Phyllis Turner-Brim – HP Inc.

At the intersection of innovation, leadership, and purpose, Phyllis Turner-Brim has built a career defined not only by professional range but by intention. As senior vice president and deputy general counsel overseeing products, services, and commercial legal matters at HP Inc., she leads one of the company’s most complex global legal portfolios while remaining deeply committed to lifting others as she advances. Her story is not a straight line. It is a long arc of evolution that moves from engineering to executive leadership, shaped by curiosity, resilience, and an unwavering belief that people are the most important systems any organization builds.

Phyllis Turner-Brim | HP Inc. | Deputy General Counsel – Products, Services, Commercial Legal

Turner-Brim did not set out with a rigid plan to become a senior legal executive. What she did have, from the very beginning, was a strong problem-solving instinct, curiosity, and comfort with complexity. Those traits, honed early in her career as a chemical engineer, would eventually become the throughline connecting every chapter of her professional life.

From engineering roots to legal leadership

Growing up in Chicago, Turner-Brim gravitated toward science and engineering, fields that rewarded logic, discipline, and creativity in equal measure. She earned a degree in chemical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology and began her professional career as an engineering management trainee at General Electric (“GE”). After completing several rotations at GE, Turner-Brim transitioned to Procter & Gamble (“P&G”), where she was a product researcher working on Head & Shoulders® shampoo. The work required monitoring the competitive environment, identifying consumer needs, and translating insights into technical changes in product formulations. It was in her work at P&G where Turner-Brim was first exposed to patents and patent law, and it was through that exposure that she became interested in intellectual property law as a profession.

“I didn’t know patent law was a profession until I saw it up close in my daily work,” she says.

That realization opened a door she had not previously considered. In 1990, she enrolled at the University of Cincinnati College of Law with the goal of becoming a patent attorney. What followed was more than three decades of legal practice spanning private practice and in-house roles across a spectrum of industries, including semiconductors, retail, computers, printers, and advanced technologies. 5 years in private practice were followed by senior in-house roles at Walmart Stores Inc., Intermec Technologies Corporation, Intellectual Ventures Management LLC, and Starbucks Corporation. Each stop expanded her technical breadth and her leadership scope.

“I’ve practiced law for 33 years, and there is no job I’ve had that I couldn’t do better because I am an engineer and a patent lawyer,” she says.

What began as a focused ambition to work in intellectual property evolved naturally into broader leadership. While Turner-Brim once imagined herself as a chief IP counsel, her career trajectory shifted as she was increasingly drawn to leading business-driven commercial and transactional legal teams alongside innovation-driven portfolios. She welcomed the opportunity to have a greater business impact.

“I didn’t necessarily see myself moving away from IP as a core practice, but as my career evolved, the transition felt natural,” she says.

Building scale & strategy at HP

Turner-Brim joined HP Inc. (“HP”) in December 2020, joining a company with a long legacy of innovation and reinvention. HP. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. As the founding entity in Silicon Valley, HP is now best known for developing personal computers, printers, related supplies, 3D printing, and related services. As of 2024, it ranks as the world’s second-largest personal computer vendor by unit sales. That scale brings complexity, and complexity is where Turner-Brim thrives.

Over the past five years, she has served in several deputy general counsel roles, culminating in her current position leading product, services, and commercial legal functions. Today, she oversees a global legal team of over 100 legal professionals, within a broader legal department of over 400. Her team is distributed across markets and regions, aligned closely with HP’s go-to-market function and business units.

One of Turner-Brim’s current challenges is to integrate product, services, and commercial legal support into a more unified operating model. By bringing these functions together, she is driving greater alignment between legal strategy and business objectives, clarifying career pathways, and optimizing workflows.

“Two of my superpowers are growing people and transforming teams,” she says.

Her leadership style reflects trust and discipline. She manages budget, headcount, and long-term strategy while staying close enough to portions of the work to remain grounded as a practicing lawyer. She believes every lawyer should maintain an active legal practice and dedicates about 15 percent of her time to it.

“I enjoy practicing law, and I enjoy leading people,” she says.

Embracing AI & the future of legal work

As technology continues to reshape the legal profession, Turner-Brim has been a steady voice advocating for thoughtful adoption rather than fear-driven resistance. She is playing a leading role in evaluating and integrating artificial intelligence tools into HP’s legal function to increase efficiency and create capacity. The goal is not replacement, but amplification.

“AI is not replacing lawyers, but we do need to embrace it as a co-worker,” she says.

Her enthusiasm for AI is rooted in the same curiosity that once drew her to engineering. She reads extensively about emerging technologies and understands their implications without needing to build them herself. From her perspective, every lawyer is already a technology lawyer, whether they realize it or not, because the backbone of legal work is increasingly governed by digital systems.

She also recognizes that leadership must evolve alongside technology. Having managed people for over 25 years, she has adapted her approach as teams have grown larger, more global, and more diverse.

“I didn’t burst from the womb ready to lead 100-plus people,” she says.

Her teams reflect her belief in holistic leadership. She models work-life balance, encourages people to unplug, and creates space for individuals to bring their whole selves to work. In her view, performance suffers when people feel they must hide parts of who they are.

Legacy, mentorship & expanding opportunity

Perhaps the most defining element of Turner-Brim’s leadership is her commitment to mentorship and community impact. Throughout her career, she has worked to elevate diverse voices in the legal community, within corporate environments and beyond. That commitment extends into her philanthropic work, particularly through organizations like the Houston Area Urban League and the Greater Houston YMCA, where she serves as Board Chair and Director, respectively.

Her advocacy for diversity in law and technology is deeply personal. She understands firsthand the barriers that exist and sees mentorship as both a responsibility and a multiplier. Encouraging young women to pursue STEM careers and supporting African American leaders are not side projects. They are central to how she defines her success.

Looking ahead, Turner-Brim is focused on building scale with intention at HP, continuing to shape a tech-forward legal organization that partners closely with the business and develops leaders ready for what comes next. At the same time, she is thinking about the legacy she wants to leave. While she cannot imagine a future without meaningful work, she does see herself eventually channeling decades of corporate experience into public board service, nonprofit leadership, and coaching.

She loves her job and her team, but she also believes in making space for the next generation. Leadership, in her view, is not about holding power indefinitely. It is about preparing others to step forward with confidence, capability, and purpose. In a career spanning engineering, law, technology, and community leadership, Turner-Brim has demonstrated that transformation is not just about systems or innovation. It is about people, and the courage to help them rise.