When Jay Stephens first walked into his office at the Waltham, Mass.�based Raytheon Co. in 2002, he found a mess. With securities class action lawsuits dating back to 1999, as well as subsidiaries enmeshed in a heap of employment litigation, it was clear that his job as the defense contractor’s general counsel wasn’t going to be easy. But Stephens, 60, a self-professed adventure-seeker, simply got to work.
First, he settled all lawsuits involving one of Raytheon’s biggest litigation targets, its engineering construction business, Raytheon Engineers and Constructors. Then he helped midwife the massive $3.3 billion sale of the company’s money-losing Raytheon Aircraft Co. to Hawker Beechcraft Corp. last December. And in his 75-lawyer department, Stephens built what he calls a “culture of trust” through a selective hiring process (“only the best”) and via workshops and educational programs.
