Features Design & Engineering

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 […]

For James K. Lowe, serving as assistant general counsel and vice president of one of two federal divisions of a global engineering giant is a natural continuation of his career, his engineering career, that is. Becoming a lawyer, beginning with classes at George Mason University’s School of Law, offered Lowe an opportunity to stay connected […]

Like many lawyers, Juli Faris Bruce chose the legal path because she was an idealist; she wanted to make the world a better place. While the reality of the legal field—the grind, the competitive edge, the win-lose nature—can break some once-idealistic attorneys, Faris Bruce has found a way to contribute to the greater good. That’s […]

“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 […]

Ask a lawyer, especially a young one, what’s the biggest headache to working at a firm, and the answer may well be the pressure from above to rack up 2,000 billable hours in the course of a year. The overhead at the professional associations tends to be huge, and so the high-handed ideals that might […]

For a company that started out in 1923 trimming trees for the old Philadelphia Suburban Electric Co. and Bell Telephone, and has long since gone on to construct and service the most sophisticated infrastructure networks and utilities, being on the cutting edge of an ongoing technological revolution has always been part of Henkels & McCoy […]

When VHB was looking for a deputy general counsel in 2008, someone it could groom for the top spot, it emphasized a technical background. Someone well-versed in civil engineering might have been ideal. That wasn’t quite Khristopher M. Gregoire’s specialty, but one might have thought he was overqualified. For prior to graduating from the University […]

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 […]

When you stay in business for nearly 200 years, you’re bound to grow. And growth, while a sign of success, has its risks—new markets have pitfalls that can swallow underprepared companies whole. In the case of Bureau Veritas, a global leader in testing, inspection and certification (TIC) services to over 400,000 businesses in 140 countries, […]

From putting out worksite fires—sometimes literally—to negotiating with foreign governments and serving on Iowa’s version of the EPA, even advising presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, Henry Marquard says his 26 years of in-house counsel work have opened doors few other positions could. The company he’s worked for that entire time, Stanley Consultants, also provides him ample […]