Leslie Thornton, the recently retired senior vice president and merger transition counsel for WGL Holdings and Washington Gas Light Company, has had the same mandates as most high-profile general counsel. She has navigated and managed major litigation, employment and labor law matters, supported the board of directors, and dealt with complex cybersecurity issues and data protection, all while being cognizant of what that means in the energy industry.

Bamlango admits that he didn’t know exactly what he was in for until he started the job. He tried to prepare and anticipate the role, but the reality is different than what he imagined, he says. He has a particularly strategic role, which is bolstered by his close relationship with the CEO.

There are three things that motivate Carol DiBattiste: challenges, people, and the mission. She found all three when she joined comScore, the media measurement and analytics company based in Reston, Virginia, in January 2017.

Naturally, patents figure prominently into the business strategy, and Haas’ legal department involves itself more and more in strategic discussions to be able to focus on patents that deliver business solutions.

Confidence can be an asset. Imagine being confident enough to turn down a plum post-clerkship signing bonus, move to a foreign country with a loose grasp of the local culture and languages, and be the only overseas attorney interviewing for the first lawyer position for a hot Singaporean startup.

Four years ago, in 2014, Yusuf Mohamed was at a crossroads in his career. He was planning to join a law firm for the first time when he saw a LinkedIn post: Tesla, Inc. was looking for employment counsel. He decided to submit his resume, thinking it was a moonshot. At the time, Tesla had 10,000 employees and its prior employment lawyer had recently left the company.

An Elvis publicity stunt is part of the ACC Law Department Management (LDM) Committee’s larger strategy to draw attention to its ever-important mission and showcases its focus of combining timely, useful content with a healthy dose of fun. Stephen Roth worked closely with immediate Past-Chair Matt Nolan to craft a social media strategy that could drive membership growth.

Franklin explains that emotional intelligence was pivotal to success. “There was a huge amount of emphasis on the people side of things both during the integration planning phase and during the integration itself,” she says.

Since its inception, corporate social responsibility (CSR), has been derided as window-dressing for corporations that are eager to keep regulators off their case. Often under the purview of in-house counsel, CSR is beginning 2018 with a bang with the news that Laurence D. Fink, the chief executive of BlackRock, sent a letter to business leaders urging them that they need to do more than make profits — they need to help their communities as well.

For the vast majority of Georgia Albert’s professional life, she has been a lawyer. One day in Düsseldorf, Germany, she got a chance to see what it was like to do something else.

McCue’s new, high-level strategy role builds upon his former position. He now manages a global team that spans the United States, Malaysia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Salesforce’s customer relationship management system is based on the cloud, allowing companies to access data from anywhere there is an internet connection. The idea, somewhat quaint now, hooked Ariker and she monitored job postings while working as a litigation lawyer, and later as a contract manager where she also managed intellectual property portfolios and patent programs.

“That job started me on my current path. I got more in touch with who I am and who I wanted to be,” Karas says. She thinks more women need to take that uncertain leap and not worry about where they might land.

With more than 20 years of in-house legal and business experience, including at well-known brands like Accenture and Visa, Marina Gracias is relishing her relatively new role as general counsel and corporate secretary of Varo Money.

Eleanor Lacey looks to impact her company in more ways than just legal. She considers herself a strong advocate for family friendly policies. After working in-house for over 30 years, she reflected on why she loves being a general counsel.

It was a comfortable spring day on March 23, 2017, when Yibing Mao, Marriott's chief legal counsel for Asia Pacific, walked into the retro-chic China Club.

Amenda Makhetha is the group data privacy and compliance manager of MiX Telematics, a leading global provider of fleet and mobile asset management solutions.

The gray areas, and navigating through them, are what Patrick Kong finds most interesting about his job. As general counsel and head of compliance for Chubb, the world’s largest publicly traded insurer, he is constantly looking for gray areas and figuring out the best way forward.

Today, Allison Despard is the general counsel of labor and employment in the Asia Pacific region for Honeywell International, Inc., an American conglomerate that produces all kinds of products — from home thermostats to fluorine chemicals to turbo engines — and sells them to individuals, governments, and large corporations.

Like everyone, Shawn Zhao is a product of his circumstances. Unlike most people, however, he recognizes how fortunate he is.

Gladys Chun, who serves as general counsel for the online retailer Lazada in South East Asia, vividly remembers when her father inspired her to become a lawyer.

If you ask Chan about his legal career, he will tell you that his journey from firm to global in-house counsel was a result of “jumping at the opportunity.”

It’s hard to imagine someone better prepared for a generalist role in Asia than Deborah Vaughn. But she never set out with a formal plan to become Whirlpool’s chief legal officer of Asia Pacific. She says she simply moved from each position in “a natural progression.”

Who do you call when disaster strikes? If you are Lori Middlehurst, the Asia Pacific employment law director for VMware, you call your local contacts first to get the on-the-ground scoop.

Delfina Faraoni Manochi is enchanted with the world. She wants to see more of it, and make it better when she can.