Kara Baysinger, Teri Plummer McClure, Louise Parent, Michele Coleman Mayes (clockwise from upper left corner)
fying the corporation’s moral compass, and performing triage—all activities invested with degrees of risk. When discussing the risks confronted by women on the
road to general counsel, the women interviewed for this book said their journeys had forced them to confront three primary types of risk: reputational and professional risks, most often associated with job choices; relationship risks, in terms of how they manage and navigate the ladder when spouses, children, and family are involved. And there were more inward-facing risks, in terms of self-identity—as a lawyer—as career goals and visions were realized. For some women, the path involved detours from the law itself, caus- ing them to question, at least for a while, their sense of who they are and what they do. Dealing with any one of these risks is challenging
BOOK EXCERPT Risk-Taking: Plot Lines
“ Real courage” is a key success denominator, one shared by so many women because they have been willing to go outside their comfort zones, to be risk takers. By Michele Coleman Mayes and Kara Sophia Baysinger
For today’s general counsel, there are few dividing lines between success and failure more acute than risk. At any given moment, risk can literally make or break a career. On the way up, young lawyers who play it safe can stall or fall short of the mark. As we’ve learned from the women of this book, the greatest risk to advancement can be in not taking risks at all. T ere was a time when being general counsel was
relatively uncomplicated. Before Sarbanes-Oxley, risk for a general counsel perhaps amounted to retaining the wrong law fi rm. T at’s an oversimplifi cation, of course, but if the risks of yesteryear can be likened to shallow waters, then risk in the post-SOX era is oceanic, capable of sinking the corporate ship. Not only does today’s general counsel have a strong hand in steering that ship, but the role includes establishing and maintaining trust with shareholders, inves- tors, regulators, and the marketplace, setting and personi-
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enough, but for many of our interviewees, as for many women entering the legal profession today, it was a matter of taking on all three. No matter the risk, this conclusion emerged: If you want to be a leader in the corporate legal environment, you can’t be risk-averse. Or, more emphati- cally stated, it takes real courage for women to become top corporate counsel. In this chapter’s collection of stories, a key lesson lies in
considering what might have come of these women’s careers had they not taken risks. While each story diff ers, there is something uniform in how each used risk-taking to unlock doors or resolve pivotal career “infl ection points.”
Platinum Cards On three separate occasions, Louise Parent confronted career junctures where she had to choose between relative safety and risk. By choosing the riskier route each time, she earned her way to the general counsel role at American Express, which she has held since 1993. Parent’s fi rst move came in 1977, when she left a law
fi rm associate job to join the general counsel’s offi ce of American Express. She quickly began capitalizing on the moment. “T e company focused on providing its employees with opportunities for growth, learning, development, and coaching,” she recalls. “I knew that if I positioned myself to do the job to the best of my abilities, opportunities would naturally come.” Having assumed a central role in an acquisition spree,
Parent gained the attention of the company’s executive team, while cultivating a strong sense of self as a highly sophisticated M&A and corporate fi nance lawyer. T en came an infl ection point that at fi rst looked like a bump on an otherwise smooth road. “[Top executive] Lou Gerstner and then-general counsel
Gary Beller pulled me aside and asked me what I wanted to do with my life,” she says. “I told them I wanted to continue doing sophisticated work and wanted more responsibility.
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