MORE THAN A LAWYER: BEYOND THE GC ROLE

More Than a Lawyer

Beyond the GC Role

The tumultuous events of the last 18 months have seen a drive to increase corporate diversity in the executive suite – and led to many Black general counsel being tapped to take on senior roles that go beyond just legal. Executive Search Consultant Sonya Olds Som spoke to Black leaders about their career journeys and the advice they would give to those navigating the path to the C-suite. Is being a general counsel the perfect background for a board role – or does stepping out of the legal department require a fundamental shift in mindset? By Sonya Olds Som

ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS THAT BECOMES APPARENT speaking to Black leaders is that there is no set career path. Having been nominated by President Biden into the role and confirmed by the United States Senate, Donald M. Remy serves as Deputy Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Yet his career has included roles at the non-profit National Collegiate Athletic Association, Fannie Mae and the Department of Justice, as well as in law firms Latham & Watkins and O’Melveny & Myers. It’s a career without an obvious trajectory, but one driven, Remy says, by “a passion for the work and the mission.” He explains: “Nothing really connects to anything else, except my leadership skills were always on display.”

Group President, Lifecycle Solutions & Chief Administrative Officer at Deere & Company, Marc Howze, tells a similarly varied story. “I didn’t have a traditional legal career – I didn’t start out as a lawyer.” Howze has held multiple roles at Deere, from Associate General Counsel to successfully running a factory. He entered the legal profession while in the military, going from being a Field Artillery officer to the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. For some, the connection between law and business felt natural from the start. Sharon Barner is Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer at Cummins, where she previously held the general counsel role. Prior to this, she served as Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and sat on the Management Committee at Foley & Lardner. She explains: “Because my subject area was intellectual property, that allowed me to really think about my clients from a business perspective even as a lawyer. My focus was, ‘if we get this right, it will increase the value of your company, and have a significant business impact.’ I felt very fortunate that as a lawyer I could be involved in proactive ways to help the business gain value.”

A willingness to try different roles can be vital in building the skillset to move into leadership. Kodwo Ghartey-Tagoe, who was born in Ghana and studied in the U.S. and Quebec, leads the Office of the General Counsel at Duke Energy, where he currently serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary. He has held various roles in the company, including on the business side, and feels those experiences made him a better candidate for a general counsel role, as well as more able to move to other leadership positions. A broad grounding in the business ensured he was in alignment with the company’s goals: “I thought being well rounded in legal better positioned me, but it was also about the CEO’s vision of what she wanted in a general

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP

counsel – one who understood the business and would bring some practicality to the provision of legal services. Because what’s the point of the legal advice if it’s not going to be used to advance the mission of the corporation?”

Progression may require the courage to take on roles that at first glance aren’t a promotion. Howze recounts how his progression involved accepting positions that were technically at a lower grade, as well as being willing to expand his education – in his case, going back to business school to get an MBA – in order to tackle them successfully. He has developed criteria for deciding on such moves: “My framework is: will I learn something I don’t know? Will I develop relationships I don’t currently have? Will this allow me to be impactful? Will this make me more marketable in my company, and in other places? It’s not just about the money.”

OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES

If this proactive flexibility can propel a lawyer beyond the GC role, what are the main challenges that come with the move – particularly for a Black individual in a landscape that remains predominantly white?

Crediting “growing up with a mom and four sisters who believed women can do anything” for imbuing her with self-belief, Sharon Barner nonetheless recognizes “the diminished expectations some people have of Black people and of women.” She has learned it’s important to establish her capabilities from the start. “It doesn’t matter what other expectations of you are – it matters what I know I can deliver. I bring that attitude into the room straight away.”

As a young Black man from the South, and an HBCU graduate, Donald Remy also found himself facing preconceptions in his early career: “People made assumptions about my competence, and those weren’t positive assumptions,” he says. He found that focusing on commonalities and fostering relationships produced results: “You can’t force people to think differently; you have to engage with them where they are. You have to grow a relationship of trust that can get you to a space where you’re all working together to achieve the same goal.”

The importance of building relationships came up frequently in the discussions. This includes utilizing the unique network you may have as a Black lawyer. Explains Howze: “There are so few Black people in senior positions still, those networks can be very impactful.” It also means being willing to engage with a wide range of people – including those who might count as opposition. This is where lawyers – many of whom, after all, have been trained to argue – can excel. “I called myself the Persuader-in-Chief when I was president of our South Carolina utilities,” jokes Ghartey-Tagoe, recounting his keenness to always be the one who got to talk around whoever is on the other side of the table. “I count it as a core competency, my ability to relate to anybody.”

Barner stresses the importance of managing and mentoring junior colleagues – something law firms often don’t prepare lawyers to do. “Law firms tend to have a culture of ‘eat your young lawyers’ rather than invest in them, but I’ve always been interested in how to bring out the best in the people working for me. As a business, people are your value and differentiator.” She believes that a commitment to helping Black colleagues thrive will ensure the current push for more diverse management is a movement, not just a moment.

“Corporate America moves on very quickly. But what we have now that we didn’t have during, say, the 70s, is that there are more of us in senior positions. There are

Sharon Barner, Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer at Cummins

Kodwo Ghartey-Tagoe, Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, Duke Energy

Marc Howze, Group President, Lifecycle Solutions & Chief Administrative Officer at Deere & Company

Donald Remy, Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs

more of us who understand the criticality of influence and power, building diverse relationships, mentoring and sponsorship. There are more of us to open those doors for other people to walk through.”

All of the interviewees recognized the value that different perspectives bring to the C-suite. Explains Barner: “When you have diverse views at the table, you get a better work product, better outcomes and certainly a better environment.” Howze agrees: “You have lived a life that your average white colleague has not. If you’re the only Black person in the room, be a Black person in the room. Bring that perspective to bear.” He also believes that the Black experience builds a tenacity that makes for good leadership: “We know what it’s like to be told no, to be told, ‘you don’t belong here.’”

MORE THAN ‘JUST’ A LAWYER

While those are valuable attributes, does it take a change of mindset to move beyond the GC role into other executive positions? Do lawyers need to rebrand themselves – in their own minds and those of senior management – as more than ‘just’ a lawyer?

To Marc Howze, it’s crucial to move away from the perceived idea of lawyers as the ones just there to say no: “Instead, say, ‘Here’s how you can do it. Here’s what it will take.’ That gives them options. It helps change the mindset.” For Sharon Barner, that’s about bringing the skillset of a lawyer to bear in a business setting: “We’re trained in the Socratic method. We ask questions – why was it done that way? Can we change it to make it work better?”

This is echoed by Donald Remy: “You have to make yourself part of the business solution team. Make sure that you’re doing more than dispensing legal advice. You’re dispensing practical advice, you’re dispensing risk analysis, you’re dispensing business judgment. Do that throughout your career so that people see you as a solution-oriented teammate.”

Moving into a non-legal role may mean you are leading people who have more experience on the business side than you do, which can be tricky. Approaching with a willingness to learn – one thing, as Howze points out, that lawyers excel at – is key. Howze not only expanded his formal qualifications but got hands-on experience running one of Deere’s factories, ensuring a ground-up understanding of what the business actually does. For Remy, it was important that he didn’t lean on his title for authority: “You can’t just say, I’ve got this big title, I’ve got this big set of responsibilities, you must do what I say. It does not work that way, particularly when there may be presumptions that go against your leadership and authority. You have to say, ‘I want to learn from you.’ You have

ADVICE Into a New Role

Driven by social justice movements and an overdue recognition of the need for change, many companies are seeking to move Black people into senior roles. What advice can Sonya Olds Som offer Black GCs looking to move into a non-legal C-suite role?

• Make it clear you understand how the business works.

Says Donald Remy, “For someone to transition from the legal side, you have to consider things the way your business teammates do and help them solve problems beyond the legal issues.” • Be willing to think and communicate differently:

“I had to start thinking in bullet points,” sums up

Marc Howze. • Treat your different experiences and perspective as a superpower, not a weakness. As Remy says,

“Don’t be afraid to bring your whole self to the table.” • Consider roles that don’t look like promotions.

Says Howze: “You might need to set your ego aside, take a step back to learn some things, demonstrate some things that you have not demonstrated before, in order to be able to go forward.” • Ask for feedback. Explains Sharon Barner:

“Women and people of color don’t have the same opportunities to fail and recover. They are less likely to be given feedback so that they can develop. I am adamant about asking for constructive ‘negative’ feedback so that I can continue to improve.” • Build relationships at every stage of your career and leverage the network you have as a Black professional. But focus on meaningful connections:

“It’s about developing relationships, not just collecting contacts,” stresses Kodwo Ghartey-Tagoe.