Name: Farrah Pepper

Category: In-House: Thought Leadership

Firm/Company: Marsh & McLennan Companies

Title: Chief Legal Innovation Counsel

Time in Position: Since 2018

What was your route to the top?

If looking for a unifying theme, I suppose you could say I'm a builder and leader of teams who leverages the holy trifecta of people, process and technology to solve business challenges, create enterprise value and reduce risk. My legal career began in the New York office of Gibson Dunn where I practiced as a litigator and was a founder and leader of the firm's e-discovery practice group. My first in-house role was as GE's global discovery counsel, a new role in which I created and led the award-winning GE Discovery COE. In my current role as chief legal innovation counsel at the Marsh & McLennan Companies, I'm leading MMC's legal innovation and technology team, which includes our legal innovation initiatives and global discovery program. I'm a life-long New Yorker and double [New York University] graduate (undergrad and law). But no doubt, my proudest role is as mom to my two girls, Lila and Maya.

What is the best leadership advice you've given or received, and why do you think it was effective?

Here is a twofer: "Imperfect men have been empowered and permitted to run the world since the beginning of time. It's time for imperfect women to grant themselves permission to join them." Come on, ladies, now let's get in formation … to follow Abby Wambach's advice and not hold ourselves back. "When you're down, there is nowhere to go but up. And when you're up, there is nowhere to go but down." I caught this gem in an interview with actress/rapper Awkwafina, who credited her grandmother. I like that reminder to stay humble, hungry and hopeful, no matter where you are in the win-lose parabola on any given day.

Looking back, what do you wish you had known when you started out in the legal profession?

Everything is negotiable. Roles, resources, salary, flexible work arrangements—the ones most worth having are the ones I've asked for and co-created with my employers. Naturally, your ability to negotiate effectively increases over time with experience and as you come to know your worth. But I'd caution against accepting anything just because "that's the way we've always done things."

What is the most valuable career advice anyone has ever given you?

My all-time favorite life-changing advice came courtesy of a grimy record shop in Dublin. I was backpacking around the world after college and figuring out my place in it. Near the exit of that tiny shop, there was a rack with free postcards. One of the cards hit me like a thunderclap. It was a plain white card with typewriter font. It said: "Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than the ones you did." I took that card, walked out of that store and made some big changes. Now, more than 20 years later, the card has been proven right time and again in life, love and work. Well, not in its misattribution of the quote to Mark Twain, but no matter. I still have it, framed, reminding me to reach for the stars and leave regret where it belongs (Vegas, obviously).