Women in Law - On The Record

Today I'm talking to Celeste Bruce, litigation partner at Rifkin, Weiner, and Livingston in Maryland and Lisa Borsook, a real estate partner at WeirFoulds in Toronto, Canada. Both women emphasized the importance of being an effective communicator, explained how clients and mentors have acted as sponsors and endorsed their skills, and discussed how they've been able to share mentoring advice they'v...

Today I'm resharing an interview I did in the fall of 2018 with Brittany DeGan, who is the General Counsel of rewardStyle in Dallas, Texas. I wanted to share this interview again because many of you are new listeners and probably haven't heard Brittany's story yet. A few things come to mind when I think of my time with Brittany. The first is how nervous I was! This was only my second time intervie...

Today I'm talking with Lisa Baker Morgan, attorney turned chef and author. After leaving her litigation practice to focus on her daughters, Lisa found a new, more fulfilling way to live life. In her book, "Paris, Part Time," Lisa shares how at the age of 38, and newly divorced, she unexpectedly found herself staring down death in a Monaco hospital, nine time zones away from her two young daughters...

Today I'm talking with my friend and colleague, Katie Tipper-McWhorter, a litigation associate at Greenberg Traurig's Houston office. Katie attended SMU for undergrad and the University of Houston for law school. She's been with GT for a little over two years and as you'll hear, the reason I wanted to sit down with her is that she has quickly developed a reputation as a talented, hard-working, and...

Today I'm speaking with Helen Dooley, Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Tandem Sports & Entertainment in Arlington, Virginia. Helen graduated from Duke University where she obtained both a history degree and her law degree. She spoke about her informative years clerking for federal judges in the 10th Circuit, including Judge Tacha, who taught her the importance of being yourself . It wa...

Aparna and I recorded this interview before the corona virus pandemic took over and Zoom became a way of daily life for millions and millions of people around the world. Originally from Michigan, Aparna set out to become a technology lawyer after graduating from Harvard Law School. She comes from a family of engineers and entrepreneurs, who she has leaned on throughout her career for advice. She s...

A native of southern California, Michelle attended UCLA for undergrad and UC Berkeley for law school. From there, she became a trial lawyer at Quinn Emanuel at a time when the firm had fewer than 100 lawyers. She gained deep trial experience and positioned herself to take on an in-house role at NBC Universal where she investigated and assisted with IP litigation. Michelle went on to eBay where she...

Bree Vculek is a first-year law student at George Washington University in D.C. Although she will be a lawyer soon enough, Bree is the first non-lawyer who I have featured on the podcast. I thought it was important to share a student's perspective because things evolve, and we as lawyers are hiring these students. Plus, I have a lot of listeners who are students or people considering going to law...

This is a special episode because it was done in collaboration with the University of Houston Law School student organization for First Generation Law Students. Lavonne is an alumni of the University of Houston Law School but before that, she attended Howard University and Johns Hopkins University where she obtained her Masters in Biomedical Engineering and performed her post-doc work. Lavonne was...

Allison takes time to talk about the current state of things in light of COVID-19. She shares what is going on with the podcast, some of the positive things that are happening in the community right now, and fun personal things she is enjoying.  

Michelle Banks is currently a senior advisor at BarkerGilmore LLC where she specializes in providing executive coaching to corporate general counsel and their successors in development. Michelle draws on her international legal experience as the former general counsel of Gap and trusted outside counsel to various Latin American and Asian companies in providing guidance to her clients these days. S...

Molly's kind and caring spirit shined as we talked through her already storied career. It started when she first tested the legal waters working as an assistant at a law firm. She ultimately decided to attend Santa Clara School of Law where she also obtained her MBA. Post-law school, Molly began her legal career working in-house and wearing "many hats" as she handled litigation, employment, human...

Shruti is a young, rising star lawyer in the DFW area and is General Counsel of Ziosk, the company that brought you the first-ever entertainment, ordering and pay-at-the-table touchscreen tablet for for the restaurant market . Shruti's journey in the law began when she graduated law school in the height of the recession. She talks about how she powered through that difficult time in the legal mark...

Jana is a senior intellectual property lawyer for Louis Vuitton where she has spent the last five years protecting the luxury brand's iconic logos and products. Before going in-house, Jana spent several years as a litigator at Gibson Dunn and Crutcher in New York City. There, she gained great experience including pro bono experience that allowed her to make a terrific difference in a person's life...

Robin is the US Head of Norton Rose Fulbright's Antitrust and Competition practice group. Robin's pragmatic approach to the practice of law is informed by her experience, having served as in-house antitrust and litigation counsel at Swiss healthcare company Novartis before becoming North American General Counsel of Sandoz, the generics and biosimilars division of Novartis. She returned to private...

Allison looks back on Women In Law On The Record in 2019, sharing favorite moments, lessons learned, and personal stories. She also previews what is to come in 2020!

This was a special interview and experience for me as we recorded this episode from MMLaFleur's Bryant Park store in New York City. That night we shared the stories of these two inspiring women, brought female executives and lawyers together, and supported a great cause--Bottomless Closet. The Bottomless Closet experience is all about helping women in need feel confident, prepared, and empowered t...

Jennifer shares her story from her humble beginnings growing up in Arkansas to taking a step back from practicing law so she could start her family to coming back with a bang when she took a great in-house role at Lennox. Jennifer's perspective was a breath of fresh air as she was incredibly honest, candid, and realistic. She shared advice like "trust your gut despite your desire to impress others...

In this week's episode of Women In Law On The Record with five different members of the Association of Corporate Counsel's DFW Chapter. ACC was generous enough to allow me to record at their Annual Meeting. I sat down with various in-house lawyers who reflected on some of the most memorable advice they have been given throughout their careers, what they are proud to have accomplished so far, and w...

A former teacher, Angela has leveraged her legal expertise and passion for healthcare into an in-house role with a healthcare company and started a podcast focused on self care. She is also a personal trainer and health coach. Angela realized her passion for healthcare when she was asked "What's your biggest pain point in life?" and told "that's what you should be focused on." At the time, Angela...

From the time she was a young girl, Eunice knew she wanted to be a trial lawyer. She was fascinated by lawyers on television and aspired to go to law school early in her education. She envisioned herself as an advocate and loved the feeling she got from oral argument and public speaking. But after a temporary secondment with the Texas Rangers, Eunice was bit by the in-house bug. She found a new lo...

A proud Texas Longhorn and former trial lawyer, Sandra is General Counsel, Chief Legal Officer, and Chief Diversity Officer for Toyota North America. Sandra has garnered significant praise in recent years in the legal community and beyond for her work in implementing diversity and inclusion at Toyota. She is, without a doubt, a role model for leaders in their organizations. Sandra is a great story...

A former law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Judge David Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Kelsi has served as lead counsel in dozens of federal and state court appeals. She has presented argument before the U.S. Supreme Court and 11 of the 13 U.S. Courts of Appeals, including the en banc Ninth Circuit. She shares terrific stories from her time at the Department of...

A former big law rainmaker who specialized in labor and employment litigation, Pat Gillette is now an industry leader on advancing and retaining women and minorities in companies and firms. She strives to put more women in positions of leadership and to train women to use their collective power to make the changes in their organizations that will advance them in their careers.

Heather is an associate at Weil in their M&A and private equity group. She also is the co-host of the Sinisterhood Podcast--a weekly podcast focused on a different true crime, cult, or creepy topic every week. With her background in comedy writing and improv, Heather weaves in comedic moments of relief throughout Sinisterhood. She is absolutely one of the funniest people I know! She is also sharp,...