What was your route to the top? I started my legal career as a summer associate at Morrison & Foerster, and although I've been with the firm throughout my career, my job has definitely not stayed the same. I've had the good fortune of being at the top technology law firm in the Bay Area, the epicenter of the technology sector. As our clients have developed new technologies and evolved their business models, my job keeps changing, too. I started out as a litigator, working with technology, life sciences, and consumer products companies. During one of our huge technology booms, I moved into the technology transactions group to negotiate IP and commercial agreements, working with software companies, ecommerce startups, semiconductor equipment makers, and telecom companies. Today, I'm still an IP and commercial lawyer with an active practice advising clients on strategic IP and commercial transactions and M&A matters. But technologies have evolved further, and data drives most of our deals. I'm also advising clients on transactions involving AI, robotics, digital content and advertising, connected devices, and software and platforms as a service. Along the way, I became MoFo's Technology Transactions Practice chair and then a firmwide managing partner. Now my job includes making sure that our firm is as innovative as possible in order to meet the needs of our clients.

What keeps you up at night? (i.e. What are your biggest business-related concerns?) Our firm's clients include some of the most innovative companies in the world. They are disruptors in their sectors, changing the way we communicate, consume, and interact via the latest technologies. Since our clients are trailblazers in their industries, we have to innovate to keep up with them. I am always trying to imagine what this profession will look like in five or ten years and how we can remain indispensable to our clients.

What is the best leadership advice you provided, or received, and why do you think it was effective? Be a leader. Don't ask for a leadership position. I think a lot of people assume that someone will recognize their leadership talents and invite them to lead. To be a real leader, you need to show leadership by proposing initiatives, getting a group excited about the value of those plans, and executing on them. In other words: show, don't tell. Show others that, if they follow your lead, they'll make progress toward mutual goals.

Looking back, what do you wish you had known when you started out in the legal profession? When I started out, I was focused only on providing superlative “legal” services. But I've learned that being a successful lawyer and leader isn't just about dispensing the appropriate legal advice or making sure the commas are in the right place. It's really more about being a trusted advisor in every way possible. You want to be the person that people call because they trust your judgment and your commitment to the relationship—whether a client, your team, or your colleagues.