A day in the life of Larissa Meli, Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at Alenia Aermacchi North America Inc., US.

The 20+ years I’ve spent at Intel. I’m immensely proud of my company and its technological achievements, but I also believe our legal department continues to set the highest standards in terms of quality of legal work, innovation, speed and effective teaming with our business clients.

After experiencing how ACC membership could benefit her practice and career, Michelle Gustavson has eagerly shared the value of membership with her colleagues and friends. She explains why she has become a top recruiter — and how easy it is to encourage her in-house peers to join.

Kerry Childe is senior corporate counsel, privacy and information policy, for Best Buy.

This article includes a list of import and export topics to include your pre-acquisition checklist. This list is not exhaustive but can serve as a guideline. A more comprehensive list should be developed for an audit.

George Walls is assistant general counsel of Bank of America Corporation, and in that capacity has provided legal counsel in numerous mergers, acquisitions and divestitures ranging in value from $7 million to $61 billion throughout North America and various international jurisdictions.

In 2011, BMO’s Legal, Corporate & Compliance Group (LCCG) made a strategic decision to purchase an ACC membership. There were a number of reasons for this decision. ACC Docket spoke with Kathleen Hogan about how she became a top recruiter.

The mission and purpose of the Intellectual Property Committee is to act as a central resource for all ACC members with an expertise or interest in intellectual property law, covering at least patents, copyrights, trademark, transactional and trade secrets.

A day in the life of Richard Brunner, Global Head of Legal at Dennemeyer Group, Germany.

In the case of The Walt Disney Company, substantially distinct businesses may all be part of the same corporate family. A legal department like Disney's must therefore overcome not only the challenges of scale but also the challenges of scope.

A day in the life of Julie S. Maresca, Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Motion Picture Licensing Corporation in Los Angeles, California.

Energy encompasses a wide and varied universe of substantive areas of law such as transactions, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory, litigation and alternative dispute resolution, privacy and many more.

A day in the life of Rafael Garcia, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel at CEITEC Semiconductors in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

The Real Estate Committee provides numerous benefits to its members such as networking, access to templates and check lists, articles and much more.

A day in the life of Ilse De Loof, Group General Counsel at LBC Tank Terminals Group in Mechelen, Belgium.

From implementing new projects to forming relationships across cultures, Smith’s mantra is patience and persistence.

In her role, Pradel has assisted in several multimillion-dollar pipeline expansion projects and the transfer and sale of onshore transportation and gathering assets. She is heavily involved in advising Williams on commercial, contract, and regulatory and compliance issues. To be successful, Pradel says first and foremost, she has to be approachable and have integrity.

As senior counsel, Malik does transactional work in support of trading, and negotiates long-term structured transactions associated with Calpine’s assets throughout the country. He also serves as Calpine’s compliance attorney, advising in real time as compliance issues arise. To manage his many competing tasks, Malik prioritizes and plans. Giving each job and issue the time and attention it deserves has driven his achievements.

In August 2006, Angela Hughes started Franklin Electric’s legal department as the company’s first and only in-house attorney. “When I first came on, my instinct was that we needed five lawyers and five support staff members,” she says. “But I learned that it’s important to take it slow — learn the company’s needs and the client’s expectations for the department.”

Gaunce is not your average in-house counsel, and his wide-range of experiences have inspired and polished his in-house practice.

Elganzouri says his business background has helped him better serve his clients: “I can speak their language; I think like them in many ways,” he says. “Having that business perspective has helped me establish strong relationships, and so much of what we do in-house is based on relationships. It’s made me a better lawyer.”

“I discovered a completely new way of thinking — it was very interesting.” Derry says being introduced to the legal world with no biases or expectations helped him keep an open mind, both in law school and his following career.

Kelli Cubeta joined Billing Services Group straight from law school as associate general counsel in 2003. Within two years, she reduced outside legal spend by 45 percent. When asked how she did it, Cubeta answers with one word: involvement.

“It’s hard to hire people who think differently than you,” she says. “But having different perspectives is really helpful — it challenges you.”

Since joining ConAgra Foods in 2007, Megan Belcher has designed and implemented a compliance training program; started an inhouse CLE lunch program and the ConAgra Foods Institute on Law and Policy; empowered her staff with cross-functional experience; and dramatically narrowed the number of firms her law department works with. Building, nurturing and leveraging relationships with key groups has been essential to her success.