What was your route to the top? Pretty traditional. I worked as a summer associate in a large NJ firm known for its litigation practice. I deferred their offer of employment to begin as an associate after graduation in favor of a clerkship for a NJ state court Judge which paid less than half of what the firm was offering! Clerking was a tremendous experience after which I returned to the firm as a litigation associate working on medical malpractice and product liability cases. 5½ years later, the opportunity to go in-house at Johnson & Johnson presented itself and I never looked back. My practice at J&J morphed over the last three decades from managing single consumer, pharmaceutical and medical device products liability cases, to working also on employment matters, sitting on operating company management boards, handling AG consumer fraud cases and supervising and directing a large team of outside counsel assisting us in the defense of mass tort litigation.

What keeps you up at night? (i.e. What are your biggest business-related concerns?) The challenge for American businesses to provide within our legal system quality and necessary products in the modern world of mass torts. As a result, the needs of patients who have been injured might be ignored and companies can be unfairly accused. The legal system does not have the resources to handle these cases (which can number in the tens of thousands) and therefore defaults to a settlement mode which can encourage more mass torts to be filed. The cost of defense of mass torts to the health care industry is significant and it would be naïve to ignore the cost it has to research, innovation, jobs and health care for us all.

What is the best leadership advice you provided, or received, and why do you think it was effective? Collaboration yields a better result than relying on any single decision maker. I put together “virtual law firms” consisting of highly talented lawyers from different firms. Simply put, having them work together optimizes our work product resulting in a strong defense. In my in-house role managing mass torts, I have the responsibility of assigning cases and work and there is lots of it. I have focused a lot of time and energy identifying and presenting talented people, young women in particular, with opportunities to develop their litigation skills and broaden their experience. It has been my privilege and honor to have been able to do this. This has probably been my biggest professional reward.

Looking back, what do you wish you had known when you started out in the legal profession? As a woman in this profession 40 years ago I had to work hard to prove my value. I didn't mind doing it and have enjoyed watching women and others overcome many obstacles and become successful. I lament, however, what I see as the departure over the years from the professionalism, ethics and collegiality among lawyers that I enjoyed when I was a young lawyer starting out. I would like to see a return to that.