Lacy Durham made every rookie mistake possible in law school. She didn’t focus on building a network, didn’t join many associations, and only had experience with Louisiana’s unique Napoleonic code-inspired civil law system, which is different than other legal systems across the nation. At first, it looked like her mistakes wouldn’t matter. She clerked with an energy company in Louisiana and was offered a position to go in-house after graduation. But when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, it washed away her hopes of a position with the company that was temporarily relocating its headquarters and rescinding future offers due to the hurricane’s devastation.
“I started over,” Durham says. “I still dreamed of being a corporate tax lawyer, but by necessity, my path was just a little different than I expected.”
She moved to Dallas, took a job with the U.S. Department of Labor, and enrolled in SMU’s Master of Laws program, focusing on taxation. This time, the “extrovert’s extrovert” was on a mission to build her professional network in a city where she knew no one.
“I’ve never met a stranger and can talk to anybody about anything at any time,” Durham says. “I had to figure out what was what because the traditional method of finding a job was not going to be my story.”
Durham is now in a role that’s similar to the one she wanted in law school, as an in-house lawyer at an energy company. But her path to becoming assistant general counsel at Constellation Energy Generation was anything but traditional. As D CEO reviewed nominations for the 2024 Corporate Counsel Awards program, it became clear that a winding road to in-house counsel is not unusual. The well-worn trail from law school to big firm to in-house with a firm client, while still popular, is far from the only way to find success as a corporate counsel.
The diverse experiences and challenges faced by those on the winding road often become assets in the increasingly complex role and help them become a strategic partner to others in the C-Suite.
Durham was inspired to be a corporate lawyer by watching Clair Huxtable and her ability to balance her role as a mother and lawyer on The Cosby Show. She eventually found her way to the consulting firm Deloitte, where she spent 15 years in the company’s tax division. She feared that she would be pigeonholed into a specific practice area if she worked at a big firm, and Deloitte allowed her to tackle diverse projects. She worked with small businesses, nonprofits, and Fortune 10 companies. “Being nimble, flexible, and agile are key characteristics,” Durham says. “You never know what will happen. My whole career has been about the pivot. Everything I had planned out, none of it happened that way.”
Casey Fraser, on the other hand, didn’t dream of becoming a lawyer. The son of a former National Hockey League player and head coach, his eyes were on the ice. When his hopes of playing pro hockey dried up, he still wanted to be close to the game he loved and worked for the Dallas Stars in the team’s legal department as an operations assistant.
Fraser enrolled in a dual MBA/JD program with his eyes set on a role with a corporation, equipped with dual business and legal skillsets. He now serves as senior legal counsel for Lantern, which provides solutions to employers to reduce healthcare costs. But it was hockey that led him there.
Fraser scored a meeting with NHL franchise owner and Dallas businessman Tom Dundon, whose company, Dundon Capital, had purchased what was then Employer Direct Healthcare. The healthcare business needed an attorney who understood operations, and he took a leap of faith to become employee No. 50 at a company that now has 500 workers and is valued at $1 billion.
Fraser’s father’s coaching career took the family all over the world, and skipping the obligatory time at a big law firm put him on a different trajectory than most corporate lawyers. He sees travel and his meandering career path as advantages. “It allows me to think differently compared to someone who went through the big machine,” Fraser says. “I’m a poster child for not needing a specific experience in your past or skill set. Have a great attitude, work hard, and be a nice guy, and a lot of doors will open.”
Chief Legal Officer Sharon Johnson of MODE Global took a more circuitous route to her role. But for her, it was intentional. Early in her career, a mentor told her to start with a comprehensive foundation and try to understand many facets of a business to advance. She took positions in marketing, finance, project management, and sales at Verizon before earning her law degree.
While working as the only non-attorney on a team of contract managers at Verizon, she discovered a love for law. Her colleagues took her under their wing, teaching her how to draft and negotiate contracts, and she was assigned to negotiate a multimillion-dollar agreement in her mid-20s. “I was hooked,” Johnson says. “I loved drafting and negotiations. It was a bit like art to me as it involved so much creativity.” The experience convinced her to return to school and earn a law degree at night while working more than 50 hours a week in her day job.
Johnson went on to earn an MBA and land in-house counsel roles with tech firms before joining parcel logistics firm MODE Global. She looks back on her diverse roles as strengths rather than distractions from her advancement. “The roles honed my ability to empathize with internal and external clients, fostering patience and a deep understanding of their needs and pressures,” she says. “This perspective is crucial when navigating the complexities of legal advice and business strategy, allowing me to serve not just as a lawyer but as a trusted business adviser.”
Although most corporate lawyers start with an interest in the law or business, others arrive at their positions from more diverse backgrounds. Carolyn Lam says she had it all figured out. After failing pre-calculus for the third time and realizing she wouldn’t be a doctor as her mom had hoped, she decided to become a professor of literature. But when the idea of a liberal arts career path gave her pause, she saw the light in the form of a constitutional law course, where a professor enthralled her with stories of her pro bono work.
Lam diverted to law school, but a corporate role wasn’t on her radar. Instead, she took a job with a plaintiff’s employment firm, representing employees in civil rights cases. She enjoyed the work, but managing 60 cases at a time meant she spent more time putting out fires than changing the world as she had hoped.
So, when an opposing counsel recruited her to a firm that did labor and employment defense, she moved to the other side. She eventually found her way to in-house work at a variety of companies. Today, Lam is deputy GC and chief compliance officer at Ecobat, a global leader in producing lead, lead alloys, and lead battery recycling. “My career progression has always been about how I learn how to solve bigger and better problems,” she says.
Her career growth makes her a unique asset as she knows what it is like to sit on the other side of legal disputes and has experience working with employees at all levels of a company. As she solves more complex problems in her legal career, she maintains a philosopher’s passion for aligning her career with life’s most essential questions. “It’s important for me to work somewhere that’s mission-driven because I want to make sure that the problems I’m solving align with my values.”
The winding road to corporate counsel leadership isn’t efficient nor easy, but the invaluable experience obtained on the circuitous route proves pertinent. “Although it was hard—and there were setbacks—it was well worth it,” says Johnson of MODE Global. “I asked a lot of questions, found great mentors, drank from the fire hose, and grew personally and professionally along the way.”
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