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CAREER CORNER
Julie Getzels: On the Art of Working as a General Counsel [by Teresa Talerico] On a typical day at the office, Julie Getzels might stroll past a few Renoirs, Georges Seurat’s “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte,” or Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” on her way to a board meeting.
Ms. Getzels is general counsel for the Art
doing legal work, you’re also learning about
some issues related to the new building and
Institute of Chicago. As such, she handles
a field that’s so different. For example, if I’m
some faculty issues. Every day, people will
all of the legal work for the institute’s
working on an acquisition of an art object,
call me about something new. Some of them
museum and school, including art acquisi-
I may have to learn things about the artist
are little tiny things; some of them are great
tions, copyright questions, employee issues,
or the time period in which it was made or
big things. I’ve gotten calls from people
nonprofit tax matters and the legalities of
other historical issues--for example, the
saying, “I have a client who’s about to die, he
the museum’s new building project. A 1985
possibility that the object was looted during
has all this great artwork. He wants to give
graduate of Harvard Law School, her official
the Holocaust. Also, my office is attached
it to you before he dies for his own tax-plan-
title is Vice President, General Counsel and
to the museum, so going back and forth to
ning purposes; will you accept this gift?”
Secretary. One of the perks of her job is be-
meetings, you go through these galleries of
I’m the first point of contact, so I have to get
ing surrounded by great works of art.
wonderful art and that’s very nice.
information about what the artworks are, and
Q: What attracted you to this kind of work?
Q: Do you have a favorite piece of “law art?”
get all of that moving.
A: Two things: the variety of the practice and
A: No, though I do get attached to objects in
Q: What advice do you have for students
working for a not-for-profit.
that way. It’s funny. When I go to exhibits, I’ll
interested in such a career?
I have to see if the curators want them and
think, “Oh, I know that painting. That’s the Q: What was your background before the Art
one where we had a really difficult lender.”
A: To be a general counsel, you need to have
Institute?
I appreciate them from a very different per-
a fairly rounded background. You need to be
spective compared to the curators or visitors.
familiar with a lot of different areas. When I was hiring an associate general counsel,
A: After I graduated from law school, I clerked for a federal judge and then worked
One of the things that happens at board
one of the problems I found in hiring from
for a small firm that did plaintiffs’ employ-
meetings is the curators will present major
big firms is that people were very, very
ment discrimination work. After that, I was at
new acquisitions. That’s a lot of fun because
specialized, and that’s not what I was looking
the U.S. Attorney’s Office as a criminal pros-
you get to see the works in a very small
for. They were great at doing one thing, but
ecutor for seven years. After I left the U.S.
setting and not in the galleries, so it’s more
that’s not that helpful when you are working
Attorney’s office, I worked in various capaci-
personal. One of my favorite works is some-
in-house. If you are interested in working in-
ties in the City of Chicago’s legal department,
thing that was presented at my first board
house or as a general counsel, you have to be
and then went from there to a not-for-profit
meeting. I didn’t realize I’d be sitting next to
able to deal with a varied range of issues and
hospital in the University of Chicago hospital
this great piece of art. It was a black stone
range of legal work.
system as the general counsel. I’ve done a
bird--it sort of looks like the Maltese Falcon-
lot of different things. This is the first one
-from ancient Egypt. It’s beautiful.
Another important thing is to get used to dealing with clients. That’s a very hard
that involves art or education. Q: What are you working on right now?
transition to make. When you’re in-house, people will just walk in all the time and there
Q: Combining law and art sounds neat. What’s it like to combine those two different
A: I’m working on some new art acquisi-
isn’t the buffer of being in a firm and being
fields?
tion issues and policies. We’re considering
outside and they have to make a phone call
changing some of our policies. I’m working
or they have to go through the partner or
on various human resources issues and
whatever. It’s you. And if you don’t enjoy that,
A: It’s very interesting in that when you’re
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