Sara Moss, vice chairman of The Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. Photo: Hollenshead Courtesy of NYU Photo Bureau

The longtime general counsel at The Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. has been promoted to the newly created role of vice chairman in the latest example of companies elevating their top lawyers to nonlegal business positions. 

Sara Moss will continue in her GC role, which she has held since 2003, until a successor is named later, according to a news release from the cosmetics giant. In her new “strategic” capacity, Moss will: advise executive management, the board of directors and the Lauder family on critical business issues; help enable the company's long-term, sustainable success as a family-controlled, public company; and work on Estée Lauder's global programs, focusing on developing women as leaders and women's-focused initiatives, according to the statement.

“Exceptional judgment, integrity and agility, and an ability to continuously protect the company and adapt to the evolving needs of the business are critical to succeed in the general counsel role, and these qualities will perfectly complement my new role as Vice Chairman,” Moss told Corporate Counsel. “My deep understanding of the company and the needs of our business will allow me to continue to be a strategic leader and adviser, helping to drive the long-term success of the business.”

The company said in a statement the vice chairman position was specifically designed for Moss.

“Sara's innovative leadership, strong business acumen and strategic guidance have proven to be invaluable to our business growth,” Estée Lauder president and CEO Fabrizio Freda said in the statement. “In addition, Sara's passion for developing women leaders will build on Mrs. Estée Lauder's legacy as a company 'founded by a woman, for women' and will further strengthen our ability to attract and retain the most talented women in the industry.”

Even before joining Estée Lauder, Moss had a varied and remarkable legal career, particularly among women “firsts” in various areas. She clerked for Judge Constance Baker Motley of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and worked as a litigation associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell. She served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York at a time when less than 10% of those prosecutors were women, with even fewer in the criminal division, according to a 2017 profile in Corporate Counsel sister publication The New York Law Journal published when Moss received the publication's Lifetime Achievement Award.

She later left Davis Polk to become the only woman partner at the newly formed firm of Howard, Darby & Levin, now Covington & Burling. A decade later, she became the GC at Pitney Bowes in Stamford, Connecticut, one of fewer than a dozen women GCs at Fortune 500 companies at the time, according to the profile, which quoted former Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney Bob Fiske, who first worked with Moss at Davis Polk and then encouraged her to move to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

“Sara has been at the forefront of a great group of women who have become prominent in the legal community—leading the way and setting an example for the next generation of women lawyers,” Fiske said in the feature article.

Moss' promotion represents the increasing trend of high-ranking in-house lawyers' moves to executive decision-making roles within their companies. Last month, for example, Accenture announced that Chad Jerdee, GC and chief compliance officer at the global consulting giant since 2015, will take on a new role overseeing Accenture's global strategy and programs focused on responsible business, corporate sustainability and citizenship. And in March, Wells Fargo's general counsel, C. Allen Parker, was named interim CEO. At the time, the board of directors indicated he would not be in the running to become the permanent CEO, though a permanent replacement has not yet been selected.