Brian Chevlin, general counsel of Pernod Ricard, always wanted to be in the courtroom, and he got his chance early on, working on bankruptcy cases as an associate at Shearman & Sterling in New York after graduating from law school.

During his six years at Shearman, Chevlin added some corporate and M&A experience to his skill set and then moved to New York-based law firm Herrick Feinstein. It was there that firm client Unilever offered Chevlin his first chance to move in-house in 1998. It lasted much longer than expected.

“They said: 'Oh, we have someone going on maternity leave, can you come in and help us for three months?'” Chevlin said about going in-house as assistant general counsel for litigation. “Fourteen years later, I was still there.”