Features Region: West

Allen Walker doesn’t want to talk herself out of a job, but she does want contracts to be written so that you don’t have to be a lawyer to understand them. As executive vice president and general counsel for Heritage Health Solutions LP, Walker is leading by example with contracts that are more user-friendly. In […]

Complex deals and advising international business clients during her law firm days primed Kirsten Richesson for an in-house counsel role she calls fascinating, but so too did attorneys who challenged her to advance. Richesson is general counsel of Blackhawk Network, a financial technology company headquartered in Pleasanton, California with operations in 26 countries. Blackhawk Network […]

In Chris Henderson’s 16 years at Salem Media Group Inc., he’s held nine positions. That, he says, is a testament to his “raise your hand” philosophy and to the opportunities Salem Media Group provides to its 1,600 employees. Salem Media Group is the country’s largest radio broadcaster, internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher […]

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 […]

There was a time when John Spiegleman expended his legal and real estate expertise on behalf of companies that managed lavish hotels, high-end apartments, urban retail buildings and the lushest golf courses. Nowadays, as executive vice president and general counsel of Denver-based DCT Industrial Trust (NYSE:DCT), he’s more likely to apply his know-how to developing, […]

When American Sporting Goods Corporation (ASG) asked Bernadette Chala to leave the law office she’d been with for four years, Chala’s initial reaction was hesitation. She had never worked in-house and she didn’t have a consumer products background, she told ASG, and was upfront about her experience. But the company didn’t mind; it wanted her […]

Judi Otteson’s big advice sounds simple: Don’t be a jerk. Be gracious and listen to people. But because traits like kindness and compassion are sometimes confused with weakness, Otteson has learned to lead with conviction, while staying true to her naturally easy-going personality. She’s an attorney who can be both friendly and effective. “[There are] […]

Defense contractors navigate a sea of regulations—it comes with the territory of handling sensitive material for nations and militaries. And the more a contractor grows, the more it must reconcile its increasingly complex business structure with the regulations that govern it. In charge of that task for U.S.-based Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions (CAES) is Bruce […]

The financial crisis in 2008 didn’t do great things for the public’s perception of automakers. When gas prices rose, car companies struggled to sell the SUVs that had been their bread and butter. The lost profits, compounded by the burst of the housing bubble, had a worldwide ripple effect. In the wake of the crisis, […]

Some 41 million Americans use contact lenses, and a growing number do so by downloading 1-800 Contacts’ five-star app that submits their order in just three clicks. Yet those customers have no idea how hard the Utah-based company has had to fight to provide such easy shopping, the company says. The fight continues today, led […]