nents for military aircraft, women are gaining steam in these settings. “I have yet to encounter a true


gender barrier,” says Wells, who at age 38 became LINN Energy’s acting general counsel when her predecessor left for another job. “Maybe it’s a generational differ- ence because I think inequalities of opportunity may have gone away.” Gender battles of the past have,


ironically, helped fuel the careers of some women in historically male- dominated fields. Upon graduating from law


school in 1979, Ann Davidson joined a law firm that had not previously hired a female associ- ate. When she became pregnant, her joy was marred by supervisors who voiced doubts that she could remain healthy while working full- time and speculated that her career might render her an unfit mother. Davidson left the firm and


became an attorney-adviser and trial attorney for the U.S. Navy, where she honed skills and gained experiences that vaulted her into the law departments of aerospace and defense corporations. Since 1983, she has worked for seven such companies, four of them spinoffs, including the McLean, Va.-based Exelis Inc., where she is now senior vice president, chief legal officer and corporate secretary. “My parents always emphasized


that I should find my opportuni- ties and not let anything get in the way,” Davidson says. “Every law firm was male-dominated when my career began, so if my obstacles were gender-based, I still viewed them as generic obstacles.” She and other GCs interviewed


by Diversity & the Bar lead teams in which 40 percent or more of the attorneys are women. But they are quick to point out that gender, along with race and sexual orienta- tion, comprise only part of a diverse


Ann


Davidson Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Corporate Secretary


27


workforce. Davidson’s 14-member team at Exelis, for instance, includes an electrical engineer-turned-lawyer and a former technical communica- tions expert in the military. Tese GCs emphasize that women


should not overlook opportunities in male-dominated industries. It doesn’t matter if a lawyer has never set foot on an oil patch or has never heard of coal slag. Instead, it’s more important to focus on the nuts and bolts of corporate governance, acquisition and divestiture, securities, environmental compliance, intellectual property rights, and occupational safety and health. “Te legal environments are fasci-


nating and intellectually challenging, and there are multi-industrial issues,” says Kate Adams, senior vice president and general counsel of the Morris Township, N.J.-based Honeywell International Inc., which manu-


MCCA.COM


JULY/AUGUST 2014 DIVERSITY & THE BAR®


Photo courtesy of Exelis Inc.


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