack of strong female role models in her family. Instead, it was because of the strong example they provided.

Becerril’s mother had fiercely advocated for her own right to go to college at a time when women were still generally expected to marry and stay at home, becoming the first woman in her family to earn a college degree. She maintained a successful teaching career while also raising her very active family and continuing her own post-graduate work, earning a master’s degree at night.

When Becerril was trying to figure out her own plans after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, she kept coming back to one of her favor-

ite memories: her grandmother telling her that she should become a judge because she was so good at seeing all sides of an issue.

At the time, the only judges Becerril knew of were on television, and they were all men, so the idea that her grandmother believed she could be a good judge really startled her. It also got Becerril thinking about what she could accomplish with her life if she stopped listening to people that said “you shouldn’t” or “you can’t” because she was a girl.

“After working for a few years after college, I knew I wanted to continue my education, so I figured I’d go with what my grandmother had said and try law school,” she remembers. “I never looked back.”

Becerril built out an esteemed career at the iconic fashion brand GUESS? over nearly fourteen years

where she was awarded several promotions. Initially taken onboard as the company’s intellectual property counsel, she felt lucky to discover that her general counsel was an amazing businesswoman and a strong mentor who would provide her the means to grow in a million different directions at once. She also found strong female role models throughout the organization to guide her through the fast pace and vagaries of the iconic fashion house.

“I learned everything at their feet,” she says. “We had such a small department that I was able to take on a lot of different areas very quickly, but I was always safe because I knew that I could seek any of these women out, be welcomed in, and figure out what I needed to do to help enable the business. I learned from them how it feels to know you are supported in your career and how to support others in their’s.”

Becerril worked on just about any issue that an in-house counsel can expect to encounter: intellectual property, contracts, acquisitions, corporate structuring, litigation, marketing, logistics, operations, and licensing. Her career growth also continues to expand to this day. She strongly believes that making yourself available for new kinds of opportunities is the key to building a fulfilling career. In fact, doing the same things over and over just wouldn’t make her happy, so she has always been on the lookout for the next skill or growth opportunity to add to her toolbelt.

Along the way, she began to appreciate the grace, self-confidence, and grit that the women who came before her had to hold onto in their everyday interactions to succeed in the business world.

The mentorship Becerril received at GUESS? has been paid forward. The senior director admits that a recent intern at Chico’s FAS likely got more than what she bargained for, but in the best possible way. “Our intern was on a rotation in our department, but I was grabbing any extra time that she had to help her learn the business considerations for contracts or to issue-spot for any project she was working on,” she explains. “If you’re going in-house, there is so much about the business that you need to learn to provide effective counsel, and I love to teach and pass along what I’ve learned over the years. I definitely hogged her time.”

While initially focused on franchising and marketing at Chico’s FAS, Becerril shifted focus in 2019 towards other commercial aspects of the business and she has continued to expand her own areas of expertise since then. The senior director was appointed as the leader of the Chico’s FAS nascent

IF YOU’RE GOING IN-HOUSE, THERE IS SO MUCH ABOUT THE BUSINESS THAT YOU NEED TO LEARN TO PROVIDE EFFECTIVE COUNSEL, AND I LOVE TO TEACH AND PASS ALONG WHAT I’VE LEARNED OVER THE YEARS.

environmental, social, and governance (ESG) program taskforce in the same year, though, admittedly, it was unfamiliar territory for her.

“There was a new leadership opportunity to develop an ESG program for the company,” she says. “I immediately leapt at the opportunity because I loved the idea of helping Chico’s FAS do better, whether for our customers, our people, or our planet.

“We set ten short terms goals that we were able to accomplish in our first year and our team has since established seven mid-term goals that tie to the company’s strategic growth plan and aligns to several UN SDGs [sustainable development goals] and ESG reporting frameworks,” she continues. “The program is still really just starting, but our progress thus far has been fantastic.”

Having grown her career in the fashion industry, Becerril says working with big personalities and big ideas is just part and parcel with the job. For those looking to make inroads, the senior director advises that finding one’s own voice and learning how to guide those big ideas and big personalities to account for the legal and risk landscape is critical to navigating the complexities of the fashion world.

As a woman, the right voice allows her to not just give herself the authority to provide advice, enable business, and drive results, but also helps encourage other women in the organization to find and use their own voices to reach their own goals.

“Chico’s FAS is a very women-focused and female-empowered organization,” Becerril says. “It’s the life and breath of the company, to help our customers look and feel confident and beautiful. I see such strong, savvy women here, and we all support each other. It’s incredibly important.”

Lead with CONFIDENCE. Act with HUMILITY.

PRIVACY EXPERT NATALIE TROILO HELPS DICK’S SPORTING GOODS

NAVIGATE THE DYNAMIC WORLD OF DATA PRIVACY LEGISLATION

BY FRANK DIMARIA

NATALIE TROILO

SENIOR CORPORATE COUNSEL

DICK’S SPORTING GOODS

Kaela Speicher

Theways retailers use, share, and store customer data has evolved over the years, and today, data privacy is top of mind for lawmakers.

“I think some states were hoping that there would be a federal privacy law and they would not have to consider passing a separate law for their own state,” says Natalie Troilo, senior corporate counsel at DICK’S Sporting Goods.

However, given that a comprehensive privacy law has not yet passed at the federal level, it is likely that several additional states will pass state specific privacy legislation, which presents a challenge to companies, as compliance will be a moving target if those laws are not consistent.

Troilo coleads the privacy team at DICK’S and says one of her primary responsibilities is helping to keep the company compliant with new state privacy laws. “By the end of 2023, there will be at least three more laws that we will have to be compliant with— Colorado, Connecticut, and Utah,” explains Troilo. She anticipates several other states will pass privacy legislation within the next year, as well.

In recent years, companies operating in the United States have had to learn how to interpret and comply with these new state privacy laws. “The laws, in

some ways, seem to take a rudimentary view of technology and do not necessarily take into account the complexity associated with digital marketing and of modern data systems,” says Troilo. Accordingly, operationalizing the regulatory obligations can be challenging. “We take it very seriously. We want to make sure we are doing what we can to show our customers that we are trustworthy and that we are doing what we need to do to be compliant with these laws.”

In addition to coleading the privacy team, Troilo works on consumer and privacy litigation, including class action matters, and intellectual property litigation, which comprises patent and trademark infringement matters and general commercial disputes. If litigation is filed, she generally works with outside counsel to develop the litigation strategy. Troilo is also involved with the company’s product safety efforts and provides general legal advice and recommendations to various teams throughout the company.

RISING THROUGH THE RANKS

Troilo began her tenure at DICK’S about twelve years ago as a claims manager after leaving a midsized law firm. She was “burned-out from firm life,” but still sought a position that allowed her to be involved with litigation. She led the company’s claims team, which was

THE LAWS, IN SOME WAYS, SEEM TO TAKE A RUDIMENTARY VIEW OF TECHNOLOGY AND DO NOT NECESSARILY TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE COMPLEXITY ASSOCIATED WITH DIGITAL MARKETING AND OF MODERN DATA SYSTEMS.

responsible for the day-to-day activities relating to workers compensation and non-litigated general liability claims, and she was also responsible for managing the company’s portfolio of litigation associated with insured claims.

Soon, Troilo gained the respect of others in the organization and searched for additional development opportunities. She applied for and was offered a corporate counsel position in DICK’S legal department. “It was primarily focused on contract negotiation and drafting,” says Troilo. Eventually she was pulled into new projects that highlighted her professional strengths.

In early 2021, the legal department was searching for an attorney who could focus on litigation and regulatory work. “I put my hat in the ring and was given the opportunity to focus my efforts on ligation management

and providing guidance on regulatory matters,” says Troilo.

A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh Law School in 2002, Troilo took a job at a midsized litigation firm, primarily defending product liability, premises liability and other personal injury related lawsuits. A year later, the firm that she was with split, but she was able to continue with her litigation work at one of the resulting firms. With years of firm experience, Troilo brought a set of useful skills and a different perspective to DICK’S. “I feel like my strong litigation background gave me a really good understanding of the challenges of litigating cases,” she reflects.

Because she is familiar with an outside counsel’s job, she has a firm grasp of the challenges. “I understand

AS TRUSTED ADVISORS, IT IS IMPORTANT FOR PEOPLE TO BELIEVE THAT WHAT YOU ARE TELLING THEM IS CORRECT AND THAT YOU ARE A CREDIBLE RESOURCE.

courtroom etiquette and what is and is not acceptable to say to a judge, I understand how to interact with opposing counsel, and I understand how to bridge the gap of knowledge between outside counsel and our business teams,” Troilo says.

Troilo currently coleads the privacy team, consisting of two privacy analysts, and within the legal department, one legal analyst reports directly to her. The risk management group’s corporate counsel also partially reports to her. She encourages her direct reports to take control of their careers and supports them in their journey to their ultimate career goals. “I really focus on having them think critically about their current role, what they see themselves doing in the near and long term, and I’m very open to talk through how to get them there,” she says.

Troilo holds weekly meetings with her direct reports to discuss their dayto-day responsibilities and career goals. “I have an open-door policy. Even outside of our weekly touch bases, if they want to schedule a time with me or call me or come meet with me, I’m happy to have that conversation at any point in time,” says Troilo.

The attorney describes herself as “quirky” and “casual.” When she entered law and wanted to prove herself, she had a desire to make people happy. “It’s easy to lose yourself in trying to mold yourself into what you think people want and what they would expect of an attorney—how they expect you to act, how they expect you to appear,” she says. But she was never comfortable losing her own personality. Early in her career she

was confident she could strike a balance between coming off as knowledgeable and proficient but also maintain some level of her more casual nature.

She advises young lawyers to lead with confidence but know when to act with humility.

“As trusted advisors, it is important for people to believe that what you are telling them is correct and that you are a credible resource,” says Troilo. “Lawyers must deliver their advice with confidence, but when you do not have all the information you need to provide answers, you need to act with humility and ask for help from those who can provide you with that information.”

Fox Rothschild:

“Natalie is a smart and relentless litigator who brings deep legal knowledge and thoughtful business insight to dispute resolution. She is never intimidated. Natalie is a great partner because she takes a strategic, practical approach to litigation.”

—John

C. Hansberry, Partner

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP:

“Natalie’s expertise and commitment to her craft is unrivaled. She is a true professional who leads by example and is deeply devoted to her work at DICK’S.  It is truly an honor to know and work with Natalie as outside counsel.”

—Mark J. Golen, Partner

Evaluate

A look at the logistical challenges, evolving regulations, industry shifts, and cultural concerns outside the office that lawyers must analyze and navigate to manage their impact inside the office

“Roll with the Punches”

US Foods’ Stephanie Miller has learned to lean on grit and resilience to overcome challenges she has faced in and out of the workplace

By Noah Johnson

Stephanie Miller SVP, Associate General Counsel of Corporate, and Corporate Secretary US Foods

Courtesy of Stephanie Miller

“AS AN ATTORNEY WORKING FOR A public company, you must be willing to roll with the punches.”

That’s wisdom Stephanie Miller brings from her decades-long in-house attorney career to US Foods, where she’s been the senior vice president, associate general counsel of corporate, and corporate secretary since April 2022.

Her time serving in various in roles at Ropes & Gray LLP, Mallinckrodt, Axiom, Baxter International Inc., and Baxalta have been filled with twists and turns. She has advocated for an organization through bankruptcy; mentors she followed to new jobs left within a year or two; and a company she worked for split in two, then that new entity was approached to be bought out three days later and was sold within a year.

These experiences and others were a crash course for Miller’s resilience and grit, values that weigh heavily on her approach to leadership at US Foods.

“When you work at a public company at the highest level, it’s important to know that things could change in an instant,” she says. “You can’t be certain of anything other than if you do good work, you’ll be appreciated, rewarded, and hopefully protected in the event of some existential corporate action. Otherwise, you can’t ever really know what’s going to happen because it’s not always in your control.”

She derives her strength to weather uncertain times from her many accomplishments, but one in particular trans -

formed her life and her approach: surviving stage three breast cancer. She was diagnosed in 2018 while working in London for Mallinckrodt, serving as their corporate secretary as well as the international general counsel. She still remembers the day—her birthday.

“The doctor performed a mammogram, sat me down, and said, ‘it looks like there might be a problem,’’’ she recalls.

Miller began chemotherapy in the first half of 2019 and underwent surgery in September and radiation at the end of that year, right before the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though she describes it as a scary and challenging time in her life, she decided to take her power back by continuing to work throughout her treatment.

“Mentally, I just couldn’t take time off,” she says. “I couldn’t possibly just lay around being sick; I would’ve exploded. I needed the distraction that my job provided. So sometimes I’d do calls from my bed and my hospital room because it kept me engaged. I just couldn’t imagine not doing anything because I would’ve been too focused on my illness.”

With support from her husband and her colleagues at Mallinckrodt, she persevered, concluding her treatment in June 2020. She says the experience showed her the importance of opening up about her struggles and being willing to accept help from others, an area she says lawyers often struggle with.

“Lawyers are high-achieving people who are often extraordinarily self-reliant

and see themselves as doers,” she says. “But I think opening yourself up and not trying to always be a control freak is a good thing. If you work with good people, they’re going to understand and support you.”

It also instilled in her a strong sense of empathy she uses among her colleagues in her current role.

“I’ve always been an empathetic person, but I feel like it’s at a different level now,” she says. “If anybody is sick, I’m the first to say, ‘Oh my goodness, stop working.’ Because a job is a job. The important thing is you are a healthy and happy person, and you’re doing whatever it takes for you to be that. That’s what I’ve embraced even more after I made it through my illness.”

In her current role at US Foods, she serves as corporate secretary and has legal responsibility for traditional corporate matters, including corporate governance and securities, mergers and acquisitions, finance and compensation, and benefits. In addition, she has taken on responsibility for environment, social and governance strategy and the supplier diversity team. This is her first time having nonlegal professionals on her team, an opportunity that exposes her to new sides of the business.

At base, her work revolves around her love for interacting with different kinds of people, a passion that inspired her to go into law after she graduated from Harvard with a degree in art history. She was working at a museum

when she met a colleague who was both a grants director and a lawyer. At first, Miller wasn’t too interested in law because she “never liked to fight.” However, conversations with her colleague made Miller realize that being a corporate lawyer was about much more.

“The idea of being a counselor to executives and directors was very attractive to me,” she says. “Now I aim to be someone who people seek out for advice, who they see as the calm in the center of the storm.”

“It’s been our great pleasure and privilege to partner with Stephanie across a range of complex situations,” say Adam Emmerich and Victor Goldfeld, corporate partners at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. “Stephanie is

“What corporate law departments really want are good thinkers, good business partners that can stretch in different directions. Inevitably, when you get in-house, you never know what kind of crazy things are going to come your way.”

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incredibly talented, with sophisticated and practical judgment, an ability to see the big picture, and a command of all the details—in addition, working with her is an absolute joy.”

Miller advises young attorneys to learn as much as they can at law firms about as many different things as they can, if they one day plan to move in-house.

Arthur Cox LLP:

“Stephanie brought deep strategic insight and tactical nuance to highly challenging legal problems. She epitomizes cool decision-making under pressure and an ability to find innovative and pragmatic ways through complex multi-jurisdictional issues.”

—Stephen Ranalow, Partner, Corporate and M&A

Wachtell Lipton

Counsel

Managing Expectations

Throughout his tenured and nontraditional law career, Transurban’s Chris

practice clients through listening

By Noah Johnson

AS ASSOCIATE GENERAL

COUNSEL

at Transurban, Chris Bugel is a jackof-all-trades who’s passionate about the marriage of business and legal. He began his law career as an in-house counsel before going into private practice at several firms. Ultimately, he went back in-house for his current role, where he supports the development team with infrastructure projects, risk, compliance, human resources, and innovative technology.

In reflecting on his impressive and accomplished career, his biggest takeaways aren’t about the “lawyering”— with practice, a robust project pipeline, and time those skills develop organically. The most important lessons he

has learned have been about how to successfully navigate different personalities, and striking the right balance between business priorities and legal requirements and meeting client expectations.

“Some clients require more time than others, some can be more challenging to work with, and others require faster turnaround times, but at the end of the day, it’s about understanding their needs and managing expectations,” says Bugel, who has worked at the tolling and transport technology services operator since 2018. “It’s important in a law firm environment and it’s not much different when you’re in house. Your clients are closer,

but they still deserve the same level of service and attention.”

This requires “not always listening like a lawyer.” “Lawyers listen, but they tend to listen in a different way,” he explains. “When you’re in-house, you have to reprogram yourself to not listen exclusively like a lawyer, but also with an appreciation of the business context. Most law firm lawyers are simply digesting information, contemplating the next move, and a legal response.”

Instead, Bugel instructs, “Often times you just need to step back, be an active listener and resist the temptation to immediately contemplate your legal strategy,” This wisdom continues to be vital in his current role at Transurban,

Bugel has learned how to effectively communicate with in-house and private

Chris Bugel Associate General Counsel of North America Transurban

where he’s helping to drive the company’s development pipeline, enhancing the risk and compliance framework, and supporting the company’s mobile tolling application, Go-Toll.

While he supports those efforts and other initiatives, Bugel admits that a large part of his job over the past two years has been successfully building and managing his team. “Managing people can be very rewarding and if you are giving your team the attention they deserve, it can take up a lot of your time,” he says.

Bugel wants to ensure his team members are happy, feel fulfilled, and are in positions to grow in their roles and beyond. He does that by making efforts to learn more about his team members both professionally and personally, providing them autonomy, and making an effort to be readily accessible to meet as issues arise.

The AGC also encourages his colleagues to get out of their comfort zone. Every year, each team member is required to come up with something they want to know more about. “We figure out how

Courtesy of Chris Bugel

“Some clients require more time than others, some can be more challenging to work with, and others require faster turnaround times, but at the end of the day, it’s about understanding their needs and managing expectations.”

Congratulations to

to ramp up their knowledge,” he says. “I push folks out of their comfort zone to build their brand.”

The attorney has seen the benefits this courage can have in his own career. After getting his law degree from the Catholic University of America, his legal career began at CapitalSource Finance, stepping into an in-house role earlier than he thought he would. After two years of closing and running deals, he saw the value to receive a traditional law firm training to further his development.

“Some of my colleagues said, ‘You’re doing more sophisticated work than most of your friends at big law firms, but there’s a gap in your legal training that only law firm experience can provide,’” Bugel recalls.

As a nationally-ranked law firm, Kramon & Graham represents some of the largest and most respected organizations and business leaders in the country. Our practices include government contracts, commercial litigation, white-collar and criminal defense, class actions, professional liability defense, business and real estate transactions, and insurance coverage defense.

That insight inspired him to make the tough decision to leave CapitalSource and to gain experience in private practice. For the next twelve years of his career, Bugel worked as an associate at Fleischman and Harding LLP, Chadbourne & Parke LLP, and Greenberg Traurig LLP. In those roles, he gained a broad expertise in M&A, capital markets, securities, and private equity matters. He also gained experience serving as outside counsel and helping in-house legal teams with their dayto-day business operations.

All those experiences make him the perfect fit for his role at Transurban. Moving forward, he wants to be involved in more project-based work and more involved with the development team. “As I continue to learn more about the business, deal-structuring, and what makes a project viable, my goal is to become more well-versed in the development realm and the pipeline,” Bugel says.

Kramon & Graham PA:

“No matter the complexity of the issue, its successful resolution is always achieved because of Chris’s spot-on legal analysis, excellent judgment, and steadfast dedication to his client’s best interests.”

—Phil Andrews, Principal, Government Contracts & Procurement

Mayer Brown:

kramonandgraham.com

© Kramon & Graham, P.A.

“Chris is exactly the type of lawyer you want to work with on a complex transactional matter. He understands commercial objectives, focuses on critical issues and knows when and how to exercise judgment in the best interests of his client.”

—Joe Seliga, Colead of Mayer Brown’s Projects & Infrastructure Practice

Chris Bugel for recognition of his extraordinary achievements as highlighted in Modern Counsel

We are proud to work with Chris and the talented legal team at Transurban.

Hone Your Craft

Ed Diggs brings nearly thirty years of experience to his role as senior counsel and manager of construction claims at Bechtel Corporation

By Billy Yost

IN HIS THIRTY-PLUS-YEAR LEGAL career, Ed Diggs has worked for just two organizations. In private practice, he became the first-ever Black attorney to progress from summer associate to partner at the well-known international law firm K&L Gates. During his sixteen-year tenure, Diggs carved out a niche litigating construction cases.

The other fifteen years (and counting) have been in-house at the engineering and construction company Bechtel, where Diggs manages prosecution and defense of construction claims in both domestic and international forums for the company’s energy global business unit.

At this moment in his career, there is a lot to look back on for the senior counsel and manager of claims at Bechtel. For a lawyer who’s done about everything in the building space, his expertise came as something of a happenstance.

“I’m going to be honest. I just sort of stumbled into construction law,”

Diggs says frankly. “At K&L, we were required to rotate through various practice groups. Construction law wasn’t something they taught us in school or anything that I even knew was out there as a possibility. But the work immediately resonated with me. That’s what I try to impart to the next generation: Find what you love. You may not even know what it is, but you’ll know it when you find it.”

Diggs has a career’s worth of knowledge to impart to those looking for mentorship. There’s one piece that the senior counsel feels strongly about. Some lawyers who are more toward the beginning of their careers seem to be unwilling to seek out constructive feedback.

Diggs says he’s not sure if it’s because they see it as a critique of their character or intelligence, but that if lawyers truly want to grow, they need to actively seek out ways in which to practice better.

“There’s a discomfort that can accompany constructive feedback, and I understand that,” Diggs explains. “It’s

Serving the Community

Throughout his professional career, Ed Diggs has devoted extensive time to organizations and nonprofits that align with his own values and passions.

Along with a host of bar associations, Diggs has served on the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts for Southwestern Pennsylvania, the board of local PBS affiliate WQED, and the Greater Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Most important to Diggs, however, was his work with Three Rivers Youth, a local nonprofit organization that provides group homes and other services for at-risk children who were wards of the state.

“You could see the direct benefit that you were bringing to these kids who were dealing with extraordinarily difficult circumstances,” he explains. “Every child deserves to have a safe environment to go home to.”

tough for lawyers to accept, and no one wants to be told they’re not doing something well. But the more open you are to growing in your practice, the better off you’re going to be and the faster you’ll develop.”

One of the other lasting lessons he has taken from his time working across multiple business lines for an internal client is to seek everyone’s opinion at the table. “I found that sometimes the quietest person in the room usually has the most knowledge on the issue,” he reflects. “Unless you take the time to extract that knowledge, you might be missing out in a big way.”

“Ed Diggs shines in his role at Bechtel, not only from a lawyer, but as a business-minded leader,” says Clare M. Gallagher, vice chair of

the labor and employment practice at Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC. “Ed’s collaborative style and comprehensive understanding of the legal and business process inspires business partners and legal professionals to bring their absolute best to every situation.”

Diggs believes that in the future we’ll look back on this moment as a challenging one for people in the building industry. A possible recession, the impacts on the industry of the war in Ukraine, supply chain issues lingering from the COVID-19 pandemic, and rising prices have created one of the most challenging times in modern history for many in construction.

When asked his view of the future state of the oil and gas industry, he says: “There are

Ed Diggs Senior Counsel and Manager of Claims Bechtel Corporation

so many different things you have to factor in. This is an exciting time in the energy industry as both governments and industry are looking at ways to balance energy transition with energy security. We see companies adjusting their business models and implementing new technologies and innovations as they work to find solutions to the global climate and other challenges. It sure makes for exciting times for the kind of work that I do.”

While the future remains unknown, Diggs advises lawyers to spend more time learning their practice than worrying about the next role. The senior counsel says he’s met more than his fair share of young and ambitious attorneys throughout his career, and while there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, ambition can often inadvertently eclipse true mastery of one’s purview.

“If your hunger and ambition come at the expense of providing sound and thorough legal advice, you shouldn’t be practicing law,” he says. “Sound and thorough counseling is based on comprehensive knowledge of subject matter. I know you might be looking for that next role, but sometimes you need to be a bit more patient and use that time to master your trade.”

Diggs provides this advice because he’s asked, not because he’s trying to talk down to the next generation of legal leaders. Given his tenure, his board work, and his continuingly evolving mastery of construction law, he’s hoping to provide a foundation for future lawyers to build on.

It’s a historical moment, and Diggs wants those who come next to be able to tackle the incredible challenges of the future.

Ankura is unrivaled in its ability to assist clients to Protect, Create, and Recover Value.

“I know you might be looking for that next role, but sometimes you need to be a bit more patient and use that time to master your trade.”

It’s Never Too Late to Take a Risk

When Joy Langford joined PartnerRe after twenty-five-plus years in private practice, she embraced new challenges—from leading legal initiatives to reshaping the insurance industry from the inside

By Natalie Kochanov

JOY LANGFORD SPENT MORE THAN TWO decades in private practice, but after leading a firm’s insurance practice through a global pandemic and trying three complicated cases in three months’ time, she suddenly found herself open in the summer of 2021.

“I got a call out of the blue from PartnerRe, asking if I would entertain an interview with them,” she remembers. “PartnerRe was seeking the successor for their retiring general counsel, but I was a litigator, so I kept waiting with each successive interview to hear that they needed someone with more corporate or regulatory experience. No one was as surprised as I was that I kept making it through the interview process.”

Unexpected as it may have been, Langford landed the job. Today, she serves as executive vice president, general counsel for the Americas, and global head of litigation at PartnerRe, a global reinsurance company. The multifaceted role requires her to draw on her years of insurance and reinsurance experience, even as she broadens her purview to encompass areas of law beyond litigation and functions of the business beyond legal.

Langford had always had a strong sense of justice, but it wasn’t until she showed up at Georgetown Law that she began to grow into her own as an advocate. She fell in love with litigation and joined Chadbourne & Parke (which merged with Norton Rose Fulbright in 2017) upon completing her JD.

“The partners at Chadbourne let me learn to be a litigator in different ways,” she reflects. “I was trusted with significant responsibility for our group’s corporate clients—mostly insurance and

reinsurance companies—but the firm also supported my pro bono projects for the Anti-Defamation League as well as major death penalty cases, which allowed me to get courtroom experience more quickly, an invaluable asset to becoming a good trial attorney.”

Langford heralds Chadbourne’s support for her growth as a litigator. “I was really fortunate in where I landed,” she says. “While there were challenges along the way, I never felt like firm leadership saw being a woman with a family to be incompatible with becoming a partner and leader within the firm. While on path to becoming partner, I had three children, and eventually became the managing partner of our [Washington, DC] office and head of the firm’s reinsurance practice when my mentor David Raim retired.”

The attorney recalls looking to other women at the firm as she considered how best to balance career and family. “I did not have to look beyond my own practice group to find women role models who were succeeding at moving up in the law firm ranks while also raising a family, which was not necessarily the norm in big law at the time,” Langford says. “While this was a testament to firm leadership, I realized it was even more a testament to the personal decisions these women and their spouses made.”

She continues, “Three women in our practice group actively pursued partnership or held senior firm positions while their spouses stepped back from careers to stay home with children. Stay-at-home dads were not nearly as prevalent then as they are today.”

With those women as models, Langford and her husband opted for a similar

Joy Langford EVP, General Counsel for the Americas, and Global Head of Litigation PartnerRe

arrangement when the birth of their second child and her election to equity partner coincided in 2004. Langford acknowledges that her husband’s willingness to leave his career as a prosecutor for the US Department of Justice made it easier for her to excel in her own work. “No matter how demanding a case became, I had the peace of mind that everything at home was in good hands,” she says.

However, Langford still made her share of compromises. “I did not make every soccer game or theatre performance, but there were also times when I let someone else handle the big deposition because a family commitment was more important,” she notes.

When young associates ask about her career experience, she often paraphrases Ruth Bader Ginsberg, explaining that she believes women can absolutely have it all, but just maybe not all at once. She points out that at the end of the day, how is that any different than men who are balancing career and a family?

In addition to her husband, Langford credits Raim and other male mentors, including Abbe Lowell and former New York Governor George Pataki, with bolstering her career. “Most of the people who helped me pave my career path were men because, at the time, there weren’t a lot of women in senior positions,” she says.

She urges aspiring attorneys to cultivate similar relationships, with both mentor-type sponsors and more intimate allies. “You need to find that person who will be your sponsor and

who will get you in front of those within the organization with the power to promote you,” she confirms. “But you also need allies—people who know you on a personal level who can serve as sounding boards.”

Langford also encourages early career professionals to be bold and take risks. “The tried-and-true conventional path will always be there, but that different, once-in-a-blue-moon opportu-

nity may not come around again,” she says. “So, don’t be afraid to go for it.”

Langford took her own advice in making the jump to PartnerRe, where her tenure thus far has been a time of learning. “My day-to-day used to focus primarily on a handful of large litigations, and it afforded me the luxury of time to learn every detail relevant to a case.,” she says. “As a general counsel, my day-to-day is much more eclectic,

REPUTABLE ADAPTIVE RESOURCEFUL INNOVATIVE FORMIDABLE EXPERIENCED CREATIVE DEPENDABLE

involving anything from HR issues to tax issues, to data privacy and cyber concerns to monitoring legislation or fielding an antitrust question, to managing budgets and outside counsel, and the list literally goes on and on. It’s been a breadth of experience that I never had as a litigator. It’s been a breadth of experience that I never had as a litigator.”

The lawyer’s first year at PartnerRe involved the sale of the company to French mutual insurance group Covéa as well as navigating the impact of world events like COVID-19 and the Russian-Ukraine conflict on the reinsurance industry. She has also sought to lay the groundwork to influence PartnerRe’s strategies around talent development and acquisition in the years to come.

“We’ve been delighted to work with Joy since she joined our longterm client PartnerRe,” says Amos Friedland, partner at Freedman Normand Friedland LLP. “Her guidance and insight have considerably aided us in our litigation and trial work on their behalf, as well as in understanding their broader business strategy and concerns.”

She hopes to be an asset to PartnerRe’s established commitment to diversity and inclusion—an aim that

hits close to home when she reflects on the early stages of her career.

“When I started working in the insurance industry, it was not uncommon for me to be the only woman in the room at meetings,” Langford says. “In order for companies to attract diverse talent, it is important for the talent you are recruiting to see within the organization someone who looks like them and who is where they someday want to be.”

She also notes that philanthropy and community awareness is more important than ever to attracting and retaining talent. “Young people want sophisticated, challenging careers, but they also want to know they are making the world a better place,” she says. “In that regard, I am committed to the message that the reinsurance industry offers career opportunities which satisfy both goals.

As she collaborates with the rest of PartnerRe to continue moving in the right direction, Langford remains grateful for her latest role.

“At fifty-three, you don’t always get a chance to start over and learn something brand new,” she says. “One of the most invigorating things about my job change is that now I don’t know what every day is going to look like, and that’s been really exciting.”

We are proud to partner with Joy Langford and the team at PartnerRe.

“When I started working in the insurance industry, it was not uncommon for me to be the only woman in the room at meetings.”

Freedman Normand Friedland LLP specializes in resolving complex legal and business challenges. In today’s fast-paced and dynamic global environment, individuals and corporations require innovative and tech-savvy legal counsel to help resolve high-stakes business disputes. FNF couples a unique brand of creative thinking and technical expertise with well-balanced, aggressive advocacy to achieve impressive results across a variety of practice areas including complex insurance and reinsurance disputes, start-up disputes, securities litigation, white collar defense, cryptocurrency, and class actions.

Freedman Normand Friedland LLP

99 Park Ave., Suite 1910 | New York, NY 10016 | www.fnf.law

People & Companies

Paul Bartusiak P45 Motorola Solutions

Theresa McManus Becerril P120 Chico’s FAS Inc.

John Bisordi P64

Vanguard

Chris Bugel P138 Transurban

Rich Butler P32

Netflix

Juliette Campbell P94 T-Mobile

Ed Diggs P141 Bechtel Corporation

Mick Dragash P67 Cavco Industries

Dawn Ehlers P70 Cengage Group

Afigo Fadahunsi P79

Verisk

Alex Frisbie P40 Carrier Corporation

Micah Galindo P18 USAA

Tasha Grinnell P110 The Container Store

Seth Jewell P76 FedEx Express

John Kim P84 General Motors

Tania Kricfalusi P104

NBCUniversal

Joy Langford P144 PartnerRe

Richard Leach P50 Bosch

Stephanie Miller P132 US Foods

Karen Morao P10 Hyundai North America

Paul Noonan P90 United Airlines

John Poliak P100

Halliburton

Jennifer Quinn P24

Omron Management Center of America

Kirstin Silberschlag P15

Valero Energy Corporation

Francesca Silverman P22

Mastercard

Jeff Tang P59 Circle

Natalie Troilo P124

DICK’S Sporting Goods

Beth Wendle P116

DoorDash

Tao Zhang P54

Juniper Networks Inc.

CHECK OUT OUR IP INSIGHT REPORT

For two decades, Acacia Research has worked on behalf of inventors and universities to ensure that their inventions and ideas aren’t infringed upon, either knowingly or unknowingly, by the private sector. Acacia and Modern Counsel teamed up to gain valuable insight about internal inbound patent license requests from industry experts.

Director of Patents

Rich Butler is an integral member of Netflix’s legal team. Read about our cover star’s second job as a sustainable farmer.

PHOTOS BY CASS DAVIS

How did you become interested in farming?

Before my husband and I bought this farm, we weren’t really interested in farming. We fell in love with the farm and the location, and that really motivated us to become farmers.

How did you learn how to farm?

We learned through the generosity of farmers, the power of Google, and the strength of our extension program that helps new farmers start out here in Oregon.

The local community is also very vibrant. We moved from the San Francisco Bay area and have adjusted

nicely. We really enjoy the local folks here and enjoy the community and its various aspects. There are a lot of people like us who are on the small side and do really innovative things. All sorts of interesting things happen in the Pacific Northwest, and we are thrilled to be part of that community.

What are your primary roles on the farm?

My husband and I have divided the roles pretty evenly. I enjoy playing around with the big equipment like driving the tractors. I do all of the cultivation, planting, and harvesting of the feed for our cattle. My husband is

responsible for cattle health, breeding, and calving—the other side of things.

How do you make time for both the farm and a leadership role at a large company?

It’s tough to carve out the time. I think we’ve really learned to manage our time carefully and plan ahead. That’s been successful both with farming and doing my legal work.

How does farming inspire your work as an attorney?

It’s like a different side of my life. Farming is something extremely tangible and something I can do

and see results right away. It helps me become more creative in my intellectual property job, and my IP job actually helps me become a more creative farmer.

Farming is humbling, as well. You are reliant on your animals, you are reliant on nature and the weather to be successful. I’m here to serve the cows and their needs. It’s very different than working on patent strategy.

How has your life changed since moving to the farm?

I spend more time with my family than I did before because we are working on the farm together. We have gotten the

chance to meet incredible people who have become our customers and friends over the last decade or so of raising cattle and providing meat for families. That bleeds over to my Netflix role as well where some of my coworkers buy meat from us. The farm has helped us create a much fuller life.

To learn more about Butler’s farm, visit verdanthillsfarm.com.

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