Features August 2017

Many general counsels admit to pursuing in-house roles as a way to avoid litigation, which after working in law firms, they discover an aversion to. That’s not the case with Randy Reaves, vice president and general counsel of Schnabel Engineering. Reaves is a litigator at heart. He grew up watching shows like Perry Mason and […]

“Struggling is hard because you never know what’s at the end of the tunnel,” the late, great comic Don Rickles used to say. One of his fans, Joseph Dennis, might respond that with sufficient preparation and teamwork the struggle is lessened, and what awaits at tunnel’s end can be the most tangible of accomplishments. Such […]

Jackie Bennett may be young for a general counsel, but she got her start in the engineering industry at the far younger age of 10, so she’s never been one to let her freshness hold her back. Bennett’s father was an engineer and, as a kid, she spent her summers at the engineering firm, doing […]

Whether we realize it or not, we are guided through the world by the unspoken language of visual branding. That is, design elements—colors, images, shapes, materials, finishes and typography—that communicate a company’s or product’s values, personality and intended use. Look behind that branding and you’ll find marketing minds who ponder, for instance, just how yellow […]

“It’s all about supporting the business and the team,” is the natural response of Mark A. Smolik when asked what excites him about his role as general counsel and chief compliance officer of DHL’s supply chain operations in the Americas. “As a company, we go to great lengths to provide service excellence to our customers, […]

Talk about a farsighted company. Houston-based Omega Protein Corp. hasn’t just been ahead of the curve when it comes to health concerns; it has been in the animal nutrition business since its 1913 founding, and in the last decade has expanded that focus to human nutrition. Which makes it an ideal fit for John D. […]

Whatever the company, any new hire is well-advised to hit the ground running. That first impression can be a lasting one, and if so, Thomas Lynch must have endeared himself from the get-go to the team at Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. Just three days into his job as general counsel of the growing biopharmaceutical company in […]

The news from Turkey is upsetting—an apparent democracy turned police state under the iron fist of a president turned sultan reincarnate—and it causes personal anguish for Robert J. Cordy. A former associate justice on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC), who returned to private practice last year, Cordy has for many years been active on […]

The owner of a casual, family-style Italian restaurant in North Canton, Ohio, Mark Inzetta knows the recipe for success in the risky endeavor of serving food to customers and hoping they’ll make a habit out of coming back often. His restaurant—Mama Guzzardi’s—is noted for its mouth-watering lasagna, but that alone won’t keep the place viable. […]

Modern construction relies more and more upon geospatial surveying, and that’s a concept best grasped by those with a technical background. People such as, say, Cookie Fay Munson, who since 2012 has been the savvy general counsel of the Austin, Texas-based and nationally recognized firm, Surveying And Mapping LLC (SAM) that assists a variety of […]