Profiles Crafting a career: private practice
Corporate litigation associate, Alston & Bird, Atlanta First in-house job
Worldspan, L.P., a computer reservation system for the travel industry The Coca-Cola Company
One highlight: leading the women’s business resource group globally and helping to support the company’s efforts to build a pipeline of female leadership and influence policies supportive of women.
Q and A:
Dara Redler ’91
GC discusses steering cannabis company into new era of legalization
D
ara Redler never imagined that cannabis would figure into her career in corporate law, but helping a company enter a market that didn’t exist until a year ago provides a certain thrill. “What I’m really excited about,” says Redler, who in January became general counsel and corporate secretary of Tilray, Inc., “is having the opportunity to play a part in shaping the future of an entire industry from its very early stages.” Tilray, a five-year-old cannabis company based in Nanaimo, B.C., was already established in the medical sector with a line of therapeutic products marketed internationally. On Oct. 17, 2018, when Canada became only the second country to legalize adult recreational use nationally, the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, High Park Company, celebrated by launching five recreational brands and an array of products. “We’re witnessing a global paradigm shift from a state of prohibition to legalization,” says Redler, who is based in Toronto. It’s one, she notes, that demands navigating an evolving
federal regulatory landscape, differing access rules that are set by individual provinces and territories, and the strict laws and regulations of the ever-growing number of countries legalizing medical cannabis. Redler had spent the previous 17 years in-house at The Coca-Cola Company, where her responsibilities over time included supporting its food service business and restaurant customers, its national retail customers, its chief digital officer, and the bottling system, and leading a legal team supporting the marketing of flagship brands of sparkling beverages. “All of these roles helped me learn about customer-first support, which I’m able to leverage in my current role,” she says. “I feel I am bringing my 28 years of diverse and global legal experience to bear to help guide a new company in a new industry.” Redler spoke with Duke Law Magazine about some of the opportunities and challenges she faces in her new role, and how lawyers might prepare to enter a growing corporate field. Duke Law Magazine • Fall 2019
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