Most homecoming celebrations involve wearing school colors, singing the school song, a pep rally and then the big game. For Jennifer L. Ervin, homecoming has been a bit more involved. As general counsel and chief legal officer from 2016-19 for the Shelby County Schools in Memphis, Tennessee, she managed all the legal operations for the […]
Features Region: Southeast
Eileen Kett and Paola Mora – Club Med North America
They’ve managed the legal department of Club Med North America for a combined 40 years. Together, they’ve helped pave the way for some of the company’s most high-stakes initiatives: a massive renovation of Club Med Cancun Yucatan in Mexico in 2006; a 2010 upgrade of Sandpiper Bay in Florida; and several expansion projects in the […]
Chris Schindler – Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline Inc.
To paraphrase a popular adage, you can take the man out of Kentucky, but you can’t take Kentucky out of the man. The pull of his roots was so powerful, in fact, that after nearly 25 years at venerated D.C. law firm Hogan & Hartson (now Hogan Lovells)—where Chief Justice John Roberts once practiced—Chris Schindler […]
James L. Banks Jr. – SHRM
There was a time when a department of human resources was seen as the folks who tracked an employee’s sick leave, vacation days and whatever other benefits the company afforded—and not much else. Truth be told, there are many who still view HR through exactly that lens. If you’re one of those people, James L. […]
Melissa Leigh – Kepro
It’s a long drive from the Nutmeg State to Music City, and the 1,000 mile road from Connecticut to Nashville has proved quite the career path for Melissa Leigh. Now the general counsel and chief compliance officer for Kepro, Leigh’s days are filled with navigating the gamut of regulations and laws aimed at guiding the […]
James E. Moye Jr. – Coastal Construction
It’s all about the fruits of one’s labor outliving the person who created them. So remarks James E. Moye Jr., who has been intent on sustaining multiple legacies since taking over legal responsibilities in 2016 for one of Florida’s construction heavyweights. There’s his own family’s legacy, Moye’s father being a nationally prominent construction lawyer still […]
Stewart Byrne – Citrix
After 30 years in the business, there’s one concept that still resonates with Stewart Byrne. Simplicity. After all, life with technology should be easier he says To that end, simplifying the customer purchase experience is the focus for Byrne, vice president and regional general counsel for the Americas for the multinational Florida technology company. “Our […]
Jeff Sprain – Preferred Apartment Communities Inc.
In the middle of the recession that gutted the housing market in 2009, John A. Williams had a hunch. He believed multi-family housing properties would be the first area of recovery so with his co-founder, Lenny Silverstein, he formed Preferred Apartment Communities Inc. “We had a visionary CEO and he was 100 percent right,” says […]
Stephen Berry – Builders Insurance Group
A tactical and practical approach has taken Stephen Berry far, even if it is not along a path he imagined as a younger man. Now a senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary for Builders Insurance Group, Berry once aspired to be a historian. Instead of academia, he has mastered the complex and perhaps […]
Whitney Walters-Sachs – Pine Crest School
In the world of Whitney Walters-Sachs, it’s dangerous territory to never say never—because you might just end up where you least expected to. That was her experience, anyway. Visiting her parents years ago as a young lawyer, her folks thought she should leave her high-profile job as a corporate attorney in New York City to […]
