Features February 2023

Novak. Rafa. Roger. Serena. To tennis fans, these names will instantly evoke climactic clashes and extraordinary displays of skill. They’ll also recall gripping tales of professional rivalries and sacrifices made for the game. Enabling the Tennis Channel to broadcast those stories is Peter Steckelman, the channel’s senior vice president of business and legal affairs. An […]

Nikki Senter has vivid memories of visiting areas of the Kakaʻako district between downtown Honolulu and Waikiki as she was growing up. However, they aren’t always that pleasant. “When I was a girl, it was full of warehouses, fish markets and parking lots,” she says. “Now families can come down here to enjoy the coastal […]

It’s quite a different corporate animal from 15 years ago. So muses Arnold Dodderer about the more recent evolution of what’s become the Sunoco Limited Partnership. The company that’s now the nation’s largest independent fuel distributor was in constant flux long before Dodderer joined its legal staff in 2007. However, the most consequential changes seem […]

Both his parents were attorneys, so Chris Jensen was expected to follow the same path. He even got into law school during his senior year of college. But when it came time to accept the offer, something didn’t feel right. So instead, he found a job at the county clerk’s office in his hometown of […]

Chemists think like chemists. So says Lisa Schroeder, adding “that’s what brings out the best of those who work in BASF’s laboratories.” But in an increasingly digital world, chemists may not appreciate opportunities to secure patent protection in the digital space. This being a rather nascent area, Schroeder aids their cause as associate general counsel […]

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses to temporarily close, many were able to pivot. For example, restaurants turned to curbside pickup and doctor’s offices began relying on telehealth. But for companies that provide in person experiences—like movie theaters—all they could do was wait. Such was the case for Cinemex. “The theater world had already been […]

At Sá Cavalcante, a Brazilian holding company with interests in real estate, communication, malls and restaurants, Raquel Pessanha is reimagining how the legal department is viewed internally. As the company’s legal director, her goal is to integrate with the business. She wants her team to not only see problems and potential pitfalls, but to carefully […]

Nowadays there doesn’t seem much chaos at Whole Foods Market. The 2017 sale to Amazon is yesterday’s news and the worst of COVID-19, at least hopefully, is in the rear-view. So what’s there to excite Heather Stern? She, after all, is the legal boss who says the best advice she ever heard was “run toward […]

So what differentiates David Gohlke from the 1.3 million or so other lawyers in the Land of the Free? While it could be his ability to grasp industrial project construction and advanced air separation technologies for a producer of industrial gases, Gohlke is often asked about something more esoteric. Such as: “So you’re that Skadden […]

The culture, food, language, temperature and social norms can vary wildly even across different cities in the United States—so, conducting business throughout the world, in cities such as Tokyo and New York City, has been an exhilarating experience for Thomas Salatte. In 1995, he joined the Americas legal department at Nomura, a Japanese financial holding […]