2016 Fellow Mackenzie Phillips on the cover of Modern Counsel's spring 2017 issue.

Within the LCLD community, we know that our Members, Fellows, Diversity Professionals, and other program participants are making waves at their organizations and in their communities. The latest issue of Modern Counsel magazine is proof that LCLD’s network is having a nationwide impact.

On the cover of Modern Counsel’s spring issue is Mackenzie Phillips, 2016 Fellow and Chief Corporate Counsel at Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. Phillips discussed her role at JLL, volunteering to raise awareness about ovarian cancer, and teaching at a law clinic in Chicago. She also shared how JLL's commitment to diversity drew her to the company:  

Phillips adds that she was even more impressed to learn of JLL’s work toward tailoring diversity programs on a global level, and that the company doesn’t simply provide lip service to the issue.

“Diversity in the US is not the same as in France,” she says. “Issues for black women in the US are different from those for North African women in France. In addition, in India there’s a lot of violence against women. As a company, we provide cars to take women to and from work so that they’re safe. I had no idea.”

Nevertheless, Phillips says she isn’t surprised by JLL’s commitment not only to diversity, but celebrating its employees. In addition to providing employees with the opportunity to travel abroad and take international meetings, JLL also encourages its staff to be an integral part of the company-wide push both for diversity and further innovation. 

Read Phillips' full interview here. 

Also profiled in the issue is Chad Walker, LCLD Member and 2012 Fellow. Walker shares the role relationships have played in his career both at McDonald’s, where he was a Fellow, and now at Morton Salt, where he is General Counsel: 

“McDonald’s is a relationship-based company that prides itself on the relationship among its employees, suppliers, and franchisees,” Walker says. “It’s worked for many years and it remains central to its core of what makes it successful. When I came to Morton, I brought with me the importance of building relationships.”

He started applying those skills by building strong ties with the CEO and executive leadership. Walker continues to foster open lines of communication between executives and his legal team as well as Morton employees across its twenty-three facilities in the United States, Canada, and the Bahamas. 

Read Walker’s full interview here. 

Also featured is Karyn Polak, a former Mentor in LCLD’s Success in Law School Mentoring Program and Deputy General Counsel at PNC. Polak shares her personal commitment to diversity and how PNC views it as a business imperative: 

Diversity and inclusion, then, just make good business sense. For PNC, that means hiring the right people, partnering with organizations that embrace similar practices, and broadening perspectives to gain better insight into customer and employee needs… 

PNC’s legal department is also a significant contributor to the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD), nominating employees to become Fellows and identifying other employees as Mentors for law students. In 2016, PNC hosted a full-day program for LCLD Fellows (with many of PNC’s executives and a number of legal employees) to learn more about the company and industry, as well as the career tracks of some of its senior leaders.

Read Polak’s full interview here. 

From Modern Counsel: 

Modern Counsel is a network of today’s most influential in-house counsel. We offer insight into every facet of legal leaders’ professional lives by telling their stories—from department structure and team management to intellectual property and emerging technology. With engaging editorial, we bring in-house counsel across industries together to share their stories, learn from each other, and connect.

Modern Counsel is an opportunity for you to become a part of the larger in-house community by discussing your work—from your perspective. By conveying these successes, our goal is to create a space for legal leaders to share and learn as we all navigate an increasingly complex business environment.