2011 Sep/Oct - Diversity & The Bar Magazine

® September/October 2011

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GEN ERAL CO U NSEL SU RVEY PLUS:

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MEASURING THE PROGRESS OF WOMEN AND MINORITY GENERAL COUNSEL

THE PROBLEM WITH CORPORATE BOARD DIVERSITY PAGE 40 MCCA WELCOMES NEW CEO JOE WEST! PAGE 46 Three successful general counsel: Hyatt’s Rena Reiss, Sara Lee’s Paulette Dodson, and United Continental’s Brett Hart ®

D I V E R S I T Y

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I N G R E D I E N T

At Perkins Coie, diversity is an essential ingredient that helps us create the best solutions for our clients. We value and encourage diverse viewpoints and draw upon them to resolve our clients’ business and legal challenges. Diversity adds perspective and creativity to what we do. It is a key ingredient to our success.

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Dykema’s commitment to diversity is

100% That’s the number of departments and industry groups within Dykema in which female, minority or LGBT attorneys practice.

Dykema is a leading national law firm, serving business entities worldwide on a wide range of complex business issues. Dykema lawyers and other professionals in ten U.S. offices work in close partnership with clients — from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies — helping them achieve their business goals.

Dykema’s commitment to diversity extends from recruitment of new hires, to retention and advancement of accomplished practitioners, to recognition of those who make outstanding contributions to these initiatives.

Our diverse and inclusionary workplace helps us deliver outstanding results, unparalleled service and exceptional value.

To learn more, we invite you to call Sherrie Farrell, Chair of Dykema’s Diversity Committee, at 313.568.6550.

www.dykema.com/diversity California | Illinois | Michigan | North Carolina | Texas | Washington, D.C. © 2011 Dykema Gossett PLLC Attorney Advertising

September/October 2011

FEATURES

18 MCCA’s 2011 Fortune 500 General Counsel Survey MCCA presents its annual report on women and minority general counsel of Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies—for the first time ever in the same issue—examining current trends and recent developments for the diverse leaders of America’s most successful corporations. Six exceptional general counsel are profiled: Sheila Cheston, Northrup Grummon; Paulette Dodson, Sara Lee; Brett Hart, United Continental Holdings; Hyun Park, PG&E; Rena Reiss, Hyatt Hotels; and Laura Witte, Cargill Inc.

40 The Final Glass Ceiling

p.18 Brett Hart, Paulette Dodson, and Rena Reiss

Women have climbed the corporate ladder, yet positions on boards remain elusive. MCCA investigates this disparity and how governing boards can evolve to reflect the consumer base they serve. BY JONATHAN GRONER

Photography by Matthew Gilson. Diversity & the Bar thanks United Continental Holdings for hosting the photo shoot in its Chicago headquarters.

COLUMNS

DEPARTMENTS

8 Notes from the Editor

44 Association Focus

10 Perseverance in Profile

Muslim Bar Association of New York

Highlighting the contributions and talents of attorneys with disabilities.

Sarah Deer

BY TOM CALARCO

14 Lawyer’s Lantern Offering illuminating professional guidance for your career.

BY LORI L . GARRETT

16 Spotlighting Mary E. Kennard

BY PATRICK FOLLIARD

BY KARA MAYER ROBINSON

46 Diversity News MCCA welcomes new President & CEO Joe West!

BY JOSHUA H . SHIELDS

48 Movers & Shakers 50 The Scale MCCA Weighs the News

BY JOSHUA H . SHIELDS

2011 STRATEGIC DIVERSITY SPONSORS

p.40 CORRECTION: In last issue’s “Women Grab the Gavel,” D&B reported that President Obama had appointed double the number of women than President George W. Bush. In fact, President Obama has appointed double the percentage, not the number. Obama appointments to date are 47 percent women, to Bush’s 22 percent, and President Bill Clinton’s 28 percent.

MCCA® Law Department Members

The Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) acknowledges the support of the following law departments whose financial contributions have helped to advance the goal of furthering diversity in the legal profession.

MCCA® Board Of Directors Richard S. Amador Partner, Sanchez & Amador, LLP

Michelle Banks Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Gap, Inc.

Clarissa Cerda General Counsel & Secretary, LifeLock, Inc.

A. B. Cruz III Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc.

Anthony K. Greene Director, Jamison Insurance Group

Gary F. Kennedy Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer, American Airlines, Inc.

Nancy Lee Senior Vice President & Deputy General Counsel Marriott International, Inc.

Don H. Liu Senior Vice President, General Counsel, & Secretary, Xerox Corporation

Hinton J. Lucas Vice President & Assistant General Counsel DuPont Company

Robbie E. B. Narcisse Vice President-Global Ethics & Business Practices Pitney Bowes Inc.

Samuel M. Reeves

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Senior Vice President, General Counsel Walmart U.S. Legal

Thomas L. Sager Senior Vice President & General Counsel DuPont Company

Robin H. Sangston Vice President, Legal Affairs and Chief Compliance Officer, Cox Communications, Inc.

Kenneth S. Siegel Executive Vice President & General Counsel Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. Corporate Vice President & Deputy General Counsel Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft Corporation

Lawrence P. Tu Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Dell, Inc.

Simone Wu Senior Vice President & General Counsel XO Holdings, Inc.

DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

Genentech, Inc. General Electric Company General Mills Inc. GlaxoSmithKline Graduate Management Admission Council Hewlett-Packard Company H.J. Russell & Company Halliburton Harley-Davidson Motor Company Honeywell IBM Intel Corporation International Paper Company ITT Corporation JC Penney Company, Inc. JetBlue Airways Corporation Johnson & Johnson JPMorgan Chase Bank NA JM Family Enterprises, Inc. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. KeyCorp Kraft Foods Kroll, Inc. Law School Admission Council (LSAC) Leo Burnett Company LexisNexis Liberty Mutual Insurance Company Lifelock, Inc. Lighthouse Document Technologies Liquidity Services, Inc. Macy’s, Inc. Marriott International, Inc. MassMutual Financial Group Mattel, Inc. McDonald’s Corporation Merck & Co., Inc. Microsoft Corporation MillerCoors Monsanto Company Morgan Stanley National Grid Navistar, Inc. Neighborhood Defender Service Newegg Inc. New York Life Insurance Company Nike, Inc. Nsoro, LLC Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited Office Depot Pacific Gas and Electric Company Pepco Holdings, Inc.

PepsiCo, Inc. Pfizer Inc. Pitney Bowes, Inc. PPG Industries, Inc. Porzio Pharmaceutical Services, LLC PRAXAIR, INC. Premier Media, Inc. Prudential Financial Quest Diagnostics Incorporated Qwest Communications Reckitt Benckiser, Inc. Reed Elsevier, Inc. Rockwell Collins Rolls Royce North America Sara Lee S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. Sears, Roebuck and Co. Sempra Energy Shell Oil Company Sodexo Sony Electronics, Inc. Southern California Edison Company Staples, Inc. Starbucks Coffee Company Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. Synopsys, Inc. Target Corporation Tessera North America, Inc. The Church Pension Fund The Clorox Company The Coca-Cola Company The Dow Chemical Company The Juilliard School The Vanguard Group, Inc. The Walt Disney Company The Williams Companies, Inc. Toll Brothers, Inc. Tyson Foods Inc. UBS UnitedHealth Group United Parcel Service United Technologies Corporation U.S. Food Service, Inc. Verizon Walmart Stores, Inc. WellPoint, Inc. Waste Management Wells Fargo & Company Xerox Corporation XO Holdings, Inc. Zenith Insurance Company

MCCA® Law Firm Affiliates

Mary E. Snapp

Advertising For advertising inquiries, contact Alexandra K. Kahl, ACC, at kahl@acc.com.

MCCA® Membership Please visit our web site at www.mcca.com for membership and other information.

General Information and Address Changes Send your questions, complaints, and compliments to MCCA®, Editor, Diversity & the Bar®, 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004. Address changes should be sent to MCCA’s Director of Membership and Development at 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004.

Permissions and Reprints Reproduction of Diversity & the Bar in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. The Copyright Act of 1976 prohibits the reproduction by photocopy machine or any other means of any portion of this issue, except with the permission of MCCA. To obtain permission, contact: Joshua H. Shields, Editor-in-Chief, 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004.

3M Company AT&T Accenture LLP AdvoServ AECOM Allstate Insurance Altria Group, Inc. American Airlines, Inc. American Express Company American Lawyer Media Aon Corporation AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals Bank of America Benistar Admin Services, Inc. Boehringer Ingelheim Corporation Booz Allen Hamilton BP America Inc. Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Capital One Caraustar Industries, Inc. Cargill Inc. Catalent Pharma Solutions Catholic Healthcare West Chevron Corporation CIGNA Corporation CITGO Corporation Colgate-Palmolive Company Compass Group, The Americas Computer Science Corporation ConAgra Foods, Inc. ConocoPhillips Consolidated Edison Co. of N.Y. Constellation Energy Cox Communications Credit Suisse First Boston LLC Deere & Company Del Monte Foods Corporation Dell Inc. DHL Express Diageo North America Duke Energy DuPont DynCorp International Eaton Corporation Eli Lilly and Company Entergy Corporation Estée Lauder Exelon Business Services Company Fannie Mae Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco Freddie Mac Gap Inc.

MCCA® acknowledges the decision of the following law firms who have joined with MCCA to advance the goal of furthering diversity in the legal profession.

Bressler, Amery & Ross PC Bricker & Eckler LLP Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens & Cannada, PLLC Davis & Gilbert LLP DeMahy Labrador & Drake, PA Epstein, Becker & Green, PC Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto Frost Brown Todd LLC Goldberg Segalla, LLP

Ice Miller LLP Igbanugo Partners International Law Firm Kenyon & Kenyon LLP King Branson LLC Lathrop & Gage LLP McGuireWoods LLP Montgomery, Barnett, Brown, Read, Hammond & Mintz LLP Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP Pepper Hamilton, LLP Porzio, Bromberg & Newman, PC Rivero Mestre, LLP

Copyright Copyright® 2011 by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association. Diversity & the Bar is published six times a year and is distributed to supporters and subscribers, 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004.

The information contained in this publication has been provided to the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA®) by a variety of independent sources. While MCCA makes every effort to present accurate and reliable information, MCCA does not endorse, approve, or certify such information, nor does MCCA guarantee the accuracy, completeness, efficacy, or chronological sequence of any such information. Use of such information on the readers’ part is entirely voluntary and reliance upon it should be undertaken only upon independent review and due diligence.

References herein to any commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, service mark, manufacturer, or otherwise shall not constitute or imply endorsement, preference, recommendation, or the favor of MCCA. MCCA (including its employees and agents) assumes no responsibility for consequences resulting from the use of the information herein, or in any

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

Rooney Rippie & Ratnaswamy, LLP Sanchez & Amador, LLP Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP Steptoe & Johnson LLP Sughrue Mion PLLC Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP Thompson Hine LLP Waas Campbell Rivera Johnson & Velasquez LLP Winston & Strawn LLP Zuber & Taillieu LLP

respect for the content of such information, including (but not limited to) errors or omissions, the accuracy or reasonableness of factual or other data, including statistical or scientific assumptions, studies or conclusions, the defamatory nature of statements, ownership of copyright or other intellectual property rights, and the violation of property, privacy, or personal rights of others. MCCA is not responsible for, and expressly disclaims and denies liability for, damages of any kind arising out of use, reference to, or reliance upon such information. No guarantees or warranties, including (but not limited to) any express or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular use or purpose, are made

by MCCA with respect to such information.

Copyright in this publication, including all articles and editorial information contained herein, is exclusively owned by MCCA and MCCA reserves all rights to such information.

MCCA is a tax-exempt corporation organized in accordance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Its tax ID number is 13-3920905.

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n o i t th A a t i v n I l e s n u o C G eneral

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Diversity Leadership Summit April 19-21, 2012 | Doral Resort & Spa | Miami, Florida

with the support of

Save the Date!

April 19-21, 2012

The Minority Corporate Counsel Association, with the support of Association of Corporate Counsel, invite you to attend the 9th Annual GCI Diversity Leadership Summit. Join us for an opportunity to enhance your CLE experience with unparalleled networking, superb business development forums, and unique events that help cultivate long-term professional relationships. The GCI supports the Lloyd M. Johnson Jr. Scholarship Program which is MCCA’s principal program to assist diverse students in their pursuit of a career in law.

Make your CLE Experience Count!

For sponsorships or registration information visit www.mcca.com/golf or contact Jennifer Chen, Vice President - External Relations, at 202-739-5902 or jenchen@mcca.com

The Official Airline of the 9th Annual GCI

Notes

From the Editor

I

LIKE TO ILLUSTRATE THE VALUE OF DIVERSITY BY WAY OF A BAR GAME.

8

Bar trivia—or simply trivia—is the epitome of randomness. Questions can come from anywhere.

It does absolutely no good to show up to trivia games with the same four people you grew up with, your classmates and friends.

The best way to be prepared for trivia is to make sure your partners are from diverse backgrounds. A multilingual historian with an aptitude for geography, a gossipy socialite, an opera and art history buff, a nerdy sports fanatic, and an art-school DJ for the audio category, makes the perfect team, depending on the bar.

Of course you always go out with your classmates and friends, so you lose. But when you are in charge of a Fortune 500 company you can be faced with any problem, or question, no matter how random, at any time. That’s why diversity of opinion is important.

No one appreciates that idea more than MCCA’s new President and CEO Joe West. We are excited to have him as our new team captain. You can read about Joe’s life and career in our Diversity News section.

The six Fortune 1000 general counsel profiled in this issue share how they rose to top risk manager for their respective companies. MCCA’s first-ever duel survey of women and minority general counsel reflects the status of diversity at the highest levels of American business.

We also explore why the corporate boards are often the least diverse aspect of companies, and how that can be improved.

We hear from the general counsel from one of the most diverse universities in the country, American U’s Mary Kennard, and Sarah Deer, an influential Native American attorney, shares her passion for women’s issues and tribal affairs.

Following the monthlong observance of Ramadan, D&B profiles MuBANY, the Muslim Bar Association of New York. The five-year-old organization is dedicated to educating the legal community and general public about the significant obstacles facing the American Muslim populace.

I hope this magazine provides a variety of interesting articles for our readers. Who knows what that next question might be?

JOSH SHIELDS

Editor-in-Chief MCCA_law

www.facebook.com/mcca.law

Publications Staff President & CEO Joseph K. West Founder and Publisher Emeritus Lloyd M. Johnson Jr. Editor-in-Chief Joshua H. Shields

DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

Publishing Consultants Bill Cox Toni Coleman Advertising Kevin Buck Lucy M. Jones Alexandra K. Kahl Design/Art Direction QuadCreative

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

MCCA® Staff Jennifer Chen Mahzarine Chinoy David Chu Donna Crook Brandon M. Fitzgerald Lori L. Garrett Jessica Martinez Andrea Pimm Connie Swindell-Harding

Contributing Writers Frost Burnett Telegadas Tom Calarco Patrick Folliard Lori L. Garrett Jonathan Groner Kara Mayer Robinson Joshua H. Shields Thomas Thelkeld

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Perseverance in Profile

SARAH DEER — ADVOCATE FOR NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN

BY TOM CALARCO

When she was in the second grade, Sarah Deer came across an article in a children’s magazine about women’s suffrage. She noticed to her surprise that women didn’t get the right to vote until 1920.

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“I

thought it was a typo, at the time,” she says. “I got angry and went to my mom. This should be 1820 or 1720 or 1620, I thought.

I have a very visceral memory of that moment, and I had difficulty wrapping my head around the idea of a society in which women were treated less equal than men. I began to think that maybe the world is not a very fair place, and this was disappointing to me.”

It was the beginning of Deer’s devotion to the cause of women’s rights.

A professor at the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, MN, Deer has written broadly about Native women’s history and rights and worked tirelessly to improve the administration of justice, despite battling potentially debilitating diagnoses of bipolar disorder and breast cancer.

Deer, a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, sought out stories about

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

“strong women doing innovative things.” She was inspired by tales of the first woman doctor, of the first woman to fly an airplane, and more particularly, the story of Victoria Woodhull, a 19th-century political activist who ran for president.

“She was a renegade,” Deer says, “more radical than Elizabeth Cady Stanton or Susan B. Anthony. She didn’t think things were moving fast enough. She was really rocking the boat, and a brave woman.”

Thinking about these valiant pioneers allowed Deer to summon the courage needed to work at a Wichita, Kansas, abortion clinic during high school.

“I couldn’t understand why people wanted to interfere in other’s healthcare,” she says.

Given the passion she developed at an early age for women’s causes, it was probably unsurprising that Deer would major in Women’s Studies at the University of Kansas at Lawrence, and became very active in women’s groups, belonging to the university’s women’s pro-choice group. There she became an activist for issues related to sexual assault and violence against women, and volunteered at the local Douglas County Rape-Victim Survivor Service.

Her efforts were recognized during her senior year, when she received the school’s Outstanding Woman Student in Community Service award.

Deer’s father, who was a judge, encouraged her to enter the legal profession, and she enrolled at her alma mater’s law school.

In law school her interest continued to focus on violent crimes against women, and she became assistant director MCCA.COM

passion for women’s issues and tribal issues began to intersect.”

Following law school, she became a program administrator for the STOP Violence Against Indian Women grant program of the U.S. Department of Justice, where she helped nonprofits get funding.

She also established CAVNET, Communities Against Violence Network, a listserv she began through Yahoo groups in August 2001 that today has 350 members.

“My goal was to use the Internet as a tool,” she says. “I post information almost daily about violence against women, to keep people informed

I had difficulty wrapping my head around the idea of a society in which women were treated less equal than men. of the Douglas County Rape-Victim Survivor Service. It was during this time that she connected with her Native American roots.

“I was not directly connected to the Creek Nation until I was a young adult. I had made the connection with my heritage by the time I was a law student, and so that is really where my

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about all the work being done. At that time I felt very isolated. My goal was to try to break down the isolation so people could communicate across the world to break it down.”

In 2002, Deer joined the Tribal Law and Policy Institute (TLPI) as a staff attorney. The Native American owned and operated nonprofit corporation based in Hollywood, California, promotes the culture of Native peoples through education, research, training, and legal assistance. It was here that her passion for women’s rights and her kinship with her Native roots coalesced into what has become the driving force of her career. She embarked on a study of the history of the genocide of Native culture by European and later American society, which has resulted in the publication of several scholarly papers on the topic. She was drawn to the narrative that revealed a historical pattern of violence and sexual violation against Native women that continues to the present day: American Indian

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Many people are aware that the U.S. was less than honest and peaceful in dealing with Indian people, but there is a sense that these things happened long ago and that the issues do not linger.

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and Alaska Native women are more than two and a half times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than white women (in the United States).

Furthermore, because of a complex legal history that has hamstrung Native reservations in their ability to prosecute non-Native individuals, the prosecution of perpetrators has been difficult.

Deer also worked with tribal governments on revising and improving their laws and policies regarding domestic violence.

“One tribe I particularly remember is the Little River Bay Band of Odawa Indians in Michigan,” she says. “They completely revised their statutory response to domestic violence and have adopted a very progressive, victim-centered code.”

In 2006 Deer was hit hard by adversity. She was diagnosed as being bipolar and as having breast cancer.

“I went through six months of chemotherapy and seven surgeries,” she says.

Despite this, she kept working.

“I had a bed desk and used my laptop,” she says. “The job required a lot of travel, so I began to consider other possible career options. I was working in the St. Paul office when I got sick, and I thought I could do something part-time as a teacher.

Then this full-time opportunity came DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

up coincidentally.”

The job was with William Mitchell College of Law, where she is now an assistant professor teaching Tribal, Federal Indian, and Constitutional Law; Legal Writing and Representation; and Criminal Procedure. Deer also continues to work for the TPLI as a Victim Advocacy Legal Specialist in its St. Paul office.

She also does consultant work for the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Indian Health Service (IHS).

She lectures law enforcement professionals on the proper responses to crime on Native lands. “The IHS provides the bulk of training for federal law enforcement on how to respond to violent crime in Indian country.”

The avid reader as a child has become a prolific writer. Sharing Our Stories of Survival: Native Women Surviving Violence is a book she edited.

“It was written by Native women and poets. There wasn’t enough literature out there to get people educated about this.”

Another major work is her scholarly treatise: Relocation Revisited: Sex Trafficking of Native Women in the United States, published last year in the William Mitchell College of Law Review, traces the history from the

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

colonial period to the present day of the violence and sexual abuse of Native women.

“I think that mainstream American society has been reluctant to acknowledge the ongoing impact of historical actions,” she says. “It seems many people are aware that the United States was less than honest and peaceful in dealing with Indian people, but there is a sense that these things happened long ago—and that the issues do not linger. Violent crime is one example of how colonization is ongoing—for many Native people, it isn’t ‘over’—even if the mainstream history textbooks suggest that it is.”

Most recently, Deer testified on behalf of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) and AIUSA’s Native American and Alaska Native Advisory Council before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Oversight Hearing on “Native Women: Protecting, Shielding, and Safeguarding Our Sisters, Mothers, and Daughters.” She described the problem of sexual violence and abuse against Native women and the difficulty in prosecuting offenders.

“While recent steps have been made to begin to address some of the issues that American Indian and Alaska Native populations face in the United States,” she said, during her testimony, referring to the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010, “it will take more than one piece of legislation to comprehensively address the impact of this significant historical legacy of discrimination and abuse.”

Deer is committed to the fight for the rights of women and Native women in particular. She enjoys both her work as an academic and activist.

“I’m very lucky to be in a career that’s so fulfilling,” she says. “Some people search their entire life to match their passions and their career. I’m very fortunate to be in a career where I’m making a difference.” D&B Tom Calarco is a freelance writer based in Altamonte Springs, Fla. MCCA.COM

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Nadira previously served as an Assistant U.S Attorney with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, and a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. She has also held various other positions with the Department of Justice, including the Environmental Crimes Section and the Natural Resources Section of the Environment & Natural Resources Division. Her service at the Justice Department culminated in a two year stint as Assistant Counsel in the Office of Professional Responsibility, where she lead several high profile internal investigations into allegations of professional misconduct against high level Department of Justice officials. She is currently the Chair of the Firm’s White Collar Litigation Practice Section.

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The firm was profiled in a December, 2010 Forbes magazine piece entitled “The Power of One,” in which Ms. Williams was characterized as “one of the most highly regarded real estate attorneys in the state.” She was honored in June, 2011 by Commercial Real Estate WomenLos Angeles as one of its three “Women at the Top.” Ms. Williams is a frequent speaker and has published over 30 articles. She was the 2006-2007 Chair of the Real Property Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and has been elected to honorary membership in associations including the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and the American College of Mortgage Attorneys.

Ms. Williams chaired the California State Bar Real Property Section Committee that drafted California Civil Code Section 2938, the most comprehensive state law on assignments of rents in real estate finance transactions in the country. The law was used as a model for a Uniform Law that has now been adopted, modified or unmodified, in four states.

Norma attended Wesleyan University (Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and U.C. Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall).

She was trained at major California and national law firms.

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Lawyer’s Lantern

SUCCESSFULLY MANAGING ACROSS DIFFERENCES: 8 TIPS FOR LEADING DIVERSE TEAMS

BY LORI L. GARRETT

What do the following sentences have in common?

• It is parental leave now, not maternity leave.

• Our company is becoming more global.

• We have to learn about different cultures for

our business to grow.

• My team is getting younger and younger.

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• The company’s offshoring has increased.

• Many of my direct reports have asked about

partner benefits.

• Our group deals with international time zones

when we meet with clients.

• The department should look at the calendar

to see if that conflicts with Ramadan.

• We are outsourcing more.

T

hese are all examples of statements from managers of diverse teams.

These sentences signify the real differences, from cultural to generational, amongst team members.

They also bring to mind policies in the workplace that help all team members feel more included, like providing parental leave for fathers, offering same-sex partner benefits, and recognizing diverse religious holidays. If you are a manager, I am sure you have thought about how

DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

you can best lead your team. But have you ever taken the diversity of your team into account? The tips below are meant to provide managers with specific strategies for successfully leading their diverse teams.1 TIP 1: Create Diverse Teams. I have assumed that your team is already diverse when, in fact, you may need to be reminded that you are a decision maker who can impact the advancement of diversity in your organization by intentionally creating diverse teams to work on projects. Good managers find ways to create diverse teams that include a variety of perspectives, representation from multiple constituencies, and different voices. The broader the range of contributions, the better decisions your team will make.2 TIP 2: Do Not Assume Others Share Your Point of View.

Did you know that I have an innate bias that assumes others have the same wants and needs as me? You have the same bias. Every one of us has this bias because we all form opinions based on our own preferences and perspectives and often give too much weight to these opinions when making decisions and assessments.3 Naturally, an extra helping of one individual’s preferences and perspectives can adversely affect a diverse team’s ability to achieve the best results.

TIP 3: Encourage Risk Taking. Successful managers of diverse teams encourage their direct reports to take well-considered, deliberate risks. I am not talking about encouraging your team to take wild, uneducated, bet-the-company-and-get-you-fired kind of risks. I am talking about encouraging your direct reports to MCCA.COM

and tactics with their team. The gold is in the different viewpoints of your diverse team members, so if you never ask for those viewpoints, you are certainly burying your treasure. Brainstorming for a diverse team is the most effective when everyone suspends judgment until all the ideas are on the table.

The most powerful questions are short, open-ended, and begin with “what” or “how.” take on assignments in unfamiliar areas, go outside of their comfort zones, accept stretch assignments, and act in ways that do not come natural or easy to them. A manager who encourages her team to take these types of risks will see payoffs in her team’s personal growth and increased confidence.4 Along these lines, the more a supervisor delegates to his/her diverse direct reports, the more the team can develop its full potential by having the opportunity to learn from mistakes.

TIP 4: Ask Powerful Penetrating Questions. It is said that the most powerful questions are short, usually seven words or less, open-ended, and begin with “what” or “how.”5 Here are some examples: What do you want to be different? What’s important about that? How will you know if it works?

What concerns you most? How important is this? How can I support you? Asking these kinds of probing questions will get your team thinking and will elicit more valuable input from the group as you seek to make decisions on behalf of and act in the best interest of your company.

TIP 5: Encourage Team Members to Come to Their Own Conclusions First. Let’s put Tip 4 to good use in Tip 5 by offering another way you might approach your diverse team: “Before I tell you what I think we should do, team, I want to hear from you. What do you think?” Rather than telling people what to do, effective managers of diverse teams brainstorm strategies

TIP 6: Provide and Solicit Regular Feedback. Offering your diverse team regular feedback allows you as the manager to address items as they surface, before small concerns grow into big problems. However, managers should also ask their team for feedback about the manager’s effectiveness in leading the team. This “upward,” or 360-degree, feedback provides managers with an opportunity to hear directly about how their management style and approach affects the team and what can be done to help to improve a team leader’s supervisory performance.

TIP 7: Model Acceptance and Inclusion. Teams look to their leaders for cues on how to treat others, and what is important to the team, its leaders, and the company. If a leader does not demonstrate acceptance or inclusion of diverse individuals and their different perspectives, expect his staff to do the same thing. Good managers have taken it upon themselves to learn about the differences in values that come from the different backgrounds of their team members, whether that is because of cultural differences, generational differences, gender differences, or the other myriad ways that make the individuals on diverse teams unique. Good managers also seek to understand how their team members communicate differently and encourage everyone to be respectful of different communication styles that may not be their own.

TIP 8: Seek Out Management Training. A great number of practicing lawyers graduate from undergrad, immediately enroll in law school, and begin practicing law as their first career without much formal management experience or training. One way that you can improve your ability to lead diverse teams is to get specific management and leadership training.

If you are interested in structured management training, check with your local or state bar, the various diverse bar associations, your area leadership academies, or other private consultation services for more information about what training might be available to you.

Leading any team is a challenge.

Leading diverse teams can, in some ways, be even more difficult because the manager is also taking into account the perspectives, values, backgrounds, and viewpoints of people who may be very different from one another. However, the benefits of learning how to manage teams that are diverse far exceed the challenges, and in the end, the results cannot only be a boon to the company, but also reflect positively on you, the team leader. D&B Lori L. Garret is MCCA’s vice president and managing director for MCCA’s southeast region. She heads MCCA’s professional development services.

1

A few of these tips are taken directly from an excellent article by Miriam Bamberger, CPCC, and Heather Bradley, CPCC, entitled “Put Me In, Coach!” that appeared in MCCA’s September/October 2004 issue of Diversity & The Bar®. The full article can be found at http://www.mcca.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.vie wPage&PageID=769&varuniqueuserid=15397084446.

2

See Miriam Bamberger and Heather Bradley, The Ins and Outs of Managing, Diversity & The Bar®, November/ December 2003 Issue, available online at http://www. mcca.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.viewPage&Pag eID=987&varuniqueuserid=15397084446

3

See id.

4

See Miriam Bamberger and Heather Bradley, Taking Risks as a Career Strategy, Diversity & The Bar®, March/ April 2005 Issue, available online at http://www.mcca. com/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.viewPage&PageID=7 80&varuniqueuserid=15397084446

5

See supra note 1.

15

Spotlighting

L

ike most universities, American faces a staggeringly broad spectrum of legal issues: “We [Kennard’s five-attorney legal department] cover almost every substantive area you can imagine: real estate, tax, contracts, and trust and estate questions.

16

THRIVING ON CAMPUS Mary E. Kennard

BY PATRICK FOLLIARD

For Mary E. Kennard, law school was meant to be a stepping stone on her way to becoming a local politician in her native Philadelphia. But as her first and second years progressed, and she became more interested in case law than canvassing and elections, her career goals took a turn. Today, Kennard is vice president, chief legal counsel, and secretary of the Board of Trustees for American University in Washington, D.C., and while she is not involved in municipal politics, Kennard says in many ways she feels like she is helping to run a small city.

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

“We have a radio station, so there’s broadcast law, and because we have a residence hall and police, there are issues of search and seizure. And then there’s athletics which involves NCAA Compliance, coaches’ contracts, and recruitment of athletes.”

Being GC at a diverse and international university (American runs over 30 world capitals study abroad programs along with international research) is not so different from working for any large corporation, Kennard says. “If you’re in-house you need to know the business line and be perceived by the other VPs as part of the solution, a partner in making the business successful.

What’s different [at American] is that we’re involved in so many different business lines.”

A university GC, Kennard continues, “must enjoy being a generalist or they will not be happy.”

Some schools with larger legal departments allow for more specialization, and universities with hospitals employ lawyers who focus exclusively on health law, but they are not the rule. Kennard adds, “It’s also important that a GC in higher education know their strengths and weaknesses, and be able to reach out for help when needed.”

An important source of support for Kennard and other university in-house counsel is the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA), a trade group whose purpose is to give legal assistance to colleges and universities by educating attorneys and administrators about campus legal issues.

Membership is comprised of hundreds of colleges and universities and their legal staffs throughout the U.S., Canada, and abroad. “It’s very helpful to be able to ask questions and get feedback from other schools, particularly when the legal department consists of one or two lawyers, which is sometimes the case,” says Kennard, who early in her career worked at NACUA and more recently served as the association’s president. “Legal issues tend to go across the country at the same time.

Large and small schools deal with similar matters; sometimes there are differences between state and private schools, but not a lot.”

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Similarly Kennard is active and involved in the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC). She contends that because universities and corporations share so many legal issues, programs and events at her local ACC chapter, have proven extremely helpful in managing outside counsel costs, law office management, and keeping up-to-date on employment law in the region.

When Kennard entered the world of higher education law in the early 1980s, most legal questions were centered on access to education and civil rights issues. Today, she explains, matters focus more on internationalization and intellectual property—trademarks, patents, and software. “We do a lot of recruiting on websites, so our trademarks are important to our branding, marketing, and student recruitment.”

The face of the practice area has changed as well: Kennard recalls finding an all-male legal depart-

education and volunteerism. “There was an expectation for me to go to school and succeed professionally but not necessarily in any prescribed area,” she says. “They wanted me to do whatever matched my interests.”

Upon graduating from Boston University with a bachelor’s degree in urban planning, she returned to her hometown to attend Temple University’s Beasley School of Law and possibly embark on a political career. As she became more and more smitten with law school, particularly her international law classes, thoughts of politics gradually faded.

After graduation, Kennard worked as an associate in the Philadelphia office of a national general service law firm for a year.

Unfulfilled with the experience, she transferred to the firm’s D.C. office; and though she left the firm entirely soon thereafter, Kennard remained in town and earned a

I like to make sure that my mentees know there are job options out there besides law firms and government agencies. I encourage them to investigate and ask questions. ment when she arrived at American 16 years ago. In fact, she says, all in-house counsel at local schools were made up of men. Today, almost all are women, and the number of minorities has increased as well.

Kennard is the daughter of scientists who taught her both the value of MCCA.COM

Master’s of Laws degree at George Washington University. While at school, she worked part-time at NACUA as a law clerk and later as Assistant Executive Director.

“My plan was to get my LLM and teach law, but then the trade association exposed me to a practice area that

I’d never heard about in law school.

Suddenly, I discovered that there were attorneys at colleges and universities doing really interesting work. I finally found my niche.”

At American, Kennard’s office is centrally located one block from the main campus in northwest D.C. Kennard’s proximity to students allows the enthusiastic mentor to interact frequently with aspiring attorneys. In addition to teaching a higher education law seminar at American University’s Washington College of Law, and employing both law students and undergraduates in her legal department, Kennard enjoys taking time to talk with young attorneys and students.

“I like to make sure that my mentees know there are job options out there besides law firms and government agencies. I encourage them to investigate and ask questions. Because I found my practice area rather fortuitously, it’s especially important that I encourage others to be on the lookout.”

For young attorneys who are already looking for work or advancement in university legal affairs, she advises, “You might have to go outside of the metro area to get ahead; a lot of people are competing for jobs in cities.

Take a risk, and do what you can to find work that fits your interest.”

Kennard foresees good things for higher education law. “It’s an expanding field in which diversity is truly perceived as an asset, and there’s a lot of opportunity for growth and advancement for women and minority lawyers.

“I believe the unique experiences of minorities and women are valued inside companies, particularly at senior levels of a company. In-house legal work afforded me the opportunity to grow and advance, and most importantly, raise a family. I enjoy the work, and I care about the university and its students.” D&B Patrick Folliard is a freelance writer based in Silver Spring, Md.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

17

RENA REISS, PAULETTE DODSON, AND BRETT HART AT THE CHICAGO HEADQUARTERS OF UNITED CONTINENTAL HOLDINGS.

FFORTUNE OR T UNE

MCCA’S ANNUAL SURVEY OF FORTUNE 500 WOMEN AND MINORITY GENERAL COUNSEL TRACKS DIVERSITY PROGRESS AT THE TOP LEGAL POSITION

FORTUNE

FORTUNE 500

2 0 11 G E N E R A L COUNSEL SURVE Y

20

MCCA THANKS FREEL ANCE WRITER THOMAS THELKELD FOR HIS WORK IN PREPARATION OF THIS ARTICLE, ANALYSIS OF THE SURVEY RESULTS, AND REL ATED RESEARCH; FROST BURNET T TELEGADAS FOR COMPLETING THE EXTENSIVE AND TIMECONSUMING SURVEY OF 1,000 COMPANIES TO COMPILE DATA ON RACE/ETHNICIT Y AND GENDER OF GENERAL COUNSEL; AND PATRICK FOLLIARD FOR AUTHORING THE PROFILES OF THE GENERAL COUNSEL FEATURED IN THIS ARTICLE.

FORTUNE MAGA ZINE PUBLISHED THE FIRST FORTUNE 500 IN 1955. BACK THEN THE LIST WAS RESTRICTED TO THE MANUFACTURING, MINING, AND ENERGY INDUSTRIES—THE ONLY COMPANIES REGARDED AS IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO MERIT SUCH A LIST. General Motors easily commanded the top position and current behemoths like Microsoft and Walmart were nowhere to be found. More than half a century later, the United States auto industry is rebuilding after a flirtation with extinction, and Walmart has redefined the way Americans shop for everything from jeans to avocados.

Meanwhile, software companies have created businesses virtually no one dreamt of in 1955, and much of the world waits impatiently for the next must-have i-gizmo to come out of the Cupertino, California, labs of Apple, Inc. American business looked different in 1955, in more ways than one. Lawyers were not as important in corporate America as they are now and the lawyers that mattered looked pretty much the same—white and male. The last half century brought great changes to our society, and big business has sometimes struggled to reflect and adapt to those changes. The rise of the women’s movement sent

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tens of millions of women into the workforce for the first time, and soon universities and law schools were churning out female candidates capable of competing with men at the highest levels of corporate America—even if corporate America wasn’t ready to let them compete.

Now, of course, we see women rising to the top of important U.S. companies, though not quite yet in the numbers we should. With women making up almost 50 percent of all U.S. law school graduates it is no surprise we see them moving into top positions in the increasingly vital legal departments of major U.S. corporations. The economic difficulties of the past few years saw a slight halting of the progress women have made in corporate law offices, but it now seems as if they will continue to take over general counsel jobs in more and more top U.S. companies.

Great progress has also been made by ethnic minorities in breaking into the upper ranks of corporate law divisions,

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21

though the gains do not match those of women generally. In 1955 an African American, Hispanic, or Asian general counsel at a major U.S. company would have been extremely unlikely and that, thankfully, is no longer the case. Today, some of the most famous American companies—such as McDonald’s and Google—employ general counsel of color. The recent economic downturn has hit

T HE C OMPA NIE S T H AT HE L P L E A D T HE U. S . EC ONOM Y MUS T A L S O DE MONS T R AT E T HE S UC C E S S OF T HE A ME R IC A N C ONC E P T OF ME LT ING P O T ME RI T OC R AC Y. MCCA.COM

minorities especially hard and progress is sometimes halting and uneven, but the continuing diversification of the U.S. populace makes advances in this area seem inevitable.

Many of the companies on the original Fortune 500 list are no longer important or even in existence. Younger, quicker rivals have taken their place, often in industries unknown more than half a century ago. The Fortune 500 list itself, however, has only grown in importance. Year after year the list attracts an enormous amount of attention from the public and generates thousands of news stories in this country and abroad. People pay attention to the Fortune 500 list because it tells us who are the biggest, the most successful, the most profitable, and the most influential American companies. The companies that drive much of the U.S. economy are on that list. Those companies matter enormously to America and that’s why it is so important that women and minority lawyers make progress in those companies. As women and minorities become more numerous and important in American society, it is essential that they make gains in the Fortune 500. The companies that lead the U.S. economy must also demonstrate the success of the American concept of melting pot meritocracy. We watch the Fortune 500 and the progress made by women and minority lawyers at those companies because it matters to women, to minorities, and to America.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

FORTUNE FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES

LIST OF WOMEN’S GENERAL COUNSEL

22

COMPANY

GENERAL COUNSEL

2011 RANK

2010 RANK

INDUSTRY

GROUPED BY INDUSTRY

Abbott Laboratories

Laura Schumacher

69

75

Pharmaceuticals

I

Advance Auto Parts

Sarah Powell

387

389

Motor Vehicles and Parts

K

AECOM Technology

Nancy Laben

353

352

Transportation, Logistics

G

AGCO

Debra Kuper

340

357

Industrial and Farm Equipment

L

Agilent Technologies

Marie Oh-Huber

419

461

Scientific, Photographic and Control Equipment

R

Allstate

Michele Coleman Mayes

89

68

Insurance: Property & Casualty (Stock)

B

Altria Group

Denise Keane

154

137

Tobacco and Other Products

Z

Amazon.com

Michelle Wilson

78

100

Internet Services and Retailing

Q

American Express

Louise Parent

91

88

Commercial Banks

F

Avaya

Pamela Craven¹

445

Telecommunications

H

Avery Dennison

Susan Miller

356

362

Chemcials

O

Avon Products

Kim Rucker

226

228

Household and Personal Products

E

Bank of New York Mellon Corp.

Jane Sherburne

165

274

Commercial Banks

F

Bemis

Sheri Edison¹

462

564

Specialty Retailers: Toilet Seats

E

Biogen Idec

Susan Alexander

476

471

Pharmaceuticals

I

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Sandra Leung

131

114

Pharmaceuticals

I

Campbell Soup

Ellen Oran Kaden

312

299

Food Consumer Products

J

CH2M Hill

Margaret McLean

422

381

Engineering, Construction

G

Charles Schwab

Carrie Dwyer

491

465

Securities

F

Chrysler Group

Holly Leese¹

59

Motor Vehicles

K

CHS

Lisa Zell

103

91

Wholesalers: Diversified

E

Chubb

Maureen Brundage

185

176

Insurance: Property & Casualty (Stock)

B

Cigna

Nicole Jones¹

122

129

Health Care: Insurance and Management

I

Clorox

Laura Stein

411

384

Household and Personal Products

E

Commerical Metals

Ann Bruder¹

361

327

Metals

L

Community Health Systems

Rachel Seifert

190

191

Health Care: Medical Facilities

I

ConAgra Foods

Colleen Batcheler

200

178

Food Consumer Products

J

ConocoPhillips

Janet Langford Kelly

4

6

Utilities: Gas and Electric

C

Consolidated Edison

Elizabeth Moore

184

175

Utilities: Gas and Electric

C

CSX

Ellen Fitzsimmons

230

259

Railroads

S

Cummins

Marya Rose

186

218

Construction

L J

Darden Restaurants

Teresa Sebastian

332

311

Food Services

DaVita

Kim Rivera

359

355

Health Care: Medical Facilities

I

Discover Financial Services

Kelly McNamara Corley

291

286

Commercial Banks

F

Dollar General

Susan Lanigan

188

195

General Merchandisers

E

Dominion Resources

Carter Reid

162

153

Utilities: Gas and Electric

C

Eastman Chemical

Theresa Lee

348

415

Chemicals

O

Eastman Kodak

Laura Quatela

327

297

Photo Control Equipment

R

Enterprise Products Partners

Stephanie C. Hildebrandt¹

80

Pipelines, Natural Gas Processing

C

Estee Lauder

Sara Moss

307

308

Household and Personal Products

E

Expeditors International of Washington

Amy Tangeman¹

384

507

Global Logistics

G

¹New to list. ²Ms. Stecher is co-general counsel with Gregory Palm. ³Replaced a woman on last year’s list

DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

MCCA.COM

2011 RANK

COMPANY

GENERAL COUNSEL

FedEx

Christine Richards

73

FirstEnergy

Leila Vespoli

183

2010 RANK

INDUSTRY

GROUPED BY INDUSTRY

60

Mail, Package, and Freight Delivery

T

179

Utilities: Gas and Electric

C E

Gap

Michelle Banks

167

162

Specialty Retailers

Genzyme

Karen Linehan

487

458

Pharmaceuticals

I

Goldman Sachs Group

Esta Stetcher²

54

39

Commercial Banks

F

Health Net

Angelee Bouchard

179

146

Health Care: Insurance and Management

I

Holly

Denise McWatters

289

431

Petroleum Refining

C

Honeywell International

Katherine Adams

81

74

Aerospace and Defense

R

Hormel Foods

Lori Marco

325

340

Consumer Food Products

J

Host Hotels & Resorts

Elizabeth Abdoo

494

492

Hotels, Casinos, Resorts

N

International Paper

Sharon Ryan

105

104

Forest and Paper Products

P

J.C. Penney

Janet Dhillon

146

133

General Merchandisers

E

J.M. Smucker

Mary Anne Harlan¹

482

540

Food Consumer Products

J N

Las Vegas Sands

Gayle Hyman

342

456

Hotels, Casinos, Resorts

Liberty Global

Elizabeth Markowski

255

210

Telecommunications

H

Lockheed Martin

Maryanne Lavan

52

44

Aerospace and Defense

R

Lubrizol

Suzanne Day¹

423

453

Chemicals

O

Marathon Oil

Sylvia Kerrigan

29

41

Utilities: Petroleum Refining

C

McDonald’s

Gloria Santona

111

108

Food Services

J

¹New to list. ²Ms. Stecher is co-general counsel with Gregory Palm. ³Replaced a woman on last year’s list

WOMEN’S GENERAL COUNSEL IT WAS ANOTHER GOOD YEAR FOR THE FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES, THOUGH, LIKE LAST YEAR, IT WAS NOT AS GOOD FOR AVERAGE AMERICANS. Although the United States has not been in recession since 2009, the recovery continues to be slow and halting, with unemployment stubbornly hovering around 9 percent and the housing market unable to lift itself out of the doldrums. Economic growth continues but many people remained too concerned about their jobs and mortgages to open their wallets enough to jump-start the sort of roaring recovery that Americans have come to expect as a natural part of the business cycle.

However, this year’s Fortune 500 companies rode a wave of profits by boosting productivity and cutting jobs and by relying on growing operations overseas—much as they did the year before. Total revenues in the Fortune 500 soared 10.5 percent to $10.8 trillion, and total profits ballooned 81 percent, leaving many of the nation’s biggest companies flush with cash.

American oil companies in particular had cause to celebrate, including the three of the top four companies on the Fortune 500 list—Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips—that

MCCA.COM

came from the petroleum refining industry. However, even the mighty oil giants could not knock Walmart, the global retailing titan, off its perch atop the list for the second straight year. The Arkansas-based corporation racked up an astonishing $421 billion in sales last year despite a sluggish economy and soft retail market. Like many other companies on this list, much of Walmart’s success last year was due to strong performance outside the United States.

Although they could not top Walmart this year, the oil companies enjoyed robust revenue. Exxon Mobil [2], which enjoyed an eye-popping $35.6 billion in profits, was tops on the list thanks in large part to high oil prices in 2010. Not to be outdone by much, Chevron [3] saw revenues rise by 20 percent to over $196 billion. Not far behind was ConocoPhillips [4], with almost $185 billion in revenues, a jump of 32.6 percent—higher than either ExxonMobil or Chevron. ConocoPhillips’ rise in profits of nearly 134 percent also easily topped its two bigger industry rivals.

There were some interesting changes in this year’s Fortune 500 list. Fannie Mae roared back into the top five, up from the 81st position last year, despite financial, legal, and political pressures. The top 10 also included two companies from America’s until-recently troubled auto industry, with General Motors—fresh out of bankruptcy—at seven

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

23

FORTUNE FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES

LIST OF WOMEN’S GENERAL COUNSEL COMPANY

24

GENERAL COUNSEL

2011 RANK

2010 RANK

INDUSTRY

GROUPED BY INDUSTRY

McKesson

Laureen Seeger

15

14

Wholesalers: Healthcare

I

Nash-Finch

Kathleen Mahoney

449

400

Wholesalers: Food and Grocery

J

Nationwide

Patricia Hatler

127

118

Insurance: Property & Casualty (Stock)

B

NCR

Jennifer Daniels¹

469

451

Telecommunications

H

New York Life Insurance

Sheila Davidson

71

64

Insurance: Life, Health (Mutual)

B

Nike

Hilary Krane¹

135

124

Apparel

E

NiSource

Carrie Hightman

362

336

Utilities: Gas and Electric

C

Northrup Grumman

Sheila Cheston

72

61

Aerospace and Defense

R

Office Depot

Elisa Garcia

211

192

Office Equipment

A

Oracle

Dorian Daley

96

105

Office Equipment

A

Owens & Minor

Grace den Hartog

295

283

Wholesalers: Healthcare

I

Pacific Life

Sharon Cheever

405

401

Insurance: Life, Health (Stock)

B

PepsiCo

Maura Abeln Smith

43

50

Food Consumer Products

J

PetSmart

Emily Dickinson

400

393

Specialty Retailers

E

Pfizer

Amy Schulman

31

40

Pharmaceuticals

I

PNC Financial Services Group

Helen Pudlin

151

123

Commercial Banks

F

Principal Financial

Karen Shaff

268

266

Insurance: Life, Health (Stock)

B

Procter & Gamble

Deborah Platt Majoras¹

26

22

Household and Personal Products

E

Prudential Financial

Susan Blount

64

65

Insurance: Life, Health (Stock)

B

R.R. Donnelley & Sons

Suzanne Bettman

247

240

Publishing, Printing

Q

Reliance Steel & Aluminum

Kay Rustand

367

394

Wholesalers: Diversified

E

Reynolds American

E. Julia “Judy” Lambeth

284

272

Tobacco and Other Products

Z

Sara Lee

Paulette Dodson

191

180

Food Consumer Products

J

Sealed Air

H. Katherine White

490

487

Packaging, Containers

T

Southwest Airlines

Madeleine Johnson

205

229

Airlines

M

Spectrum Group International

Carol Meltzer

381

480

Global Collectibles

E

St. Jude Medical

Pamela Krop

436

445

Medical Products and Equipment

I

Staples

Kristin Campbell

108

101

Office Equipment

A

Starbucks

Paula Boggs

229

241

Food Services

J

SunGard Data Systems

Victoria Silbey

434

380

Software, Technology Services

A

Sunoco

Stacy L. Fox

68

78

Petroleum Refining

C

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans

Teresa Rasmussen

318

342

Insurance: Life, Health (Mutual)

B

TJX

Ann McCauley

119

119

Specialty Retailers

E

TRW Automotive Holdings

Robin Walker-Lee¹

171

201

Motor Vehicles and Parts

K

United Parcel Service

Teri Plummer-McClure

48

43

Mail, Package, and Freight Delivery

T

Valero Energy

Kim Bowers

24

26

Petroleum Refining

C

VF

Candace Cummings

310

310

Apparel

E

Walgreen’s

Dana Green

32

32

Food and Drug Stores

D

Washington Post

Veronica Dillon

470

455

Publishing, Printing

Q

Wesco International

Diane Lazzaris

443

448

Wholesalers: Diversified

E

Whole Foods Market

Roberta Lang

273

284

Food and Drug Stores

D

¹New to list. ²Ms. Stecher is co-general counsel with Gregory Palm. ³Replaced a woman on last year’s list

DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

MCCA.COM

INDUSTRY*

%

#

A

Electronics, Office Equipment (A)

11

9

B

Insurance (B)

1.2

1

C

Energy, Gas, Petroleum Refining, Pipelines, Etc. (C)

13.4

11

D

Food & Drug Stores (D)

0

0

E

General Merchandisers, Speciality Retailers, Wholesalers: Diversified, etc. (E)

15.8

13

F

Financial Services: Diversified Financials, Securities, Banks (F)

9.8

8

G

Transportation & Logistics (G)

2.4

2

H

Telecommunications (H)

1.2

1

I

Pharmaceuticals, Medical Products & Equipment, Healthcare (I)

7.3

6

J

Food Services, Consumer Food Products (J)

3.7

3

K

Motor Vehicles (K)

3.7

3

L

Industrial & Farm Equipment (L)

1.2

1

M

Airlines (M)

0

0

N

Real Estate, Hotels & Casinos (N)

4.9

4

O

Chemicals (O)

4.9

4

P

Forest & Paper Products (P)

1.2

1

Q

Publishing, Printing (Q)

3.7

3

R

Scientific, Photo Control Equipment (R)

0

0

S

Railroads (S)

0

0

T

Mail, Packaging, Freight (T)

1.2

1

Z

Other (Z)

13.4

11

Total

100

82

*Percentage of all Fortune 500 Companies with women general counsel

BY RACE/ETHNICITY Race/Ethnicity*

%

#

Asian American/Pacific Islander

2

2

Hispanic

3

3

African American

8.9

9

Middle Eastern

1

1

Caucasian

85.1

86

Total

100

100

ASIAN AMERICAN/PACIFIC ISLANDER 2% HISPANIC 3% AFRICAN AMERICAN 8.9% MIDDLE EASTERN 1%

and Ford Motor at 10. The other U.S.-based auto company, Chrysler Group [59], returned to the Fortune 500 list this year after falling out of it, one of 19 companies to do so.

Another 10 companies made the list for the very first time.

PROMISING SIGNS This year, 101 women served as top legal officers in Fortune 500 companies, matching the increase of eight from the previous survey. The 2011 roster consists of 86 non-Hispanic whites/Caucasians (six more than last year), nine African Americans (two more than last year), three Hispanics, two Asian Pacific Americans, and one woman of Middle Eastern (Lebanese) origin. These consecutive year increases in the number of women GCs at the nation’s 500 largest companies offer a promising sign that women legal officers will continue to prosper in the nation’s biggest companies.

These corporate leaders run the legal offices of companies throughout the continental United States, but four states represent over 40 percent of this year’s list. Leading the way is California, which hosts 12 companies with women general counsel despite a drop of two from the previous year. New York is second with 11 companies with women general counsel, Texas is third with 10, and Illinois fourth with seven. All three states had each added one company employing a woman as general counsel in the last year.

The area of the country with the most women GCs on this list is the Midwest with 32 in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

The South accounted for 25 women GCs among Fortune 500 companies in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Next is the Northeast, with 23 women GC in Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Washington, D.C. Finally, the West contributed 21 women GC hailing from Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.

There are 19 new women general counsel in the Fortune 500 this year. Thirteen of these newcomers were named to existing Fortune 500 companies and six lead the legal departments of companies new to the Fortune 500: Holly Leese at Chrysler Group, Stephanie C. Hildebrandt at Enterprise Products Partners, Amy Tangeman of Expeditors International of Washington, Pamela Craven at Avaya, Sheri Edison at Bemis, and Mary Anne Harlan at J.M. Smucker.

Of the 13 women named general counsel at Fortune 500 companies, 10 replaced men. They are Deborah Platt Majoras at Procter & Gamble, Sylvia Kerrigan at Marathon Oil, Sheila Cheston at Northrup Grumman, Hilary Krane CAUCASIAN 85.1%

*Percentage of all Fortune 500 Companies with women general counsel

MCCA.COM

Continued on page 29

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

25

FORTUNE FORTUNE 501-1000 COMPANIES

LIST OF WOMEN’S GENERAL COUNSEL GENERAL COUNSEL

2011 RANK

2010 RANK

INDUSTRY

GROUPED BY INDUSTRY

Aaron's

Elizabeth Gibbs

917

915

Specialty Retailers

E

ABM Industries

Sarah Hlavinka McConnell

595

566

Diversified Outsourcing

Z

Adobe Systems

Karen Cottle

556

657

Computer Software

A

COMPANY

26

Albemarle

Karen Norwold¹

784

829

Chemicals

O

Alere

Ellen Chiniara

830

824

Healthcare

I

Allegheny Energy

Lelia Vespoli¹

548

571

Utlities: Natural Gas

C

Alliance Data Systems

Leigh Ann Epperson¹

693

847

Consumer Data

Z

Altera

Katherine Schuelke¹

888

Semiconductors

A

American Greetings

Catherine Kilbane

998

938

Publishing, Printing

Q

American Water Works

Kellye Walker

705

734

Miscellaneous

Z

Analog Devices

Margaret Seif

699

821

Semiconductors

A

ANN

Barbara Eisenberg

883

888

Apparel

E

AOL

Julie Jacobs¹

764

Asbury Automotive Group

Elizabeth Chandler

509

BMC Software

Denise Clolery

Bob Evans Farms

Mary Garceau

Boise Brunswick

Internet Services

E

532

Automotive Retailing

K

899

872

Computer Software

A

962

916

Food Services

J

Karen Gowland

848

839

Forest and Paper Products

P

Kristin Coleman

605

679

Specialty Retailers: Bowling and Billiards

E

482

CA

Amy Fliegelman

504

CareFusion

Joan Stafslien¹

524

Software Management

A

Medical Products

I

Celgene

Maria Pasquale

578

696

Pharmaceuticals

I

Cheesecake Factory

Debby Zurzolo

988

975

Food Services

J

Chemtura

Billie Flaherty

684

720

Chemicals

O

Church & Dwight

Susan Goldy

732

723

Household and Personal Products

E

Cincinnati Financial

Lisa Love

561

522

Diversified Financials

F

CME Group

Kathleen Cronin

668

706

Securities

F

Compass Diversified Holdings

Carrie Ryan¹

990

Acquisitions

Z

Convergys

Julie Houston

794

666

Diversified Outsourcing

Z

Corn Products International

Mary Ann Hynes

502

546

Food Consumer Products

J B

CUNA Mutual Group

Faye Patzer

683

692

Insurance: Life, Health (Stock)

Dentsply International

Deborah Rasin¹

819

787

Dentistry Products

Z

Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings

Caroline Manogue¹

967

Pharmaceuticals

I

Energizer Holdings

Gayle Stratmann

508

514

Household and Personal Products

E

Exide Technologies

Barbara Hatch

712

585

Motor Vehicles and Parts

K

First Solar

Mary Beth Gustafsson

739

809

Energy

C

FMC

Andrea Utecht

647

667

Chemicals

O

Frontier Communications

Kathleen Abernathy

558

794

Telecommunications

H

Global Payments

Suellyn Tornay

955

976

Financial Data

F

Granite Construction

Terry Eller

954

845

Engineering, Construction

L

Great Plains Energy

Heather Humphrey

810

844

Utilities: Gas and Electric

C

Green Plains Renewable Energy

Michelle Mapes¹

836

Ethanol Production

C

¹New to list

DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

MCCA.COM

COMPANY

GENERAL COUNSEL

2011 RANK

2010 RANK

GROUPED BY INDUSTRY

INDUSTRY

Guess

Debra Siegel

751

792

Apparel

E

Hanesbrands

Joia Johnson

505

524

Apparel

E

Hasbro

Barbara Finigan

538

511

Specialty Retailers: Toys, Games, Action Figures

E

Hyatt Hotels

Rena Reiss¹

581

Hotels, Casinos, Resorts

N

Inergy

Laura Ozenberger¹

946

Energy

C

International Flavors & Fragrances

Anne Chwat

725

755

Flavors and Fragrances

Z

Intuit

Laura Fennell

597

610

Computer Software

A

J. Crew Group

Jennifer O'Connor¹

964

984

Apparel

E

Kar Auction Services

Becca Polak

938

918

Automotive Auction Services

K

Kindred Healthcare

M. Suzanne Riedman¹

501

477

Health Care: Medical Facilities

I

Lam Research

Sarah Odowd¹

835

Semiconductors

A

LPL Investment Holdings

Stephanie Brown

648

686

Securities

F

LSI

Jean Rankin

736

775

Semiconductors

A

Martin Marietta Materials

Roselyn Bar

947

936

Building Materials

N

¹New to list

PROFILE RENA HOZORE REISS HYATT HOTELS CORPORATION ¹New to list GENERAL COUNSEL AND SECRETARY

“W

hen I assumed the role of general counsel at Hyatt, I quickly realized that I couldn’t be a transactional lawyer anymore,” Rena Reiss says. “It was no longer my role.

People were now looking to me as a resource for strategic advice.

“When you become GC, your lens grows wider, and you’re compelled to think about a broader range of immediate and long-range issues.

Even more so than in other in-house roles, you cannot answer questions only from a purely legal standpoint. You must consider all the pieces, both legal and business. What does something mean for the company in terms of strategic direction, operation of the business, compliance and governance?”

Being able to think in a new and different way comes through experience, she says. It’s a skill you hone at every level of an in-house position.

Growing up in Queens, New York, Reiss was surrounded by attorneys, including both her late father and her mother (who attended law school while her daughters were in high school). For Reiss, becoming a lawyer was not a big surprise. In elementary school, she enjoyed a social studies class that included a memorable introduction to constitutional law cases. And she was similarly intrigued by her Talmud classes at the Jewish day school she attended,

MCCA.COM

27

where the finer points of Jewish law were debated and analyzed.

Reiss describes her time as a Princeton history major as academically adventuresome, but sees her time at Harvard Law School as more of a means to an end. Shortly after graduating, she joined a mid-size law firm in Miami, Florida. She was soon lured away to an in-house position by one of the firm’s former partners who had become GC of The Miami Herald Publishing Company. “He was a mentor who set the stage for what an in-house counsel’s job should be: Enable the business to do what it sets out to do, raise your hand if something bad is happening, and work to solve problems so that you are seen as an ally, not a hindrance.

“Instantly, I loved the in-house role of being part of the enterprise, getting to know the people, and understanding their jobs. Outside lawyers sometimes parachute in and out—if their documents cause trouble it is someone else’s problem. When you’re in-house, it’s on you to fix the problem. I like that.”

Following a family move to Washington, D.C., Reiss returned to private practice at a small firm specializing in real estate and real estate financing. In 2000, she went in-house again at Marriott International where she held a variety of increasingly responsible positions during her tenure. Reiss remained there until joining Hyatt in Chicago in August 2010.

Some GCs are indifferent to which industry employs them—not Reiss, however. “Dealing with the public is not for everyone. I happen to love the fact that Hyatt’s mission is authentic hospitality, and I admire the ability of the people in the field to deliver 24/7.

It’s my challenge to translate that energy into the legal function because it really does inform all facets of the company.”

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

FORTUNE FORTUNE 501-1000 COMPANIES

LIST OF WOMEN’S GENERAL COUNSEL COMPANY

GENERAL COUNSEL

2011 RANK

2010 RANK 861

Men's Warehouse

Caroline Souvenir

843

MF Global Holdings

Laurie R. Ferber¹

831

Moog

Debra Norman-Lane

840

National Fuel Gas

Paula Ciprich

951

New Jersey Resources

Mariellen Dugan

722

713

INDUSTRY

GROUPED BY INDUSTRY

General Merchandisers

E

Commodities Broker

F

880

Miscellaneous

Z

812

Utilities: Gas and Electric

C

Energy

C

Paychex

Stephanie Schaeffer

874

803

Payroll Servies

F

Pentair

Angela Lageson

664

693

Miscellaneous: Pool Filters

Z

Polaris Industries

Stacy Bogert

880

991

Transportation Equipment

G

PolyOne

Lisa Kunkle

726

811

Chemicals

O

Protective Life

Deborah Long

650

631

Publishing, Printing

Q

Quanta Services

Tana Pool

542

587

Electric Power, Natural Gas contracting service

C

RDA Holding

Andrea Newborn

969

738

Publishing, Printing

Q

Realogy

Marilyn Wasser

526

519

Real Estate

N

Ryerson Holding

Barbara Rohde¹

549

Metals

Z

Sonoco Products

Stacy L. Fox

519

Mail, Packaging, Freight

T

554

¹New to list

28

PROFILE SHEIL A C. CHESTON NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORPORATION ¹New to list CORPORATE VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL COUNSEL

D

espite a seemingly low-key demeanor, Sheila Cheston is indeed a trailblazer. In fact, when she joined defense giant Northrop Grumman last year, she was the first woman appointed general counsel of a major publicly traded defense company. Less than two weeks later, Lockheed Martin announced a new GC who was also a woman. “In very short order,” says Cheston, “we went from zero to two, changing the environment in a male-dominated industry.

“In addition to counseling and leading the function, a significant part of what I do entails being a voice for the company in the external community,” continues Cheston, who is based in Northrop Grumman’s Northern Virginia headquarters. “The defense industry is highly regulated and has one principal customer, so building relationships with the Department of Justice, Pentagon, the intelligence community, and Capitol Hill is essential to our success.”

A general counsel must fit with a corporation in terms of ethics, integrity, and how he or she and the law department can contribute to the enterprise, she adds. “I was aware of Northrop Grumman’s reputation for integrity and commitment to diversity after spending years in the industry. The interview process confirmed my views.”

DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

Before Northrop Grumman, Cheston was at BAE Systems, Inc., where she was executive vice president. Her broad portfolio included strategy and planning, finance, mergers and acquisitions, legal matters, and she also served as a member of the company’s board of directors.

Prior to that, Cheston was a partner at the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, where she was chair of the firm’s International Aviation, Defense and Aerospace Group.

She also held various positions in the Clinton administration including special associate counsel to the President of the United States and general counsel of the United States Air Force where she oversaw approximately 1,500 lawyers stationed worldwide.

“Going in I wasn’t sure about the Air Force, but it turned out to be a great fit. When speaking to younger attorneys in search of varied careers, I tell them that they must be willing to take chances. Not only must they work hard to create opportunities, they must have the confidence to follow through.”

Early on, Cheston received good training in how to succeed in a mostly male setting. When she attended Dartmouth College the school had only recently opened its doors to women, and men comprised 85 percent of the student body. “Fortunately,” she says, “I was blessed with exceptional parents.” Her parents stressed confidence, hard work, honesty, service to others, and a willingness to try new things.

As a woman succeeding in the defense industry, Cheston feels strongly about helping younger women. “Long ago, a senior-level woman told me ‘you can either pull up the ladder behind you or reach down and give others a hand up.’ It may sound a little trite, but it’s a wonderful way of describing the choice. I feel strongly it’s my obligation to leave the ladder down and extend a hand.”

MCCA.COM

COMPANY

2011 RANK

GENERAL COUNSEL

2010 RANK

INDUSTRY

GROUPED BY INDUSTRY

Southern Union

Monica Gaudiosi

750

784

Utilities: Gas and Electric

C

Southwest Gas

Karen Haller

931

867

Utilities: Gas and Electric

C F

StanCorp Financial

Holley Franklin

698

680

Diversified Financials

Steelcase

Lisbeth O'Shaughnessy

801

609

Home Equipment, Furnishings

E

TD Ameritrade

Ellen Koplow

738

735

Securities

F

Team Health Holdings

Heidi Allen

715

728

Health Care: Pharmacy

I

Teradata

Laura Nyquist

892

932

Computer Software

A

Tetra Tech

Janis Salin

823

764

Engineering, Construction

G

True Value

Cathy Anderson

942

894

Specialty Retailers: Hardware

E

Unisys

Nancy Sundheim¹

521

452

Miscellaneous

Z

WGL Holdings

Beverly Burke

707

691

Utilities: Gas and Electric

C

Wynn Resorts

Kim Sinatra

514

634

Hotels, Casinos, Resorts

N

¹New to list Continued on page 25

INDUSTRY*

%

#

Electronics, Office Equipment (A)

11

9

B

Insurance (B)

1.2

1

C

Energy, Gas, Petroleum Refining, Pipelines, Etc. (C)

13.4

11

D

Food & Drug Stores (D)

0

0

E

General Merchandisers, Speciality Retailers, Wholesalers: Diversified, etc. (E)

15.8

13

F

Financial Services: Diversified Financials, Securities, Banks (F)

9.8

8

G

Transportation & Logistics (G)

2.4

2

H

Telecommunications (H)

1.2

1

I

Pharmaceuticals, Medical Products & Equipment, Healthcare (I)

7.3

6

J

Food Services, Consumer Food Products (J)

3.7

3

K

Motor Vehicles (K)

3.7

3

L

Industrial & Farm Equipment (L)

1.2

1

M

Airlines (M)

0

0

N

Real Estate, Hotels & Casinos (N)

4.9

4

O

Chemicals (O)

4.9

4

P

Forest & Paper Products (P)

1.2

1

Q

Publishing, Printing (Q)

3.7

3

R

Scientific, Photo Control Equipment (R)

0

0

S

Railroads (S)

0

0

T

Mail, Packaging, Freight (T)

1.2

1

Z

Other (Z)

13.4

11

Total

100

82

A

*Percentage of all Fortune 500 Companies with women general counsel

at Nike, Robin Walker-Lee at TRW Automotive Holdings, Ann Bruder at Commercial Metals, Marie Oh-Huber at Agilent Technologies, Suzanne Day at Lubrizol, Diane Lazzaris at Wesco International, Jennifer Daniels at NCR. The three remaining GCs replaced other women: Sharon R. Ryan at International Paper, Nicole Jones at Cigna, Angelee Bouchard at HealthNet. WOMEN LEADERS Energy companies dominate the top of the Fortune 500, and the good news is that these massive multinationals are turning the leadership of their legal departments over to women.

Five of the top 20 energy companies on the Fortune 500 list have women general counsel. They are Janet Langford Kelly at ConocoPhillips [4], Kim Bowers at Valero Energy [24], Sylvia Kerrigan at Marathon Oil, Stacy Fox at Sunoco, and Denise McWatters at Holly [289].

Some of the fastest-growing companies on the Fortune 500 list have women running their legal departments. NashFinch, where Kathleen Mahoney is the general counsel, was the second-fastest growing company on the Fortune 500 last year and TRW Automotive Holdings [Robin Walker-Lee] and FedEx [Christin Richards] were also top 10 companies in that category. Other women leading the legal departments of the fastest-growing companies on the Fortune 500 include Denise McWatters of Holly, Madeleine Johnson of Southwest Airlines, Laura Quatela of Eastman Chemical, Veronica Dillon of The Washington Post, Marya Rose of Cummins, Paula Boggs of Starbucks, and Janet Langford Kelly of ConocoPhillips.

Women are also heading the legal departments of the some of the most profitable companies on the Fortune 500. Of the 50 most profitable companies on the list,

29

FORTUNE FORTUNE 501-1000 COMPANIES

LIST OF WOMEN’S GENERAL COUNSEL

BY RACE/ETHNICITY Race/Ethnicity*

%

Asian American/Pacific Islander

0

# 0

Hispanic

2.4

2

African American

3.7

3

Caucasian

93.9

77

Middle Eastern

0

0

Total

100

82

ASIAN AMERICAN/PACIFIC ISLANDER 0% HISPANIC 2.4% AFRICAN AMERICAN 3.7% MIDDLE EASTERN 0% *Percentage of all Fortune 500 Companies with women general counsel

12 are represented by women general counsel, including Deborah Platt Majoras at Procter & Gamble, Kelly at ConocoPhillips, Esta Stecher at Goldman Sachs Group, Amy Schulman at Pfizer, Maura Abeln Smith at PepsiCo, Dorian Paley at Oracle, Gloria Santona at McDonald’s, Laura Schumacher at Abbott Laboratories, Louise Parent at American Express, Denise Keane at Altria Group, Teri Plumer-McClure at United Parcel Service and Helen Pudlin at PNC Financial Services Group.

FORTUNE 500 DEPARTURES Attrition at some of the Fortune 500 companies this year resulted in a loss of women general counsel. A few companies—Baxter International [192], BB&T Corp. [220], PitneyCAUCASIAN 93.9%

PROFILE L AURA WIT TE

30

CARGILL CORPORATE VICE PRESIDENT, GENERAL COUNSEL AND CORPORATE SECRETARY

A

good corporate lawyer has to be all about business, says Laura Witte, GC of Cargill, a Minneapolis-based international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and services. That’s why her “legal delivery approach is pragmatic, solutiondriven, and focused on the company’s businesses; my priority is to do all I can to help our business leaders achieve their objectives. And that’s the approach our legal department takes as well.”

Named Cargill’s GC in June, Witte has been immersed in the company’s business since 1985 when she started as Cargill’s fertilizer lawyer. In 2001 she became Asia Pacific general counsel and in 2005 moved to Brussels, Belgium, to serve as deputy general counsel for Cargill’s European businesses. She describes her 26-year history with the company as a huge advantage in her current role.

Founded during the American Civil War, Cargill is a vast, privately held company with interests in 66 countries; it takes a long time to learn its many employees, businesses, customers, and the ways in which it operates.

Prior to becoming GC, Witte was part of Cargill’s legal leadership team for a decade. Still, during that time she never sensed she was being groomed for the job, and it was a

DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

surprise to her when she was offered the position in March.

Witte breaks down her GC duties into thirds: Advising senior leadership and the board; leading a global team of 200 lawyers in 30 different countries; and advising the company on matters related to legal risk, corporate responsibility, and compliance. In addition, she serves on the board of Twin Cities Diversity in Practice, a consortium of legal professionals whose mission is to attract lawyers of color to the Twin Cities. Witte’s predecessor at Cargill, Steven Euller, helped launch the organization in 2005 as the first corporate representative on its board. “Recruiting and retaining women and minority attorneys is very important,” she adds. “It’s an essential part of Cargill’s strategy.”

Witte grew up in the 1960s and ‘70s, largely in the South.

Her parents, she says, were very active in the civil rights movement and instilled the importance of justice, equality, and civil discourse in their children. “Politics and social justice were a part of who I was, growing up,” she says. “At law school [Drake University School of Law], I thought I’d be a constitutional lawyer; I never considered corporate practice.

“Following law school, I was in private practice for a very short time—nine months to be exact,” she adds. “I was being groomed for litigation and dealing with conflict.

That’s just not me; I’m more of a strategic problem solver.

After going in-house, I instantly knew I’d found a good fit.”

Throughout her career at Cargill, Witte’s focus has been drawn to challenges and opportunities whether that means taking on new business clients and complex assignments or raising her hand for an overseas job, she wants it: “For me, it’s been like being a kid in candy shop.

I can’t say no to new opportunities, and that willingness to take risk has propelled my career.”

MCCA.COM

though the Hispanic number is up one from last year.

Frontier Communications [558] replaced a woman general counsel with another woman, while Teradata [932] replaced a white male with a white female GC. The larger states continue to have the highest representation of companies with women general counsel, with New York [11] and California [10] comprising more than one quarter of all women GC in the Fortune 1000. Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Ohio all have six companies on the Fortune 1000 list represented by women GCs, and Texas and Alabama round out the top of the list with five each.

FORTUNE 501–1000 In this year’s survey, 82 women general counsel appear in the Fortune 1000—an increase of two from the previous year and 10 more than the 2007 survey. Three Fortune 1000 women GCs represent companies that fell out of the top 500. Eleven companies either re-entered the list or moved onto it for the first time. In addition to the 77 white/ Caucasian women in this list, the Fortune 1000 roster of women GCs include three African Americans and two Hispanics. Unfortunately, these numbers represent a loss of one African American and one Asian Pacific American,

STILL GROWING After a disappointing drop two years ago in the representation of women general counsel at companies on the Fortune 500 list, the 2011 MCCA survey marks the second straight year of healthy growth. The recovery of corporate America in 2009 and 2010 has been matched by women general counsel at Fortune 500 companies and with their numbers topping 100 for the first time, it’s likely that continued progress is in the future. It seems America’s biggest companies, and the increasing number of women who run their legal departments, are looking as strong as ever.

LA

BO R&

E LA MPL W OYM EN T

Bowes [421]—replaced women general counsel with men, but other companies that saw a woman depart the top of their legal department—Cigna [122] and HealthNet [179]—named another woman as a replacement. No doubt replacing one woman general counsel with another will become an increasingly common feature of this list in the years to come.

Some companies with women general counsel fell out of the top 500 into the second half of the list this year, such as Kindred Healthcare [477 to 501], CA [482 to 504] and Unisys [452 to 521]. Those companies are represented by M. Suzanne Riedman, Amy Fliegelman, and Nancy Sundheim, respectively.

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FORTUNE FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES

LIST OF MINORITY GENERAL COUNSEL COMPANY

32

GENERAL COUNSEL

2011 RANK

2010 RANK

INDUSTRY

GROUPED BY INDUSTRY

Agilent Technologies

Marie Oh-Huber

419

461

Scientific, Photographic and Control Equipment

R

Allstate

Michele Coleman Mayes

89

68

Insurance: Property & Casualty (Stock)

B

AmerisourceBergen

John Chou

27

24

Wholesalers: Health Care

I

Avis Budget Group

Michael Tucker

432

409

Automative Retailing, Services

K

Avon Products

Kim Rucker

226

228

Household and Personal Products

E

Bemis

Sheri Edison

462

564

Specialty Retailers: Toilet Seats

E

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Sandra Leung

131

114

Pharmaceuticals

I

Broadcom

Arthur Chong

343

460

Semiconductors and Other Electric Components

A

Centene

Keith Williamson

493

486

Health Care: Insurance and Managed Care

I

Cigna

Nicole Jones¹

122

129

Health Care: Insurance and Management

I

Consolidated Edison

Elizabeth Moore

184

175

Utilities: Gas and Electric

C J

Darden Restaurants

Teresa Sebastian¹

332

311

Food Services

DaVita

Kim Rivera

359

355

Health Care: Medical Facilities

I

Deere

James Jenkins

98

107

Industrial and Farm Equipment

L

Dell

Lawrence Tu

41

38

Computers, Office Equipment

A

Dole Food

Michael Carter

341

331

Food Consumer Products

J

Fluor

Carlos Hernandez

124

111

Engineering, Construction

N

General Mills

Roderick Palmore

166

155

Food Consumer Products

J

Google

David Drummond

92

102

Internet Services and Retailing

E

Guardian Life Insurance Company of America

Tracy Rich

245

237

Insurance: Life, Health (Mutual)

B

Host Hotels & Resorts

Elizabeth Abdoo

494

492

Real Estate, Hotels, Casinos

N

Illinois Tool Works

James Wooten Jr.

156

169

Industrial Machinery

L

ITT

Frank Jimenez

217

214

Aerospace and Defense

L

KeyCorp

Paul Harris

417

356

Commercial Banks

F

Liberty Media

Charles Tanabe

224

227

Internet Services and Retailing

E

McDonald's

Gloria Santona

111

108

Food Services

J

Meritor

Vernon Baker

463

450

Automative Services

K

Motorola Solutions

Lewis Steverson¹

116

110

Electronics, Office Equipment

A

Office Depot

Elisa Garcia

211

192

Specialty Retailers

E

PG&E Corp.

Hyun Park

177

173

Utilities: Gas and Electric

C

Praxair

James Breedlove

241

262

Chemicals

O

Publix Super Markets

John Attaway Jr.

102

99

Food and Drug Stores

D

Sara Lee

Paulette Dodson¹

191

180

Food Consumer Products

J

Sempra Energy

Javade Chaudhri

274

280

Utilities: Gas and Electric

C

Spectra Energy

Reginald Hedgebeth

441

437

Pipelines

C

Starbucks

Paula Boggs

229

241

Food Services

J

Symantec

Scott Taylor

382

353

Computer Software

A

Synnex

Simon Leung

281

294

Wholesalers: Electrics and Office Equipment

A

Targa Resources

Paul Chung¹

416

505

Pipelines

C

Thermo Fisher Scientific

Seth Hoogasian¹

227

234

Scientific, Photo Control Equipment

R

¹New to List

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COMPANY

GENERAL COUNSEL

2011 RANK

2010 RANK

INDUSTRY

GROUPED BY INDUSTRY

United Continental Holdings

Brett Hart

114

140

Airlines

M

United Parcel Service

Terri Plummer-McClure

48

43

Mail, Packaging, Freight

T

Xerox

Don Lui

121

152

Office Equipment

A

¹New to List

33

MINORIT Y GENERAL COUNSEL DESPITE DECLINING SALES IN THE U.S. LAST YEAR, WALMART REMAINED ON TOP OF THE FORTUNE 500, A POSITION IT HAS CLAIMED FAR MORE OFTEN THAN NOT IN RECENT YEARS. However, it was the energy companies dominating the top 10 that led the way in profits— Exxon Mobil [second overall on the list] recorded almost double the profits Walmart did in 2010. Chevron, AT&T, and JP Morgan Chase also recorded higher net profits than Walmart.

A changing economy continues to reshape the Fortune 500, with financial companies bouncing back in a big way and oil and healthcare companies continuing their recent record of dominance. The financials finished 2010 strong, with profits jumping 51 percent in the fourth quarter of last year to $51 billion. Profits fell by about $10 billion among the non-financials, however, primarily due to higher unemployment and a sluggish recovery pre-

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T HE C OMPA NIE S T H AT HE L P L E A D T HE U. S . EC ONOM Y MUS T A L SO DE MONS T R AT E T HE S UC C E S S OF T HE A ME R IC A N C ONC E P T. venting the price hikes one would ordinarily expect in an economic upturn. Companies have boosted productivity eliminating employee redundancy and cutting pay and benefits for remaining employees, but analysts believe continued growth will have to come from a strategy that includes increased hiring.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

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FORTUNE FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES

LIST OF MINORITY GENERAL COUNSEL INDUSTRY* A

34

Electronics, Office Equipment (A)

&

#

13.95

6

B

Insurance (B)

4.7

2

C

Energy, Gas, Petroleum Refining, Pipelines, Etc. (C)

11.6

5

D

Food & Drug Stores (D)

2.3

1

E

General Merchandisers, Speciality Retailers, Wholesalers: Diversified, etc. (E)

11.6

5

F

Financial Services: Diversified Financials, Securities, Banks (F)

2.3

1

G

Transportation & Logistics (G)

0

0

H

Telecommunications (H)

0

0

I

Pharmaceuticals, Medical Products & Equipment, Healthcare (I)

11.6

5

J

Food Services, Consumer Food Products (J)

13.95

6

K

Motor Vehicles (K)

4.7

2

L

Industrial & Farm Equipment (L)

7

3

M

Airlines (M)

2.3

1

N

Real Estate, Hotels & Casinos (N)

4.7

2

O

Chemicals (O)

2.3

1

P

Forest & Paper Products (P)

0

0

Q

Publishing, Printing (Q)

0

0

R

Scientific, Photo Control Equipment (R)

4.7

2

S

Railroads (S)

0

0

T

Mail, Packaging, Freight (T)

2.3

1

Z

Other (Z)

0

0

Total

100

43

*Percentage of all Fortune 500 Companies with minority general counsel

BY RACE/ETHNICITY Race/Ethnicity*

%

#

Asian American/Pacific Islander

27.9

12

Hispanic

14

6

African American

55.8

24

Middle Eastern

2.3

1

Total

100

43

Forty-three companies on the 2011 Fortune 500 list employed minorities as general counsel [8.6 percent], the same number as the previous year. This holding pattern broke a string of increases in this number that included a jump from 37 minority general counsel in 2008 and 41 in 2009. Of those 43 minority general counsel, 24 are African Americans, 11 are Asian Americans, and six are Hispanic Americans. The list also includes one woman Middle Eastern general counsel and a male general counsel from Armenia. The Hispanic and Asian GC numbers remained constant from the year before, but the African American total dropped by one.

The number of Fortune 500 minority general counsel who are also women continues to increase. In 2008 and 2009 only eight women of color held the position of general counsel at a Fortune 500 company, but that number increased to 11 last year and increased again this year to 15. This is heartening news, for while the total number of minority general counsel did not increase this year, women of color continued their advance atop the legal departments of the biggest companies in the United States. Of the 15 female minority general counsel on the 2011 Fortune 500 list, nine are African American [an increase of two from last year], three are Hispanic [the same as last year], and two are Asian American [an increase of one over 2010].

At the Fortune 250 level, 27 companies are represented by a minority general counsel, a drop of one from last year, but the same as 2009. Fifteen of these are African Americans—the same number as last year—while five are Hispanic [down one from last year], and six are Asian Americans [equal with last year’s total]. The minority general counsel highest on the list are both Asian American men—John Chou at AmerisourceBergen [27th on the Fortune 500] and Lawrence Tu at Dell [41]. The African Americans highest on the list are both women— Teri Plummer-McClure at United Parcel Service [48] and Michele Coleman Mayes at Allstate [89]. The Hispanic American highest on the Fortune 500 list this year is Gloria Santana of McDonald’s [102]. Of the 27 companies in the Fortune 250 with minority general counsel,

ASIAN AMERICAN/PACIFIC ISLANDER 27.9% HISPANIC 14% MIDDLE EASTERN 2.3%

AFRICAN AMERICAN 55.8%

*Percentage of all Fortune 500 Companies with women general counsel

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17 have men leading their legal departments.

Fortune 500 general counsel of color are a geographically diverse group. California is home to eight companies with minority general counsel, tops on the list, but down two from last year. Hot on California’s heels is Illinois, home to seven companies on the list, the same as last year. New York is in third place again this year, but its number on this list drops from six to five. Rounding out the top five states with Fortune 500 companies that have minority general counsel are Texas with four and Florida with three. Regionally, 14 of the 43 Fortune 500 companies with minority general counsel are located in the Midwest, 11 in the West, 10 in the Northeast, and eight in the South.

Some of the biggest companies in the world—many of them industry leaders—have minorities running their legal departments. Lawrence Tu is general counsel at Dell [41], the third biggest computer company on the list.

David Drummond, an African American, and Charles Tanabe, an Asian American, are, respectively, general counsel at Google [92] and Liberty Media [224], the second-and third-biggest companies in Internet services and retailing. Gloria Santana, a Hispanic woman, is general counsel at McDonald’s [111], the top company in food services. The third-biggest company in that industry is Starbucks [229], where the general counsel is Paula Boggs, an African American. Deere, where African American James Jenkins is general counsel, is the second

PROFILE BRET T HART UNITED CONTINENTAL HOLDINGS, INC. SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, GENERAL COUNSEL AND SECRETARY

J

ust two months after United Air Lines and Continental Airlines merged in October 2010, Brett Hart was named GC of the newly formed United Continental Holdings, Inc. Because he arrived when he did, Hart says, he encountered a level of complexity that otherwise might not have been there. “Among my first tasks is the ongoing integration of the combined airlines’ respective legal departments, an undertaking that has consumed the better part of the first nine months of my tenure.”

Though Hart had never played a part in the merger of two equal sized companies, he was nonetheless confident. “As Deputy GC and GC at Sara Lee, I was principally responsible for integrating the legal departments of the various domestic and international divisions that were consolidated during a five-year transformation of the company.”

Prior to Sara Lee, Hart was a partner at Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal (now SNR Denton) in Chicago. He credits his years as a commercial litigator with making him able to readily adapt to unexpected challenges—a vital skill for GCs in the airline industry.

Hart also served as special assistant to the general counsel at the U.S. Department of the Treasury in Washington, D.C., where he garnered invaluable in-house experience.

“Certain aspects of the GC position are the same regardless of industry,” says Hart. “However, moving from consumer products at Sara Lee to an airline is pretty dramatic. The differences between the industries are significant. The airline industry, although formally deregulated approximately 30 years ago, remains one of the most heavily regulated industries. It is an industry that touches most peo-

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ple’s lives and is vitally important to the nation’s economy. There is a fascination with this industry that I am still getting used to—the level of scrutiny and attention to every development in the industry by the media, and the plaintiff’s bar for that matter, is remarkable.

It is an exciting, challenging, and fascinating industry.”

As a teenager in small-town Cassopolis, MI, Hart spent weekends and summers working construction with his father. “My father made it clear that the alternative to going to college was wielding a hammer from sun up to sun down. I have a great deal of respect for the way in which my father earned a living, but the point was well made and I was dead set on going to college,” Hart says. Soon after, Hart developed a desire to pursue a career in law.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and English from the University of Michigan, Hart attended the University of Chicago Law School. From the start, he gravitated toward litigation. A very fulfilling stint at the university’s legal aid clinic cemented his interest. Safe to say, Hart never foresaw being GC of a multi-billion dollar international corporation.

As a litigator in private practice, Hart says he typically juggled four or five active matters. Overseeing a global legal department, that number is multiplied many times: “The popular notion that in-house lawyers somehow have it easier hasn’t been true in my experiences, and I know a host of other in-house lawyers who would strongly disagree as well. However, for me, it has been far more fulfilling,” he says.

Does Hart expect work to slow down once the integration is ultimately done? “The airline industry is by nature fast paced and unpredictable. That is part of the reason people are drawn to and never leave this industry—I was warned that it gets into your blood. When one significant issue is resolved, it’s replaced by something equally interesting and challenging. So, I am not waiting for things to slow down, I have simply adapted to the pace.”

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FORTUNE FORTUNE 501-1000 COMPANIES

LIST OF MINORITY GENERAL COUNSEL

36

COMPANY

GENERAL COUNSEL

2011 RANK

2010 RANK

Alexander & Baldwin

Nelson Chu¹

952

American Water Works

Kellye Walker

705

734

INDUSTRY

GROUPED BY INDUSTRY

Transportation, Logistics

G

Miscellaneous

Z

Andersons

Naran Burchinow

608

640

Wholesalers: Diversified

E

Annaly Capital Management

Nicolas Singh

723

572

Diversified Financials

F

Beckman Coulter

Arnold Pinkston

569

595

Medical Products and Equipment

I

Burlington Coat Factory

Paul Tang

568

559

Specialty Retailers

E

Catalent Pharma Solutions

Samrat Khichi

970

948

Pharmaceuticals

I

Celgene

Maria Pasquale

578

696

Pharmaceuticals

I

Del Monte Foods

James Potter

564

521

Food Consumer Products

J

DynCorp International

Gregory Nixon

585

627

Aerospace and Defense

L

Graham Packaging

Michael Korniczky

745

763

Packaging, Containers

T

524

Apparel

E

Real Estate, Hotels, Casinos

N

Utilities: Gas & Electric

C

Hanesbrands

Joia Johnson

505

Hyatt Hotels

Rena Reiss¹

581

Laclede Group

Mark Darrell

959

865

Lennox International

John Torres

651

663

Heating and Cooling, Refridgeration

E

MasTec

Alberto de Cardenas

796

968

Engineering, Construction

N

Newegg

Lee Chung

756

761

Computer Parts, Electronics

A

Popular

Ignacio Alvarez¹

626

683

Financial Services

F

Scripps Networks Interactive

A.B. Cruz III

852

992

Entertainment

Z

SFN Group

Thad Florance

860

931

Temporary Help

Z

Triple-S Management

Roberto Garcia

875

838

Health Care: Insurance and Managed Care

B

Varian Medical Systems

John Kuo

786

774

Medical Products and Equipment

I

WGL Holdings

Beverly Burke

707

691

Utilities: Gas & Electric

C

KeyCorp

Paul Harris

417

356

Commercial Banks

F

Liberty Media

Charles Tanabe

224

227

Internet Services and Retailing

E

McDonald's

Gloria Santona

111

108

Food Services

J

Meritor

Vernon Baker

463

450

Automative Services

K

Motorola Solutions

Lewis Steverson¹

116

110

Electronics, Office Equipment

A

Office Depot

Elisa Garcia

211

192

Specialty Retailers

E

PG&E Corp.

Hyun Park

177

173

Utilities: Gas and Electric

C

¹New to List

biggest company in construction and farm machinery.

Carlos Hernandez is general counsel at Fluor [124], the top engineering and construction company in the Fortune 500. United Continental Holdings [114], where African American Brett Hart is general counsel, is the second biggest company in the airline business on the Fortune 500 list.

Some of the most successful companies in the United States have minority general counsel running their legal departments. AmerisourceBergen [27], where John Chou is general counsel, ranked 13th in terms of highest

DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

revenues generated in the country last year, and Dell [41], where Lawrence Tu is general counsel, was 19th in revenue.

Teri McClure-Plummer, an African American, is general counsel at United Parcel Service [48], the biggest mail, package, and freight delivery company that ranked 24th in revenue last year.

Among the new Fortune 500 general counsel this year are Nicole Jones of Cigna [122], an African American woman, who replaced a white female atop that company’s legal department. Marie Oh-Huber of Agilent Technologies [419] replaced a white male, and

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INDUSTRY*

%

#

A

Electronics, Office Equipment (A)

4.3

1

B

Insurance (B)

4.3

1

C

Energy, Gas, Petroleum Refining, Pipelines, Etc. (C)

8.8

2

D

Food & Drug Stores (D)

0

0

E

General Merchandisers, Speciality Retailers, Wholesalers: Diversified, etc. (E)

17.4

4

F

Financial Services: Diversified Financials, Securities, Banks (F)

8.8

2

G

Transportation & Logistics (G)

4.3

1

H

Telecommunications (H)

0

0

I

Pharmaceuticals, Medical Products & Equipment, Healthcare (I)

17.4

4

J

Food Services, Consumer Food Products (J)

4.3

1

K

Motor Vehicles (K)

0

0

L

Industrial & Farm Equipment (L)

4.3

1

M

Airlines (M)

0

0

N

Real Estate, Hotels & Casinos (N)

8.8

2

O

Chemicals (O)

0

0

P

Forest & Paper Products (P)

0

0

Q

Publishing, Printing (Q)

0

0

R

Scientific, Photo Control Equipment (R)

0

0

S

Railroads (S)

0

0

T

Mail, Packaging, Freight (T)

4.3

1

Z

Other (Z)

13

3

Total

100

23

*Percentage of all Fortune 500 Companies with minority general counsel

BY RACE/ETHNICITY Race/Ethnicity*

%

#

Asian American/Pacific Islander

34.8

8

Hispanic

30.4

7

African American

34.8

8

Middle Eastern

0

0

Total

100

23

MIDDLE EASTERN 0%

Michael Tucker at Avis Budget Group [432] replaced a white female. Targa Resources [416], a Texas-based natural gas company formed in 2003, is new to the Fortune 500 list and so is its general counsel, Paul Chung. Also new to the list is Sheri Edison, general counsel of Bemis, a Wisconsin manufacturing company that rocketed from 564 to 462 in the past year.

FORTUNE 501-1000 The number of chief legal officers of color in the Fortune 1000 declined from 26 last year to 23 this year. Of the 23, eight are African Americans, seven are Asian Americans, seven are Hispanic Americans, and one is a Pacific Islander. That represents a decrease of three African Americans and one Asian American, while the Hispanic American number increased by one.

Five of the 23 minority general counsel in the Fortune 1000 are women, a decrease of one from the previous year.

Three of the minority women are African Americans and the other two are Hispanics. That represents a decrease of one for African American women and an increase of one for Hispanic women.

Once again the states that are home to the most minority general counsel in the Fortune 1000 are California and New Jersey, with four each. The rest are spread fairly evenly around the country. Puerto Rico is home to two Fortune 1000 companies with minority general counsel, Ignacio Alvarez at Popular [626] and Roberto Garcia at Triple-S Management [875].

New additions to the Fortune 1000 list this year include Rena Hozore Reiss of Hyatt Hotels [581] and Nelson Chun, general counsel to Alexander & Baldwin [952], a transportation and real estate company. Also new to the list is Gregory Nixon of DynCorp International [585], who replaced a white male as general counsel of that company.

Leaving the list of Fortune 1000 companies with minority general counsel this year are American Tower, Apollo Group, Atlas Energy, Granite Construction, Hewitt Associates, MBIA, and KB Home.

ASIAN AMERICAN/PACIFIC ISLANDER 34.8% HISPANIC 30.4% AFRICAN AMERICAN 34.8%

*Percentage of all Fortune 500 Companies with women general counsel

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DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

37

FORTUNE

HOLDING STEADY Despite widespread economic insecurity the number of minority general counsel at Fortune 500 companies held steady this year at 43. The overall trend for minority general counsel in the Fortune 500 is positive, though, with their numbers increasing by six since 2008. Just as encouraging, female minorities continue to make impressive gains at the nation’s biggest companies, with their numbers almost doubling from eight in 2009 to 15 in the 2011 Fortune 500 list. While men of color will no doubt increase in the future, female minorities, who have been woefully underrepresented as general counsel to Fortune 500 companies, may drive growth in the years to come. More than a third of all minority general counsel on this list are women, a sharp increase from the 21 percent of just two years ago.

4 3 C OMPA NIE S ON T HE 2 0 11 F OR T UNE 5 0 0 L IS T E MP L OY E D MINOR I T IE S A S GE NE R A L C OUNSE L A tough economy and high unemployment have hit minorities especially hard, but when solid growth and robust hiring returns, we will hopefully see minorities continue their advance in the legal departments of the biggest and best companies in the United States. D&B

PROFILE PAUL E T T E DODSON 38

SARA LEE CORPORATION GENERAL COUNSEL AND CORPORATE SECRETARY

A

s Paulette Dodson, the newly named General Counsel of Sara Lee Corporation, sees her job, it’s not just to offer recommendations, but resolutions.

“When you’re a lawyer in a corporation you can’t just give legal advice and walk away,” Dodson says. “It’s important to solve the problem, do what you can to stop it from happening again, and figure out what about the culture allowed for the problem to arise in the first place. In-house lawyers are uniquely poised to make these observations.”

While Dodson frequently gives counsel, she takes some too. Several years ago, she came across one particular piece of sage advice inside a fortune cookie: “The wise person focuses on not just knowing everything but everybody.” Dodson took this message to heart when she started at Sara Lee as chief counsel of North American Operations for the multi-billion dollar global manufacturer and marketer of brand-name products. “When I came to Sara Lee’s Illinois headquarters in 2007, there was no one I didn’t bore with my questions. Whether it was the head of sales for a big customer like Walmart or someone lower on the totem pole, I tried to learn everything I could from them. To be effective you must acknowledge what you need to know and go after it.”

Prior to Sara Lee, Dodson spent 14 years with the Tribune Company, where she was assistant general

DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

counsel responsible for managing the legal affairs for the operating units of the publishing business throughout the United States. And though she enjoyed her tenure with the company, Dodson felt it was time to parlay the skills she learned there into another area. “Working in media, I learned to be comfortable in crisis, juggle varying issues, and to stand my ground when arguing with hard-hitting reporters—all of which help me today in the pressured world of management.”

At 14, Dodson left her grandmother’s home in her native Jamaica to join her mother in New York City. She completed high school—something her mother and grandmother had not done—and went on to earn her bachelor’s degree from City College of New York followed by a law degree from Cornell Law School. “This may sound a little canned but it’s actually true: I was initially drawn to the law when I first noticed how much good lawyers can do for society. In the midst of unique challenges, most communities call on lawyers to head task forces and truth commissions. After all, lawyers are agents of change and given the opportunity we can affect society in positive ways. And yes, I am idealistic.”

Dodson’s enduring optimism and dedication are reflected in her attitude when she says “we can all make a difference through our work,” and in her actions. She sponsors Sara Lee’s Minority Forum, an employee affinity group focused on the success of Sara Lee’s diverse employees, because, Dodson says, “lawyers are supposed to be public servants. We have a responsibility to give back. As a woman of color, I feel particularly obligated to pay back the people who opened doors for me and the way I do that is by offering opportunities to the next generation.”

MCCA.COM

PROFILE H Y UN PA RK PG&E CORPORATION SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL COUNSEL

P

rior to joining PG&E Corporation in 2006, Hyun Park did not think of himself as an energy specialist. Yes, he had experience in the field, but, Park says, there was so much more left for him to learn.

Today, as senior vice president and chief legal counsel of the energy-based holding company headquartered in San Francisco and its principal subsidiary Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Park’s responsibilities include regulatory and securities law compliance, litigation strategy, oversight of corporate governance, and all legal matters related to significant corporate transactions. “I like everything about being a GC. I love dealing with legal issues, but I also have a seat at the table when the most significant business issues are discussed.”

Park began his career in private practice and never intended to go in-house. During his 10 years as a corporate attorney at Latham & Watkins, he did a lot of work for Sithe Energies, a U.S.-based energy corporation. One day, unexpectedly, Park received a call from Sithe’s CEO asking him to join the company as GC. “I was a new partner with an exciting practice that I’d worked very hard to build. Why would I want to give all that up?

I didn’t, but the CEO was patient and persistent, and 10 months

after receiving that first call I went in-house at Sithe.”

Once Park realized that his going in-house would not erase his accomplishments in private practice, but rather increase his skills, he felt comfortable making the move. “Going in-house didn’t mean that I was no longer qualified to be a partner. It meant that I was learning more. Training at a firm was an intense experience that I really enjoyed. Hard work, quality work product—those things have stayed with me.”

A graduate of Harvard Law School, Park’s interest in a legal career sparked relatively late in his academic career. He earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Economics from Columbia University and Oxford University, respectively. “My plan was to get a Ph.D. in economics. However, the first years of the graduate program were highly theoretical and quantitative. I’m comfortable with math, but it was still frustrating because I had difficulty linking what I was learning to the real world.

“Law struck me as a good career choice. My goal was to combine what I already knew with a law degree and take that knowledge to real-life situations.”

Born in Korea, Park came to the U.S. with his family when he was 12. While his parents didn’t exactly micromanage his formative years, Park understood clearly what they expected from him—to work hard and do well. He vividly recalls a conversation he had with his father not long after they arrived in the U.S.: “He sat me down and said ‘because you’ve gotten a late start in America you must work twice as hard as everyone else.’” That’s a message Park has taken to heart.

Breaking down barriers is a core value

What barrier?

at Jackson Lewis. Forging a workforce that reflects the diverse communities we serve is an established strength. To learn more about our inclusive aspects of workplace law – including the law of equal opportunity – please contact Weldon H. Latham, Chair of the Corporate Diversity Counseling Group, at (703) 483-8333 or lathamw@jacksonlewis.com or visit www.jacksonlewis.com.

Jackson Lewis is proud to support the

Minority Corporate Counsel Association

jackson lewis

Preventive Strategies and Positive Solutions for the Workplace®

40

THE FINAL

BY JONATHAN GRONER

SINCE THE MID-80’S, WOMEN HAVE HEARD ABOUT A GLASS CEILING —AN UPPER LIMIT TO PROFESSIONAL ADVANCEMENT THAT IS NOT OPENLY ACKNOWLEDGED.

A

s our Fortune 500 women general counsel survey demonstrates, women have made significant strides as the legal leaders of America’s top companies. The final hurdle is a position on the board of directors.

It’s been several decades in the making, but women struggling to climb the ladder in corporate America are making dramatic gains. As a White House report pointed out earlier this year, women have closed the education gap with men and are making inroads in salary inequality. Forty-seven percent of the U.S. workforce is female. High-profile women such as Sheryl Sandberg at Facebook and Indira Nooyi at PepsiCo have risen to the top of the corporate world, and inspire and serve as role models for younger women.

Yet women account for less than 16 percent of the directors sitting on boards of publicly traded companies in the United States, according to Catalyst, a group that supports women in business. Why is this the case, and what are women, corporations, and activist groups doing to bring about change?

A controversial July 2011 article in The Economist blames this persistent situation on—children.

“Most women take career breaks to look after them.

Many care for elderly relatives, too,” the Economist author MCCA.COM

wrote. But as long as board directors are drawn primarily from the ranks of executives with broad experience in public companies, the fact that many women take time off from work makes it “harder for women to gain the experience necessary to make it to the very top,” the article said.

In other words, as long as women are not CEOs of major companies in large numbers, they will never be corporate board members in large numbers. And historically, most corporate CEOs have come from positions in operations, marketing, and finance, which are heavily male, not from jobs in legal, marketing, or human resources, where women have made more inroads.

The child-rearing explanation doesn’t convince some observers. American Lawyer legal columnist Vivia Chen, writing in the online “Washington Women’s Weekly” on August 1, 2011, says she is “infuriated” by the Economist piece. She quotes Marissa Wesely, a board member of DirectWomen, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

41

42

an organization devoted to increasing the number of women lawyers on corporate boards, as saying that a “multitude of factors,” including the lack of mentors or sponsors in many companies, are holding women back from directorships.

Prominent tech blogger Kara Swisher, writing on the “All Things D” blog, certainly thinks that some of the most successful Web companies of this decade can do better. She points out that Twitter, Facebook, Zynga, Groupon, and Foursquare, taken together, have zero women directors.

“What’s most remarkable,” Swisher writes, “is that most of these start-ups are run by what I consider enlightened and open-minded entrepreneurs, mostly young enough to be part of a generation more inclined to value equality and diversity in the workplace. In addition, each of these companies has a massive base of women consumers, in some cases well over 50 percent of its audience. Thus, it would seem logical that in casting about for those to help guide these companies, one or two women leaders might slip in.”

University of Chicago, says there’s a dearth of mentors “who can take other women under their wings” and pull them into the higher corporate echelons.

“It has only been in the last few decades that women have established themselves in middle management and upper management, and I think from a historical standpoint we need to saturate middle and upper management before we really are able to penetrate that last layer—the boardroom and the C-suite,” Bradshaw says. Bradshaw has just started a blog, “More Seats,” for Forbes magazine that will focus on getting women more “seats at the table” in the corporate, venture capital, political, and other arenas.

Bradshaw’s blog is by no means the only ongoing effort to increase the number of women on corporate boards.

Direct Women, founded in 2007, focuses specifically on trying to have women lawyers appointed as corporate board members. It describes itself as the “only program specifically designed to identify, develop, and support a select group of accomplished women attorneys to provide qualified directors needed by the boards of U.S. companies, while promoting the independence and diversity required for good corporate governance.”

Each year, Direct Women identifies about 20 well-qualified women lawyers from around the nation and takes them to New York for an intensive two-day seminar focused on positioning them for board slots. The group has found some success: For example, Susan Tomansky, an energy lawyer

“WE NEED TO SATURATE MIDDLE AND UPPER MANAGEMENT BEFORE WE ARE ABLE TO PENETRATE THAT LAST LEVEL.” —LESLIE BRADSHAW Leslie Bradshaw, a Washington, D.C.based entrepreneur who was named one of the top five female executives in the technology industry by Fast Company magazine in 2011, says that part of the issue is that “women start scaling down their ambitions as they think about pregnancy.” But that’s not the only factor, Bradshaw adds.

In addition, Bradshaw, who studied anthropology and gender roles at the DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

who is president of AEP Transmission, was named to the board of San Antonio-based Tesoro Corp. earlier this year.

Another organization, New York-based Women Corporate Directors, brings together more than 1,000 women around the world who are directors of major companies. Earlier this year, the group issued a 10-point “Call to Action” that “challenges every leader to actively help bring more women onto corporate boards, and to build diverse boards that are multi-gender, multi-skilled, multinational, multi-ethnic, and multi-generational.”

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Susan Stautberg, co-founder and co-chair of the group, says “lack of knowledge about qualified candidates,” not family responsibilities, is the major factor holding back women from board directorships. Accordingly, the first principle of the 10 is to “build the pipeline through advocacy and mentorship.”

One of its charges is to “declare board diversity a necessary component of good governance.” Under this concept, “regulatory agencies, stock exchanges, and governance communities around the world should encourage nominating committees to secure diverse directors and to explain their Board selection process in their proxies.”

Last year, in fact, the Securities and Exchange Commission for the first time required publicly traded companies to disclose in their proxy statements the factors that they use, including diversity, when they select people for board positions. They must announce whether they have a diversity policy and how such a policy is implemented and monitored. However, the new SEC requirement neither defines diversity nor does it require diverse boards; it is simply a matter of disclosure, and a company is free to define the term “diversity” as it wishes.

Advocacy for women board directors has gone much further in other countries. In 2003, Norway passed a law that requires all publicly traded companies to reserve 40 percent of their board positions for women. Spain and France have also passed laws along these lines, and in July, the European Parliament passed a nonbinding resolution calling for

European Union legislation also setting aside 40 percent of board seats for women by 2020.

This type of quota legislation hasn’t found much traction in the United States, even among strong supporters of women on boards. The absence of interest in a legislative solution might be a result of this country’s general resistance to top-down regulation.

Says Bradshaw, “Coming from a libertarian viewpoint, I’m interested in seeing that the best person for the job fills that role, whether they’re a man or woman. But I do believe MCCA.COM

that people are lazy and their networks are limited. Men are likely to pick more men.

Women are likely to pick more women.

And I think that laziness and that small network approach could be augmented by legislation that broadens people’s horizons so when they’re thinking about who to hire, they do so more broadly.”

Many observers suggest that market forces, rather than quotas or government rules, are likely to bring about change.

Tech blogger Swisher points out that for many companies, women form 50 percent or more of the consumer base. A company with a significant number of women directors would probably have a better perspective on women’s purchasing patterns than a company without any.

There may be other advantages. A very recent study by Lu Zhang, assistant professor of management at Penn State Harrisburg, indicates that boards with higher percentages of women are more likely to reach out to all stakeholders in the company than are boards mostly composed of men. Zhang found that female board members are often more interested in improving corporate governance than men, who are more concerned with immediate profit-making. Zhang was quoted in a university press release as saying that women “may bring valuable resource advice and social networking skills to firms.”

The case for more women on boards is clear, but the process may take a good deal of time. Women themselves, many experts say, need to do their part and take the initiative, building careers that will make them candidates for board positions in the next few decades. Experts say they need to network relentlessly, to seek out mentors, and to look for positions on the boards of nonprofits as stepping stones to slots on corporate boards.

Bradshaw, a trailblazer for women in technology, has a few recommendations.

“First, I think for women who are already progressing in their careers, there needs to be a relentless and aggressive push toward getting credit and promotions,” she says. “They should always find a diplomatic way to do it, but they shouldn’t play second fiddle. Fight hard for the first chair. Negotiate everything. Negotiate your salary. Negotiate your promotion. Even if you’re given something, negotiate for 20 to 30 percent more.” D&B SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

43

ASSOCIATION FOCUS

BY KARA MAYER ROBINSON

MUSLIM BAR ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK (MuBANY) IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE A MORE IMPORTANT TIME FOR AN ORGANIZATION LIKE THE MUSLIM BAR ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK (MuBANY). As we approach the 10th anniversary of the

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religious obligation of donating to charity.” Rehman sees this as an opportunity for his organization. “We’re in a unique position to provide counseling to law firms and community organizations about this.” events of September 11, 2001, anti-Muslim sentiment There’s no shortage of situations that call for attention. In remains strong, and Muslim-American attorneys, as well as 2007, the New York Police Department (NYPD) published the Muslim community at large, continue to face significant a controversial report on Islamic radicalization. “It included obstacles. Although a relatively new organization—it just rhetoric that made people think they should be suspicious celebrated its fifth anniversary—MuBANY has taken on the of any Muslim,” explains Rehman. When the report was formidable task of educating the legal community and the published, MuBANY immediately took action by teaming general public on diversity issues while simultaneously supportup with the Muslim American Civil Coalition to urge the ing the professional, educational, and social needs of Muslim NYPD to retract the report and restate its position in a way legal professionals that would not and law students in promote what the the New York metrogroups describe as politan area.

Islamophobia. The “We’re members of NYPD changed a community that curthe report in rently is coming under response to these a lot of fire in the public actions but, arena,” explains Asim Rehman says, Rehman, vice presicooperation with dent of MuBANY and such organizaa commercial litigations ebbs and — ASIM REHMAN tion attorney practicflows. He believes ing since 2001. that while the “It’s become socially acceptable to voice anti-Muslim NYPD has taken steps to reduce such sentiment, MuBANY sentiments. And this raises a range of civil rights issues. must continue to put pressure on law enforcement officials to Unfortunately, the more people that voice anti-Muslim ensure they act responsibly. sentiments, the more people are inclined to act out on them.

AWARENESS WITHIN THE LEGAL COMMUNITY This has resulted in a nationwide wave of actions against the Advancing public awareness within the legal community construction of mosques, which inhibits Muslims freedom to is also an important priority. For instance, last month was practice their religion. Sadly, it has encouraged acts of vanRamadan, a religious holy month that affects the daily lives of dalism, hate speech, bullying, and physical violence against many Muslims, including lawyers and law students. During Muslim Americans, which is both a security issue and causes a the month of Ramadan, many Muslim attorneys observe chill on how Muslims identify with their faith. Further, as recthe tradition of fasting from dawn until dusk and perform ognized by commentators and the judiciary, anti-Shariah laws prayers at five prescribed times during the day. While such can violate the First Amendment rights of Muslim Americans. observances can typically be accommodated without much Lastly, the intense scrutiny of Muslim organizations and interruption in their workdays, many Muslim attorneys are mosques has impacted how Muslims in America observe their

“IT’S BECOME SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE TO VOICE ANTI-MUSLIM SENTIMENTS. AND THIS RAISES A RANGE OF CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUES.”

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

MCCA.COM

reluctant to explain these practices to their employers.

In an effort to smooth this process, every year MuBANY reaches out to legal employers prior to Ramadan to advise them of these practices. This was particularly important in 2009, when the holy month of Ramadan fell in the middle of call-back interview season, putting some MuslimAmerican candidates in a curious position. “What happens when a law student is trying to make a good impression and is invited to lunch but cannot eat because she is fasting?”

Rehman says. To address this, MuBANY sent letters to legal employers nationwide explaining this and offering alternatives, such as taking the candidate for a firm tour instead. “It was very well received,” Rehman says.

MuBANY’s efforts to raise awareness have been fortified by relationships with other organizations. “We work with other bar associations to talk about diversity within the profession,” Rehman explains. “Last year we did a joint CLE with the New York County Lawyers Association called Islamic Law 101, to dispel myths in a way that’s interesting to lawyers. This year we participated in a CLE with Catholic and Jewish lawyers on legal ethics through a religious viewpoint.”

Earlier this year the organization joined forces with the South Asian Bar Association of New York to hold a CLE panel discussion about anti-Muslim policy and its effects. Panelists examined the nature and impact of laws and policies that have singled out Muslim Americans, both directly and indirectly.

The panel discussion was heavily attended, Rehman says, and it raised awareness among attorneys on issues such as post-9/11 immigration policy, anti-Sharia law1 measures throughout the country, and the Peter King hearings2.

“With this greater issue of Muslims coming under scrutiny, there have been a rising number of organizations like ours,” Rehman notes. “Just that sheer presence has had an impact.” And their outreach efforts appear to be paying off.

Law firms and other organizations have begun to actively seek out MuBANY’s expertise. Recently, Rehman says, a number of law firms have approached the organization to give educational presentations.

AWARENESS AND SUPPORT FOR THE COMMUNITY

In addition to serving its members, MuBANY aims to support the Muslim-American community. Efforts have included establishing community legal clinics, creating attorney referral systems, and holding “Know Your Rights” MCCA.COM

seminars. One such community initiative, which resulted in the 2010 Bar Leaders Innovation Award from the New York State Conference of Bar Leaders, involved teaming up with Muslim Advocates, a prominent organization in the Muslim-American legal community, to produce a seminar in New York on financial and legal best practices for nonprofit Muslim charities. “We did this so these community organizations and mosques could get help on items like bookkeeping, employment law, and tax-exempt status,” explains Rehman. “We’re able to offer legal expertise, and we wanted to bring this to the folks who need them.”

Rehman is proud of MuBANY’s community work. “We think it’s the right thing to do. We’re coming up on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and none of us can predict what challenges that can present for the New York community. We need to be ready.”

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ADVANCING DIVERSITY

This organization practices what it preaches: It puts maintaining internal diversity at the top of its priority list.

Rehman explains that this is particularly important because many people have a single image of what a Muslim looks like, when in fact, Muslims come in many forms. “We’ve had three presidents, two of whom have been women, and one who wears a hijab,” he explains, noting that he and his colleagues are proud of the diversity within the larger Muslim-American community, and they work hard at taking steps that will ensure that as a bar association, they continue that commitment toward diversity. D&B Kara Mayer Robinson is a freelance writer based near New York City. For more information, visit centerforlegalinclusiveness.org.

For information about inclusiveness, the manual, and resources on diversity and inclusiveness, go to legalinclusiveness.org.

1

Rehman explains that these laws contain an explicit or implicit ban on U.S. courts entertaining Sharia law in any capacity, and some go so far as to prohibit courts from applying any foreign law altogether. From a legal perspective, commentators and judges have noted that such laws violate the free enterprise clause (because they might interfere with legitimate and legal Islamic practices, such as determining how a will can be designed), the establishment clause (because they single out one faith), and the right to contract (because they would render unenforceable international business contracts with countries that have adopted Islamic law into their domestic laws).

2

Rehman explains that one panelist focused on the rising use of the term “radicalization” and looked at how some experts look at perfectly legal and legitimate conduct—e.g. refusing to drink or smoke—as conduct on the path to radicalization, and how such theories unnecessarily target law-abiding Muslim Americans.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

DIVERSITY NEWS

BY JOSHUA H. SHIELDS

MCCA WELCOMES NEW PRESIDENT AND CEO, JOSEPH K. WEST

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JOE WEST, MCCA’S NEW PRESIDENT AND CEO, IS NOT SOMEONE TO PASS UP A CHALLENGE. AFTER A SUCCESSFUL STINT IN LEADERSHIP AT THE WORLD’S LARGEST COMPANY—WALMART—HE IS NOW READY TO LEAD AN ORGANIZATION WHICH IS DECIDEDLY SMALLER BUT WHOSE MISSION HE SEES AS BEING EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. From Bentonville to the Beltway, West is adamant about helping all attorneys be the best lawyers they can be—and there are many who agree with this point and recognize his value.

Marc Morial, the president and CEO of the National Urban League, describes West as “a catalyst for positive change in the legal community. His innovative ideas for the inclusion of women and people of color in the halls of corporate America and blue-chip law firms have enriched those institutions immeasurably. For the future of the modern-day civil rights movement, Joe has both the temperament and skill set to make a quantifiable difference at the Minority Corporate Counsel Association. The National Urban League looks forward to working closely with Joe and we wish him the best.”

His former boss, Jeff Gearhart, Walmart’s executive vice president and general counsel, says his departure is bittersweet. “Joe has been an important contributor to our diversity initiatives, and we are thrilled that he has the opportunity to continue work on diversity with an outstanding organization like MCCA, but we are sorry to see him leave Walmart,” he says.

At Walmart, West headed up Outside Counsel Management, where he was responsible for managing all aspects of Walmart’s relationship with its 600 external law firms and 25,000 timekeepers. His duties included deciding which firms and individual lawyers would be allowed to handle Walmart work, negotiating billing rates, deciding conflict waiver requests and ensuring compliance with DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

Joseph K. West, MCCA’s new President & CEO

Walmart’s outside counsel guidelines. He was also responsible for managing the legal department’s efforts to help increase retention, advancement, and inclusiveness for diverse attorneys both internally and with these external law firms.

He succeeds Veta Richardson, who is now serving as president and CEO of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) and is a nationally recognized diversity MCCA.COM

champion, leader within legal and nonprofit organizations, tion. All seven of their children have a college degree and and a litigator. at least one graduate or professional degree.

After graduating from Tulane Law School, West prac“I am honored and humbled to have been selected ticed with a number of law firms in New Orleans before takto lead MCCA, an organization for which I have a treing an in-house position with Entergy Corporation, based mendous amount of respect,” West says. “I believe my in his hometown of New Orleans. He was initially a senior experiences working in law firms and within Fortune counsel for litigation from 1999 to 2004 and then became 500 corporations will ensure that I focus on collaborathe corporation’s assistant general counsel for litigation tion with all of MCCA’s stakeholders. While managing until 2007. He had outside counsel at first chair responsiWalmart, I learned bility for all aspects the importance of complex litigation of appreciating, matters and develsupporting, and oped a stellar reputanurturing the tion as a formidable tremendous wealth trial lawyer. “I still tell of talent that is young lawyers about represented by Joe West’s litigation diverse attorneys in days. Watching him law firms and law in trial was a treat, departments, and I better than chocoam confident that —JOSEPH K. WEST late!” says Sandra those insights will Diggs-Miller,senior help us to achieve counsel for the comMCCA’s mission.” pany. While at Entergy, Joe was an adjunct professor of trial MCCA’s board chair agrees. “Joe brings a broad range advocacy at Tulane Law School. He joined Walmart’s legal of experience to this position as an accomplished attordepartment in 2007. ney and the knowledge of in-house and outside counsel Joe and his wife, Nadine, a practicing Ob-Gyn, were challenges, as well as the workings of legal associations honored in 2007 for their heroic efforts to help save the and nonprofit organizations,” says Mary Snapp, who is lives of her patients and others during hurricane Katrina. corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of His favorite pastimes include “spending time with my Microsoft Corporation. “He also brings extensive governkids, playing golf, reading political, biographical, and hismental, corporate, and legal perspectives. The board and torical works and—being a typical New Orleanian—I’m I are excited about this new stage in MCCA’s developa lifelong Saints fan and love to cook.” West comes from ment and look forward to working with him. Under Joe’s an educationally distinguished family—a trait he aims to leadership, we expect MCCA programs and initiatives to pass on to his children. His parents were both high school grow and continue to advance a more diverse and inclusive principals and placed a tremendous emphasis on educalegal profession.” D&B

“I AM HONORED AND HUMBLED TO HAVE BEEN SELECTED TO LEAD MCCA, AN ORGANIZATION FOR WHICH I HAVE A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF RESPECT.”

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DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

47

MOVERS & SHAKERS

48

COMPILED BY JOSHUA H. SHIELDS

BIZUNESH “BIZ” SCOTT

EMILIE R. NINAN

DARRELL MOTTLEY

ROBERT BOSTROM

Special Assistant to the President of the United States

Managing Partner Ballard Spahr

President D.C. Bar

Partner SNR Denton

Bizunesh “Biz” Scott has been appointed a Special Assistant to the President of the United States. In this role, she advises President Obama and his Cabinet secretaries on all presidential and Senateconfirmed appointments and other personnel hires within the energy and environment arena, including the departments of Energy, Transportation, Interior, Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as related boards and commissions.

Previously, Scott served as the third Chief (General) Counsel for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. Scott, who earned her law degree from the University of Michigan and a B.A. from Marquette University, is working on her master’s of law at Georgetown University Law School.

Emilie R. Ninan, a public finance partner at Ballard Spahr, has been named managing partner of Ballard Spahr’s Wilmington, Delaware office. As the partner responsible for the firm’s public finance practice in Delaware, Ninan serves as bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel or other counsel on a range of general obligation, revenue and conduit municipal bond financings. She also advises on uniform commercial code matters and represents corporate, banking, and nonprofit clients on commercial transactions. She will be installed as president of North American South Asian Bar Association in 2012. Ninan earned her law degree and MBA from Georgetown University and her undergraduate degree from Temple University.

Darrell G. Mottley, a patent attorney and principal shareholder at Banner & Witcoff, has been installed as the 40th president of the D.C. Bar, the second largest unified bar association in the U.S. with more than 95,000 members. The 2010-11 president-elect, Mottley formerly served as chair of the D.C. Bar Council on Sections and on the D.C. Bar Strategic Planning Committee that developed the Bar’s priorities. He was Vice Chair of the Council on Sections and Co-Chair of the Intellectual Property Law Section. Prior to his law career, Mottley worked for 13 years as an engineer. He earned his J.D., with honors, from The George Washington University; his M.B.A., and his B.S. in Engineering Science and Mechanics from Virginia Tech.

Robert Bostrom has joined SNR Denton as partner and co-head of its global Financial Institutions and Funds sector. He was executive vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary of Freddie Mac, where he directed its legal strategy through the financial crisis and recovery. At SNR Denton, Bostrom will help lead the firm’s multi-disciplinary corporate governance crisis management team, which draws together the talents of the firm’s white collar, internal and governmental investigations, public policy, capital markets, SEC enforcement, corporate governance, and state Attorneys General lawyers and professionals.

Bostrom received his law degree from Boston College Law School, his master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University, and B.A. in History from Franklin & Marshall College.

Please send your submissions to our Movers & Shakers feature to joshshields@mcca.com Please include a high-resolution photo (300 dpi or greater), along with an electronic version of the applicable announcement.

DIVERSITY & THE BAR®

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

MCCA.COM

Law Firm Affiliates The Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) acknowledges the decision of the following law firms who have joined MCCA’s Firm Affiliate Network (FAN) to advance the goal of furthering diversity in the legal profession.

Bressler, Amery & Ross, PC Bricker & Eckler LLP Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney, PC Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens & Cannada, PLLC DeMahy Labrador & Drake, PA Davis & Gilbert, LLP Epstein, Becker & Green, PC Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto Frost Brown Todd LLP Goldberg Segalla, LLP Ice Miller, LLP Igbanugo Partners International Law Firm Kenyon & Kenyon, LLP King Branson, LLC Lathrop & Gage, LLP

McGuireWoods, LLP Montgomery, Barnett, Brown, Read, Hammond & Mintz, LLP Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP Pepper Hamilton, LLP Porzio, Bromberg & Newman, PC Rivero Mestre, LLP Rooney Rippie & Ratnaswamy, LLP Sanchez & Amador, LLP Shook, Hardy & Bacon, LLP Steptoe & Johnson, LLP Sughrue Mion, PLLC Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP Thompson Hine LLP Waas Campbell Rivera Johnson & Velasquez LLP Winston & Strawn LLP Zuber & Taillieu, LLP

For more information contact: David Chu, Director of Membership & Development 202-739-5906 or davidchu@mcca.com

+59

he Scale MCCA WEIGHS IN ON THE NEWS

Mixed-Race Artists Create New Images for New America Mixed race individuals have increased 32 percent since the 2000 census in the number of Americans declaring multiracial identity, as well as by a biracial president, an explosion of blogs and Web sites about multi-racialism, and the advent of critical mixed-race studies on college campuses. Much of the work by mixed-race artists, though not all of it, reveals the fault lines and pressure points that exist in a quickly changing America. The limits of tolerance, hidden or unacknowledged assumptions about identity, and issues of racial privilege and marginalization are some themes that are found in artists’ work. The modern works offer a stark contrast to the previous generation’s views on mixed-race individuals, or mulattos, views that were put forth by predominately white artists. +2

50

Census Numbers Show Increased Gay Population The number of same-sex couples in Maryland rose from 11,243 to 16,987 households, the Census reported—a trend that has been reflected in other states. Lesbian households account for more than half of the gay households in Maryland, about 10,000. Demographers said the change should be attributed to more accurate responses on census forms, rather than a rush of gay couples moving into the state. “The most realistic explanation for such a large increase in the number of same-sex couples is increased acceptance and media campaigns that encouraged gay couples to be counted,” said demographics expert Amanda Baumle, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Houston. +2

New York Judges Leave the Bench for More Lucrative Positions Judges are the ultimate legal career milestone. A judgeship is equated with power, respect, and reasonable hours. But more New York judges are leaving the bench because the salary isn’t competitive. New York judges have not had a raise in 12 years, making the state one of the more extreme examples of a growing pay gap nationally between judges and other professionals, including partners at top law firms, who can earn 10 times the salary of the judge before whom they are arguing. Now judges are returning to law practice. Turnover in New York has increased in the past few years: nearly 1 in 10 judges are now leaving annually.

Critics contend that some judges do not work very hard and that many of them would never earn the profession’s top pay. Furthermore, it is difficult to hire new judges because talented attorneys are unlikely to join an institution that hasn’t had a cost of living increase in 12 years. -2 THIS ISSUE’S READING: -1

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Students Use Their Education to Sue Law Schools A group of students will put their education to the test when they sue their alma maters for allegedly misrepresenting post-graduation salaries and employment rates. Two class action lawsuits against Thomas M. Cooley Law School and New York Law School allege that the job numbers provided by the schools were skewed because the schools included all graduate jobs in the data, not only legal positions. Furthermore, plaintiffs argue, the schools listed an average graduate salary derived only from graduates willing to share their income—something well-heeled graduates are more likely to put forth than underemployed graduates. The defense argues that the suits are an attempt to bring attention to widespread complaints about American law school employment reporting, and the plaintiffs would have better luck taking their cause to the American Bar Association. The Wall Street Journal quoted Thomas M. Cooley’s chief lawyer saying, “These [lawsuits] are nothing other than attempts to bring public attention to this issue, and it certainly doesn’t seem like the right way to go about it.” -3

Help MCCA weigh the news!

Send diversity related news articles to joshshields@mcca.com.

LAST ISSUE: 60 MCCA.COM

Bold. Brilliant. Diverse.

At K&L Gates, we believe diversity of opinions, attitudes, experiences, and perspectives makes for a stronger work environment and more creative client solutions. Our firm is fueled by the energy created from blending different people, ideas, and influences.

We applaud all organizations that promote a culture of inclusion, and we look forward to opportunities to collaborate with the inspirational leaders featured in this issue.

K&L Gates LLP. Global legal counsel in 37 cities on three continents. Learn more at klgates.com.

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