T ASSCAT CAT CSS TOP 10 Docke… · They are all pioneers in their own unique ways – going above and beyond in their organization, assisting others in the in-house industry, and

The honorees for the 2019 Top 10 30-Somethings exemplify the best traits of ACC membership. They are all pioneers in their own unique ways – going above and beyond in their organization, assisting others in the in-house industry, and devoting themselves to their own individual communities.

THE ASSOCIATION OF CORPORATE COUNSEL’S

A special supplement to ACC Docket

TOP 10

The Power ofCollaboration.

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The new Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr now has a deeper bench, greater geographic coverage and a stronger dedication than ever to the success of our clients.

DELAWARE FLORIDA ILLINOIS MARYLAND

MASSACHUSETTS MINNESOTA NEW JERSEY NEW YORK

PENNSYLVANIA WASHINGTON, DCBarry F. Levin,Managing Partner

Each year, ACC’s volunteer judges review over 100 nominations to determine the world’s top corporate counsel between the ages of 30 and 39. For the second consecutive year, nominations for the 2019 Top 10 30-Somethings reached an all-time high. ACC received 195 nominations from 18 countries. This global pool of candidates from around the world reflects ACC’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, as represented by this year’s wildly diverse group of winners.

EFFICIENCY Using innovation. In-house lawyers use unique skills to transform the business. Fernanda Beraldi, senior director of ethics and compliance at Cummins Inc., implemented regional ethics and compliance programs around the world. William K. Piotrowski, now associate general counsel at Lydall, Inc., pioneered a major deal structure to repair General Electric’s integral aviation engine components, negotiating agreement terms, technical design materials, and the repair process when he was at Barnes Group. And April A. Goff, senior counsel for benefits, labor and employment, and cybersecurity and data privacy, saved JCPenney more than US$30 million by spearheading a voluntary early retirement program.

LEADERSHIP Setting the tone. These lawyers know that their influential positions require them to guide others. Brian Buckham promotes a culture of risk management, ethics, and physical security and cybersecurity as senior vice president and general counsel at Idaho Power Company. As general counsel at Yellowstone Forever, people looked to Thomas Cluderay’s grace under pressure as he guided his organization through the longest government shutdown in US history, providing real-time recommendations to the company’s president and CEO. Sadeq M. Khan, chief compliance officer and deputy general counsel at Vertical Screen, Inc., led a record and archiving project as part of a larger initiative for data identification — leading to a record retention policy that resulted in revised agreements and workflows. G Adventures’ Director of Legal and Privacy Officer Melissa Reiter helped reduce her company’s carbon footprint by transitioning from a paper-based, manual contracting model to an automated, digital one, decreasing contract review time and cutting costs.

COMMUNITY Getting involved. The 2019 honorees worked closely with their colleagues inside in and outside the office to raise awareness and foster participation surrounding important causes. Lewis Dolezal, corporate counsel at The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, organized several events with other local in-house counsel to share his ideas and concerns regarding technology and data protection. Director and Assistant General Counsel Alana C. St. Aude serves on the Capital One legal department’s diversity and inclusion committee and also co-founded a networking group that serves women of color at the mid-level point of their careers. Finally, Erin K. Stewart, in addition to her dual role as general counsel and vice president of human resources at Pinnacle Group, leads the company’s efforts in getting underserved high school students career-ready before graduation.

4 ACC DOCKET’S TOP 10 30-SOMETHINGS | A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT OF ACC DOCKET

(IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)

Pg 5 About the Contest Acknowledgments

Pg 6 Alana C. St. Aude

Director, Assistant General Counsel

Capital One

Pg 7 Fernanda Beraldi Senior Director, Ethics & Compliance Cummins Inc.

Pg 8 Brian Buckham Senior Vice President and General Counsel Idaho Power Company

Pg 9 Thomas Cluderay

General Counsel

Yellowstone Forever

Pg 10 Lewis Dolezal Corporate Counsel The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company

Pg 11 April A. Goff

Senior Counsel, Benefits, Labor and Employment, and

Cybersecurity and Data Privacy

J. C. Penney Corporation, Inc.

Pg 12 Sadeq M. Khan

Chief Compliance Officer and Deputy General Counsel

Vertical Screen, Inc.

Pg 13 William K. Piotrowski Associate General Counsel Lydall, Inc.

Pg 14 Melissa Reiter Director of Legal and Privacy Officer G Adventures

Pg 15 Erin K. Stewart General Counsel and VP of Human Resources Pinnacle Group

© JULY/AUGUST 2019, ASSOCIATION OF CORPORATE COUNSEL 5

About the 2019 Contest: The 2019 class of Top 10 30-Somethings continues the flow of ingenuity that has been at the core of the previous seven classes. Currently, there are more than 80 people who have been honored as Top-30 Somethings by ACC (there have also been two honorable mentions over the years). Nine volun-teer judges rated the candidates on their inventive legal methods, ability to overcome challenges, global viewpoints, and commitment to the in-house community and pro bono field.

We would also like to acknowledge our contest judges:

■■ Sheila Bangalore Associate General Counsel Aristocrat

■■ Ahmed Elganzouri Deputy General Counsel Edward-Elmhurst Healthcare

■■ Julie Gresham Assistant General Counsel & Director of Compliance Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc.

■■ Matt Nolan Vice President & General Counsel Ancra Group, and Director of Heico Global Compliance

■■ Ed Paulis Vice President & Senior Assistant General Counsel Zurich North America

■■ Robert Piasentin General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, & Privacy Officer Sierra Systems

■■ K Royal Director, Western Region, Privacy TrustArc

■■ Daniel Seltzer Managing Director, Senior Director of Anticorruption & Government Compliance Accenture

■■ Amy Yeung Deputy General Counsel comScore, Inc.

ACC WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE LONGTIME 2019 TOP 10 30-SOMETHINGS AWARDS SPONSOR SAUL EWING ARNSTEIN & LEHR LLP FOR THEIR CONTINUOUS SUPPORT OVER THE YEARS.


2019 TOP 10 30-SOMETHING

Alana C. St. AudeDIRECTOR,

ASSISTANT GENERAL

COUNSEL

CAPITAL ONE

NEW YORK, NY

AGE: 33

alana c. st. audeWhen Alana C. St. Aude was looking to move in-house, she sought a role that would leverage her financial knowledge. At Capital One, one of the top 10 largest banks in the United States, St. Aude’s experience with direct lending, credit, and investment funds has been a benefit to the business.

As director and assistant general counsel at Capital One, one of St. Aude’s main responsibilities is overseeing the review process for the bank’s syndicated, club, or participation loans. A participa-tion loan is made by multiple lenders to a single borrower — often a corporation. The multiple lenders are broken down into a “lead bank,” which originates the loan and deals directly with the borrower and “participants,” which share the risks and profits. By syndicating a loan that is too large for a single lender, the risk and profits are spread out, decreasing the level of impact to the lenders if the borrower defaults.

Capital One is sometimes a participant in these types of loans, whose agreements can have any number of lenders involved — sometimes more than a hundred. Reviewing these contracts can be difficult in a short amount of time. There is not much control over the terms from a participant stance, St. Aude explains, and there is sensitivity to comments for competitive reasons. She identified the need for a process improvement document: a checklist that identified points for counsel to verify during their review.

St. Aude solicited sample issues and checklists from law firms and arranged forums between the business and legal teams to draft a comprehensive checklist. After multiple discussions and versions with internal constituents, she developed not only a participation checklist that identified escalation points for more in-depth scrutiny, but also a basket calculator. This tool tabulates the debt, liens, and leakage of the agreement to ensure that the bank is not taking on too much risk in the deal.

The checklist and calculator have resulted in time savings for the bank, with both internal and external counsel. St. Aude trains outside counsel with this toolkit so that they know what issues are most important to Capital One — allowing them to use their time to thoroughly review key items and reduce costs for the bank.

In addition to process improvements, St. Aude seeks to educate and train her colleagues on the potential impact certain terms can have on Capital One as a lender, and the best way to negotiate these provisions when they arise. For similar reasons, she’s continually checking on the develop-ment of global regulations in the technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) sectors. The bank’s loans to TMT industries often involve other countries, as several US companies maintain subsidiaries in Ireland, Canada, United Kingdom, and Israel for tax and investment reasons. In order to advise on the bank’s foreign lending approval process, she stays abreast of international develop-ments in data privacy and cybersecurity.

St. Aude also contributes to the bank’s culture — serving on the Capital One legal depart-ment diversity and inclusion committee, as well as various legal and business team engagement committees. In fact, she was recently recognized as a Capital One Woman Who Rocks for being an effective corporate citizen. She has also taken up diversity and inclusion outside of work. In 2017, St. Aude co-founded the Advancement Initiative, a community group serving women-of-color lawyers at the mid-level of their careers at law firms or in-house in the New York/New Jersey metro area. The initiative offers its membership a forum for advancement techniques, networking, and relationship building. Additionally, she is the co-chair of the Corporate Law Section of the Metropolitan Black Bar Association.

Whether advancing efficiency or diversity, St. Aude is always innovating and adding value to the business and larger in-house community. 30

Fernanda BeraldiSENIOR DIRECTOR,

ETHICS & COMPLIANCE

CUMMINS INC.

INDIANAPOLIS, IN

AGE: 39

fernanda beraldi


2019 TOP 10 30-SOMETHING Fernanda Beraldi never imagined herself in Indiana or as a lawyer. Born in São Paulo, she initial-ly studied medicine, but when she couldn’t bear the thought of losing a patient, she turned to law, lured by being involved in the “blueprint of making things.” Beraldi has always been attracted to large industrial projects — her first in-house job was with Brazilian aerospace conglomerate Embraer (now Boeing Brasil) — because she loves the sense of accomplishment she feels when the complex machines leave the factory. Beraldi knew she needed to broaden her job prospects outside of her native country and applied for various LLM programs in the United States.

With her characteristic candor, Beraldi says her decision to move to Indiana was motivated by the full ride she received to Indiana University’s Robert H. McKinney LLM program. She also realized that a Brazilian woman would be an oddity among the cornfields. “I wanted to bring my own diverse experience and background to a space where I knew it would be an asset,” she explains. “I banked on it and double banked on it.”

Beraldi’s long shot paid off. Cummins, an industrial engine manufacturer with more than 62,000 employees serving customers in more than 190 countries and territories, was one of the companies that offered her a position in its ethics and compliance function — a field in which she had had prior exposure, but was not her main background. In her four years at Cummins, Fernanda has led several efforts to improve the company’s ethics and compliance program. In her current role as senior director, she and her global team have been implementing regional ethics and compliance programs across the globe for the company’s employees and operations, as well as for the company’s 60 joint ventures, 600 distributor locations, and approximately 7,600 dealers.

One of her main initiatives is the education of regional business counterparts on accept-able practices and how one can, unknowingly, potentially violate anti-bribery laws by offering business courtesies in certain countries. Fernanda was also a driving force behind the company’s implementation of a human rights policy to meet a growing number of supply-chain transpar-ency regulations and ensure compliance with the Cummins Supplier Code of Conduct. Trade restrictions also apply to the company. To make sure third-party sellers in high-risk regions un-derstand that they cannot sell a Cummins product in a sanctioned country, for example, Beraldi supported the creation of a training system that is separate from Cummins’ employee training — it is specifically tailored to third parties and what they see day-to-day.

Beraldi is realistic that violations may occur despite the team’s commitment to ethics and compliance. But Beraldi insists that Cummins’ overall commitment to integrity is very strong. “At Cummins, integrity in doing business and in everything we do is taken very seriously. We have history of that: For example, in 1981, in a stand against apartheid, Cummins turned down a solicitation to build a potentially profitable diesel engine plant in South Africa when the government said the company would not be allowed to have a fully integrated workforce,” she points out.

In addition to her ethics and compliance position, Beraldi has a desire to drive mean-ingful change. With her Indianapolis-based ethics and compliance cohorts, this led her to co-found Business Ethics Indiana. The initiative, based at Marian University in Indianapolis, now has members from more than 30 companies. Her ethics and compliance peers, who came from all different fields, realized they had a single thing in common: “We had never taken a single ethics and compliance course during our college or graduate classes.” A local businessman was so taken with the idea that he bankrolled Marian University with a gift of approximately US$9 million dollars to create the Frank Walker Center of Applied Ethics. The center’s vision is to steer more people into the ethics and compliance space and create a compliance certificate or degree, among other initiatives.

It may not even be five years after she moved to Indiana, but Beraldi has already had a major influence on the community — and Cummins’ operations around the world. 30


Brian BuckhamSVP & GENERAL

COUNSEL

IDAHO POWER

COMPANY

BOISE, ID

AGE: 40**39 AT TIME OF NOMINATION

brian buckham 2019 TOP 10 30-SOMETHING Brian Buckham always thought he was going to be a miner. His great-grandfather, grandfa-ther, and father all worked at the same mine in northern Idaho. Buckham also worked at the mine after high school and during the summers while earning a degree in mining engineer-ing, assured of his path in life. But at the time of graduation, the price of precious metals plummeted. He went back to school and earned an MBA, only to experience bad timing once again — an abysmal job market upon graduation. Buckham again returned to school — this time law school — and found a second calling. The circuitous route notwithstand-ing, he is now being honored for leading Idaho Power’s legal, compliance, risk, and security departments.

He didn’t know what he was getting into when he joined Idaho Power, Buckham admits. After a five-year stint in private practice focused on M&A, securities, finance, and corporate governance, he joined the utility in 2010 and was initially responsible for those same areas. In his first week, he was told to rewrite the company’s regulatory disclosures in an SEC filing, which involved quickly learning the distinction between “base rates” and “rate base,” among other regulated utility industry oddities. Now he describes a whiteboard filled with govern-ment agency acronyms that he uses to onboard company new hires.

In addition to legal and compliance responsibilities, he also oversees risk management, ethics, and both physical security and cybersecurity. But his biggest contribution, he says, is promoting the culture within his 55-person strong department. His department strives to re-lentlessly pursue compliant, ethical, and safe solutions for its clients — put simply: be business-oriented and client-first. He asks that his team respond to a request within 24 hours, even if it’s only to say the request was received, and to communicate early and often. Collaboration is key, both within the legal department and with clients. Budget awareness and being proactive at identifying and solving issues are the other hallmarks of his legal philosophy. Buckham asks his department to make compliance easier by finding front-end solutions. To help advance that approach, Buckham arranged a leadership and business topics series for his department.

The electric utility industry is changing rapidly as the demand for clean energy grows, and Buckham touts Idaho Power’s existing strong clean energy portfolio and goal to make it even cleaner. For over a century, Idaho Power has harnessed the flow of water cascading down Idaho’s peaks and now generates 50 percent of its power from hydroelectric plants in a typical year, one of the reasons its customers have some of the lowest energy rates in the country. Buckham is proud to be a leader in a company that recently announced a goal to transition to 100 percent clean energy by 2045. He and his team helped close a purchase agreement for utility-scale solar power with one of the lowest prices ever. Buckham’s team has also been in-strumental in negotiating an agreement and obtaining regulatory approval for the cessation of Idaho Power’s operations at one of its coal plants, a move that not only reduces the company’s carbon output but also makes economic sense for the company’s customers.

There is an almost guaranteed baseload amount of legal work that a company generates, Buckham states. Idaho Power staffs for that baseload, then augments with external resources when peaks arrive. He also asks his team to be proactive in reaching out to business units to offer assistance before being asked. It is another part of the law firm mentality that Buckham champions — the marketing angle. That way “people know who to call on what issues and when they should call.” By building trust and highlighting capabilities, the department can more proactively address the company’s challenges. In the utility space, not knowing about an issue well in advance can have serious consequences.

Buckham’s two young children are keeping the family mining legacy alive by panning and digging for gold in Idaho’s creeks and hillsides in the summer months. It’s all for fun now, he emphasizes, and immensely unprofitable, but fortunately he also enjoys his job working with a team that keeps the lights on for over half a million customers. 30

Thomas CluderayGENERAL COUNSEL

YELLOWSTONE FOREVER

BOZEMAN AND

GARDINER, MT

AGE: 35

thomas cluderaybrian buckham



Yellowstone Forever, the official nonprofit partner of the world’s oldest national park was formed in 2016 when the Yellowstone Association and the Yellowstone Park Foundation merged. The organization’s mission is to raise funds and offer educational experiences that connect visitors to Yellowstone National Park, which largely stretches across the lakes, mountains, and geysers of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Thomas Cluderay joined the new organization post-merger as its first general counsel and was tasked with leading risk management efforts and overseeing compliance across multiple departments while helping to integrate the two legacy organizations.

Philanthropic support from partners like Yellowstone Forever have long enhanced federal funding of national parks. For example, Yellowstone Forever is raising funds to renovate over-looks and trails in the iconic Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. As a park partner, the organi-zation is bound by guidelines like Director’s Order 21, which stipulates how the organization can fundraise for the park and recognize donors. This directive was revised during Yellowstone Forever’s integration period. Under Cluderay’s leadership, the organization was one of the first nonprofit partners to secure a comprehensive fundraising agreement under the updated guide-lines, a potential model for other nonprofit park partners around the United States.

Yellowstone, with its wild populations of grizzlies, bison, and elk, in addition to wind-ing roads and boiling pools, creates a unique set of risks. Even more mundane challenges like overlapping state agencies and IRS rules, and potential government shutdowns, can complicate operations in one of the most remote places in the United States. Cluderay quickly moved to set the new organization on the solid path by creating a multidisciplinary team that prioritizes risk-management information sharing among stakeholders. “The biggest thing, particularly for a new organization, is who needs to be in the know, in what sequence, and who has the author-ity to give buy-in when managing something in real time,” he explains. From December 2018 to January 2019, the longest government shutdown in history occurred, and the Yellowstone Forever team had to stay in close contact with the National Park Service while also communicat-ing expectations to staff. Cluderay, alongside the chief of staff, vice president of operations, and chief marketing officer, provided real-time recommendations to Yellowstone Forever’s president and CEO through this period. As a result of Cluderay’s and the team’s advance legwork, a situa-tion that could have been chaotic proceeded in a smooth and orderly fashion.

Cluderay splits his time between the nonprofit’s offices in Bozeman and Gardiner, Montana and his home in Washington, DC. In 2016, he was voted onto the ACC National Capital Region Chapter’s board and currently serves as the ACC Nonprofit Network’s secretary. His involve-ment in ACC has generated compelling programming like a workshop where network members improved their organizations’ conflicts-of-interest policies. Along with the network’s sponsor and other members, he created a nonprofit events risk management workshop that maps out how to structure a nonprofit event from start to finish, and all the risks that could derail it along the way. “I was really excited to see the idea become a reality and that it was well received by members, which was really rewarding,” he recalls.

Cluderay, who grew up backpacking in the Appalachian Mountains west of Charlotte, North Carolina, has always considered himself a conservationist of public lands. That he has an opportunity to protect one of the world’s great natural treasures is an obligation he doesn’t take lightly: “With a profound love for the outdoors, learning stewardship starting with Boy Scouts, and then through law school and the environmental conservation space, I am deeply grateful to work for Yellowstone Forever.” 30



Lewis DolezalCORPORATE

COUNSEL

THE SCOTTS

MIRACLE-GRO

COMPANY

COLUMBUS, OH


lewis dolezalScotts Miracle-Gro probably isn’t the first company that comes to mind when envisioning cutting-edge technology. The lawn and garden giant is going through a transformational period and putting innova-tion at the core of its operations. Lewis Dolezal’s current position in the legal department was created with the idea of harmonizing legal support for the technological transformation that is touching all aspects of the company, from product development to digital marketing applications to risk mitigation.

Putting Dolezal, trained as a multi-disciplined corporate and commercial lawyer, at the tip of the legal innovation spear was a strategic decision. His job is to encourage innovation throughout the en-terprise by thinking of innovation as an end-to-end process instead of a point-in-time exercise. Dolezal supports market-leading products, including Scotts’ portfolio of consumer apps and tech products. These smart growing products help a new generation of consumers manage their lawn and garden. With a smart irrigation system, consumers can monitor local weather patterns and adjust their water-ing schedule based on the amount of moisture in the soil or expected rainfall, and home gardeners can check on their plants via their phone when they are across the country.

Like many consumer brand companies, the way Scotts Miracle-Gro sells its products is also changing. While its products are primarily sold at big box retailers, local garden centers, and hard-ware stores, the company is increasingly selling products directly to the consumer, bringing new legal risks and challenges to the 150-year-old manufacturer as it transacts and holds consumer data. Aiming to transform these risks into strategies, Dolezal, with a background in data security and privacy, is helping the company shape cyber and privacy regulations.

When Ohio, where Scotts Miracle-Gro is headquartered, introduced legislation that would incentivize companies that adopt certain cybersecurity frameworks to curb data theft, Dolezal advo-cated that the bill could do much more for tech-centric consumer product companies and lean into the future of data. He testified before the Ohio legislature on behalf of the company and industry to expand the scope of the bill, which previously focused on financial data, and re-tool its application to modern data collection practices and litigation risk, pointing out that companies collect a broad spectrum of data elements valuable to consumers and potential hackers. “With strictly financial information, you could change your account in less than an hour,” he explains; however, “if there’s a breach of a consumer’s demographic-behavioral profile and identifying information, it’s a lot harder for consumers to change their patterns and life circumstances.” Ohio’s legislation is unique because it provides a carrot instead of a stick with regard to cybersecurity investment. Under the legislation, if companies implement a cybersecurity program conforming to certain cybersecurity frameworks, and they do suffer a breach, the company may be entitled to an affirmative defense against certain claims arising from the breach. This win-win approach provides predictability for companies and incentivizes comprehensive cybersecurity based on standardized information security frameworks.

Dolezal’s commitment to innovation and technology isn’t limited to his work at Scotts Miracle-Gro. Meaningful leadership includes collaborating with the broader legal and business community. As such, Dolezal has organized several events with other local in-house counsel and technologists to share information and ideas about technology and in-house practice. As chair of the ACC Central Ohio Chapter’s Technology Committee, he has also introduced “Tech Tips” articles that offer quick advice on day-to-day legal challenges and more advanced deep dive “Practice Pointers” workshops for practitioners. “This programing is meant to be a quick synopsis to make the in-house practitio-ner a little smarter very quickly,” he says. Dolezal also volunteers time working with and mentoring law students on aspects of technology and corporate practice and has been featured on various panels focusing on cybersecurity, data privacy, AI, and legal innovation.

If there was any doubt that technology and disruptive innovation is not rapidly changing the role of corporate counsel, Dolezal is here to dissuade you of that notion. To some degree or another, every company is becoming a technology company. With the need to adapt, more and more companies will be looking to similarly reshape their legal function to support innovation and deliver products for the next evolution in tech. 30


April A. GoffSENIOR COUNSEL,

BENEFITS, LABOR AND

EMPLOYMENT, AND

CYBERSECURITY AND

DATA PRIVACY

J. C. PENNEY

CORPORATION, INC.

PLANO, TX


2019 TOP 10 30-SOMETHING april a. goff

Within weeks of moving in-house at JCPenney, April A. Goff jumped into several projects that saved the company millions of dollars. Goff is the sole ERISA counsel at the company and also acts as the privacy counsel with respect to associate data. But she’s used to being a trailblazer. Goff was the first person in her family to go to college, which she finished when she was 18, and dove headfirst into higher education and then large law firms.

When she arrived at JCPenney, Goff discovered unnecessarily complicated employee benefits policies and procedures — all at high costs to a company with over 100,000 employees. Goff reviewed and simplified hundreds of personnel policies and developed long-term plans to minimize benefit plan costs. Her goal was to partner with the business stakeholders to modern-ize and streamline plans while providing better, more attractive benefits to the employees at a cheaper price to the company.

As part of the overhaul, Goff renegotiated over 700 million dollars in contracts, spearheaded a voluntary early retirement program with cost-savings of over 30 million dollars, and also led a multi-department pension plan de-risking strategy that saved over 16 million dollars in just over a one-year period with no outside counsel assistance.

Aside from cutting costs and mitigating risk for the company — Goff limited her total outside counsel spend to under US$10,000 in three years — she has also played a vital role in the organization’s cybersecurity and data privacy protection. Goff became a certified informa-tion privacy professional and led a cross-functional team of over 50 employees and vendors to create a more robust cybersecurity policy and incident response protocol. Goff worked closely with JCPenney’s chief information officer and chief information security officer and handled the procedure from planning to roll-out. The result is a living document that has buy-in from over 20 departments within the organization.

For her efforts with the cybersecurity project, Goff was awarded JCPenney’s Warrior Coin — one of the highest company recognitions. JCPenney awards limited commemorative Warrior Coins to employees who demonstrate “Warrior Spirit” through exemplary loyalty, passion, courage, and service to the company.

Goff brings a similar spirit to her community service and pro bono work. She serves as chair of the ACC Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter’s Women’s Leadership Committee and is vice chair of the ACC Employment and Labor Law Network. In these capacities, she has conducted community outreach to women in transition and created events and resources for ACC members interested in labor and employment law matters. Goff is also one of the youngest members to ever sit on the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council. She is chair of the Fiduciary Responsibility and Litigation Committee for the American Bar Association Section of Real Property Trusts and Estate Law, and she will be taking over as vice chair of the Employee Plans and Executive Compensation Group with the new bar year. When asked how she finds time for all these responsibilities, she calmly responds that she makes the time. And as a busy mom of four boys ages four through eleven, she’s become a master of time management.

Looking at Goff’s contributions to the in-house community, within and outside JCPenney, it’s hard to imagine that she never envisioned herself in-house. Goff took the position after moving home to be closer to family, but she knew immediately it was a good fit. “When I met the team at JCPenney, it was like I had known them my entire life. They were incredibly welcoming and warm, and the quality of work that I would be doing in-house was actually in some ways superior to what I did in private practice,” Goff says. Given her accomplishments after only three years in-house, even greater things are sure to come. 30


sadeq m. khan2019 TOP 10 30-SOMETHING

A glimpse into Sadeq M. Khan’s background foreshadows his future success. As a teenage entrepre-neur, he sold items on eBay. His business studies inevitably led him to business law, and he simulta-neously earned his JD and MBA. After discovering the corporate counsel role, he pursued a straight-to-in-house path, applying to ACC Greater Philadelphia’s Diversity Corporate Summer Internship Program, which placed him at Vertical Screen, Inc., a major applicant screening company. Rising from intern, to part-time employee, to associate general counsel and director of compliance, Khan is now Vertical Screen’s chief compliance officer and deputy general counsel. He pores over national and international legislation regarding consumer protection and data privacy, establishing himself as an expert in how laws like the US Fair Credit Reporting Act apply to the company and its clients.

Khan focuses on anticipating global data privacy trends and developments in international consumer reporting laws, ensuring the company is ahead of the compliance curve. One of his leading challenges was preparing Vertical Screen for the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) before it went into effect in May 2018. Despite Vertical Screen being headquartered in the United States and primarily performing background checks, Khan knew that the company would be affected by GDPR: “We are essentially a data company because we process thousands and thousands of records when we do background checks. And we have a global footprint in the sense that we provide services internationally.”

Khan engaged IT and other internal teams to review the company’s data protection and privacy measures. His team hired outside auditors to conduct readiness assessments. The process included making updates to their policies and agreements, communicating changes to vendors and clients, and ensuring that product rollouts were timely and compliant.

As a major compliance initiative for the company, Khan further spearheaded a project to update and establish a more formalized, cutting-edge record retention process. He observes, “Ten to twenty years ago, companies wanted to keep as much data as they could, for as long as they could. That mindset of keeping everything forever doesn’t work anymore because data breaches are such a real risk.”

In response, Khan led a record retention and archiving project to identify, review, reduce, and formalize the storage of data. As part of the initiative, Khan became certified in Records and Information Management (RIM) from ARMA, a professional records management association. He worked with stakeholders from IT, operations, and management to identify what information was being stored and which legal and regulatory requirements were applicable. From this, the cross-functional team created a record retention policy that has resulted in revised agreements and work-flows — all without disruption to clients or the business. The new policy has helped Vertical Screen reduce its record count and stay current with constantly evolving global data protection laws.

Khan has been a critical member of the Vertical Screen legal department. With his particular expertise in consumer reporting laws, compliance, and many other related legal disciplines, Khan has strengthened the depth of the legal team, which successfully handles a variety of legal and com-pliance matters.

Khan also serves on the ACC Greater Philadelphia board of directors. For the last three years, he has chaired the chapter’s Diversity Corporate Summer Internship Program — the same one that secured his internship with Vertical Screen years ago. “It got my foot in the door, and knowing what’s possible through the program, I had to get involved and grow it to give other students that same opportunity as well,” he says. The program aims to foster interest in the in-house profession and increase diversity in legal departments. Under Khan’s leadership, the program has grown exponen-tially, with increased applicants and corporate participants, and expanded program elements like nonprofit legal clinics and volunteer work. The program was named “Best Diversity Initiative” by ACC in 2018. If his record of success is any indication, more accolades are forthcoming for Khan and Vertical Screen. 30

Sadeq M. KhanCHIEF COMPLIANCE

OFFICER AND DEPUTY

GENERAL COUNSEL

VERTICAL SCREEN, INC.

BRYN MAWR, PA

AGE: 30

sadeq m. khan


William K. PiotrowskiASSOCIATE GENERAL

COUNSEL

LYDALL, INC.

AGE: 40* *39 AT TIME OF NOMINATION

2019 TOP 10 30-SOMETHING william k. piotrowski

There’s a widely held notion that American manufacturing is a vestige of the past. In a world of low-cost manufacturers, companies must be nimble and creative to operate a successful manufacturing company in the Northeast United States. William K. Piotrowski has established himself as a proven leader not only in the legal profession, but as a business partner who brings innovative solutions to commercial challenges in a complex global manufacturing environment.

When Piotrowski was counsel at Barnes Group, a global aerospace and industrial manufacturer and service provider, he spearheaded a first-of-its-kind deal structure to sell original equipment manufacturer (OEM)-certified repair services for certain critical airplane engine components as one of a few licensed suppliers of General Electric (GE).

Piotrowski was instrumental in working with GE to develop commercial and contract structures that resolved the complexities of licensing OEM-certified repair services to a tiered supplier, including unique aspects related to equipment, intellectual property, repair develop-ment, technical publications, and the rights of Barnes Group and GE vis-a-vis engine overhaul shops and end customers. Leveraging this deal structure, Barnes Group invested US$112 mil-lion between 2013 and 2015 in what would become known as “Component Repair Programs” for the CF6, CF34, and CFM56 engines, the latter of which is the best-selling engine in aviation history installed on the Boeing 737.

Piotrowski considers a global perspective to be critical in fostering American manufactur-ing growth in a global economy. He gives the following example, “it is not necessarily intuitive that in the competition between airframers Boeing and Airbus for the sale of single aisle aircraft, US companies — GE and Pratt & Whitney — supply the next generation of aero engines for the new Airbus single-aisle aircraft, thereby constituting a significant portion of the cost and content to the French airframe.” Piotrowski became intimate with these international aero industry dynamics while supporting the sale of Pratt & Whitney’s revolutionary geared turbofan aero engine in the EMEA re-gion and during commercial negotiations in cities such as Doha, Istanbul, London, Stockholm, and Barcelona. Throughout his in-house career, he made it a priority to visit the manufacturing sites of companies that he has worked for both in the United States and abroad in cities like Tianjin, Suzhou, Shanghai, Mexico City, Konigstein, and Bettlach, to name a few. He believes that cultural respect and self-awareness goes a long way — a practice he carries beyond the negotiating table.

When asked if he prefers to delegate contract negotiations to outside counsel, Piotrowski was hesitant. More and more in-house counsel are in-sourcing work from external law firms not only because of cost, Piotrowski argues, but because in-house counsel prefer intellectually stimulating and challenging work. He knows he does.

Recently, Piotrowski accepted the position of associate general counsel and secretary at Lydall, Inc., a public company headquartered in Manchester, CT with global manufacturing operations producing specialty engineered products for the thermal/acoustical and filtration/sep-aration markets. He brings a commercial excellence mindset to his new role and is intent on syn-ergizing business and legal processes. “The reason a contract exists is to protect the business case, so it is important to negotiate the best possible deal for the company and a contract that reflects and protects that deal.” The various functions of the organization — operations, finance, supply chain, sales, and legal — must work together as part of one unified and continuous workflow with the contract often acting as the connective tissue. In that way, he views the commercial contract process as a tool to propel business growth.

With each innovative approach in a diverse and complex industry, Piotrowski is greatly contrib-uting to the future of American manufacturing. 30



Melissa ReiterDIRECTOR OF

LEGAL AND PRIVACY

OFFICER

G ADVENTURES

TORONTO, CANADA

AGE: 35

melissa reiterMelissa Reiter, an avid traveler, was immediately drawn to G Adventures, an adventure travel com-pany based in Toronto with a mission to provide authentic and sustainable experiences while giving back to local communities. As director of legal and privacy officer, Reiter has expanded the com-pany’s global presence without compromising its values.

G Adventures operates in more than 100 countries, and she has played a crucial role in its ex-pansion into new markets. She managed the acquisition of five UK-based travel brands in two large transactions, which increased the company’s revenue to over US$500 million and brought the total number of global staff to 2,500. Her responsibilities included the review of the acquired companies’ existing contracts as well as their compliance and regulatory processes. She now oversees the legal affairs of the expanded company, which includes anticipating and responding to challenges.

Reiter was faced with the challenge of reducing the company’s environmental footprint and making contract processes more efficient. Her solution was to transition G Adventures from a paper-based, manual contracting model to a digital, automated model by imple-menting DocuSign for the sales and buying teams. Contract review time dropped from two to three weeks to one to two business days. Spend dropped dramatically as well, and G Adventures fulfilled its goal of going paperless.

The company’s nonprofit partner, the Planeterra Foundation, ensures that G Adventures’ tours have a positive impact on local communities. The company is also known for its whole-some work culture. In 2019, the company made the 2019 Best Workplaces™ in Canada, recog-nized as a leader in employee mental health, giving back, inclusion, and gender parity.

Reiter maintains the strong, positive work culture by building relationships and trust within the various departments. She is committed to making legal concepts accessible, creating templates and guidelines to “set up everyone for success where legal matters are involved.” She regularly teaches lunch-and-learns on topics like marketing and privacy law, and she created a privacy training pro-gram for G Adventures’ global team.

Reiter’s mission to make legal matters approachable also extends to her pro bono work. As a lawyer project mentor since 2014 for the Pro Bono Students Canada, she has worked on the Association for Media Literacy’s End User License Agreement Program. This pro-gram translates terms and conditions for social media platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram into plain language for kids and teens. Its work includes making posters and classroom tools so students can understand their social media IP and privacy rights.

In her other community work, Reiter focuses on the overlap of legal and business. She is actively involved in the “General Counsel Docket,” an event series for in-house counsel to ex-change ideas on legal-business portfolios. She brings this interest in merging legal and business to G Adventures as part of its Innovation Committee. Based on the belief that anyone can have a great idea, the committee provides an avenue to express the idea and implement it. By being involved, Reiter counters the notion that lawyers hinder innovation. “I help them troubleshoot their ideas and move them along. They get the legal view on things in at an early stage so that we can help the idea succeed,” she says. Reiter most enjoys being able to see the entire lifecycle of an idea — being involved from its inception through its completion.

It’s not unlike planning for a long vacation and eagerly anticipating it. Even when there are challenges thrown in along the way, it’s still exciting. She’s even had the chance to sample a few of G Adventures’ offerings — including a new favorite destination: Japan. 30


Erin K. StewartGENERAL COUNSEL

AND VP OF HUMAN

RESOURCES

PINNACLE GROUP

DALLAS, TX

AGE: 39

2019 TOP 10 30-SOMETHING erin k. stewart

Erin K. Stewart, with her fast-paced personality, enjoys challenges that require instinct and gut reaction. So it’s no surprise that she ended up at one of the fastest-growing woman-owned businesses in the United States: Pinnacle Group, a staffing and managed services firm. As general counsel and vice president of human resources, Stewart has helped guide the company through its rapid growth.

Because Pinnacle is a workforce solutions company, an alignment of business and hu-man resources is paramount. As a staffing company, people are the core of Pinnacle’s busi-ness — meaning that any HR risks are also business and legal risks. Knowing this, Stewart was concerned when she saw that “HR was not functioning at the needed level, considering the size and sophistication that Pinnacle was coming into after a period of high growth.” She decided a department overhaul was needed. Matching HR’s function with the needs of the business, Stewart hired new personnel and established department goals and standard operat-ing procedures, including using electronic files and automated onboarding processes. Within the restructured department, she created an independent contractor classification tool and introduced materials to simplify compliance regarding worker classification, the US Fair Labor Standards Act, per diem rules, and benefits offerings.

By automating systems and introducing efficient tools, human resources staff were able to deliver better customer service to existing and incoming employees. Stewart shares that as a woman- and minority-owned company, Pinnacle takes pride in having a diverse and in-clusive workforce. She experienced this firsthand as a working mother at the company. From her first interview with Pinnacle’s CEO, the two women connected on their belief that it’s not about work-life balance but rather work-life integration. The flexibility to deliver great business results during hours that accommodate shifting priorities has produced loyalty and trust within the company.

Prior to developing Pinnacle’s human resources strategy, Stewart addressed the need for more robust compliance and risk management functions. “Over the years, clients have become significantly more risk averse when it comes to using contract and contingent labor,” she explains. Of particular concern is co-employment risk, which is when a client is found to be a joint employer of a contract worker and may end up jointly liable for violations of applicable law. In order to retain current clientele and attract new ones, Stewart focused on developing stronger compliance capabilities with both client contracts and employment regulations. As part of this approach, she realigned the risk management and supply chain function to report to the legal department. She also instituted internal compliance trainings for staff and moved the legal department from paper files to digital by using contract management software. Her creation and reorganization of departments dramatically improved the level of service Pinnacle’s legal department was providing to its clients as well as its internal business units.

Stewart also juggles several initiatives simultaneously in her community. Through Pinnacle, she leads the company’s involvement as an industry partner with P-TECH, a pro-gram that prepares underserved high school students to be career ready upon graduation. The dual high school and community college enrollment model partners with companies such as Pinnacle to allow students to gain work experience while still in school.

In her personal time, Stewart is the president of the Plano Symphony Orchestra’s board of directors — an organization close to her heart, as she and her three children all play violin. She is also treasurer and secretary of the Nina Vaca Foundation, which was established by Pinnacle’s CEO in 2017. The foundation supports international community building through education, entrepreneurship, and infrastructure development.

With dynamic women like Stewart driving Pinnacle forward, nothing ever stays static. New challenges are constantly arising — which is exactly how she prefers it. 30

saul.com

Barry F. Levin,Managing Partner

Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP congratulates all of the

“Top 30-Something” Honoreesand encourages attorneys who are

new to corporate legal departments to join ACC’s New to In-House Network.

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T ASSCAT CAT CSS TOP 10 Docke… · They are all pioneers in their own unique ways – going above and beyond in their organization, assisting others in the in-house industry, and