17 have men leading their legal departments. Fortune 500 general counsel of color are a geographi-
cally 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 fi ve. Rounding out the top fi ve 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 com- panies with minority general counsel are located in the Midwest, 11 in the West, 10 in the Northeast, and eight in the South.
PROF IL E BRE T 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 fi rst tasks is the ongoing integration of the combined airlines’ respective legal depart- ments, an undertaking that has consumed the better part of the fi rst nine months of my tenure.” Though Hart had never played a part in the merger of two equal
sized companies, he was nonetheless confi dent. “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 fi ve-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 signifi cant. 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-
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 week-
ends 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 fulfi lling 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 fi ve 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 fulfi lling,” 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 signifi cant 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.”
35
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. T e 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
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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011 DIVERSITY & THE BAR®
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