In 2018, Georgia-Pacific won the final round of a case that could have cost it $11 billion. If that weren’t enough to consider the company for an In-House Legal Department of the Year award, an outside counsel to the company had this to say about the company’s labor and employment team: “Without exaggeration, nobody manages, understands or navigates complex L&E issues more adeptly than the GP team.”

Tye Darland, Georgia-Pacific’s senior vice president and general counsel, leads a legal team that last year consisted of 112 people, including 54 attorneys, 37 paralegals/paraprofessionals and 21 other personnel. The department is organized by business and capability areas, with business attorneys assigned to each of the company’s three major business units—consumer products, building products and packaging and cellulose. In addition, attorneys are assigned to eight different capability areas: mergers and acquisitions/real estate; litigation; patent; trademarks; employment/labor/benefits; procurement; investigations/safety/compliance; and environmental.