DC Metro GC Patricia Lee Discusses the DOJ, Diversity and Why 'We Don't Settle'
The former trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice discusses her work at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority — and how she got there.
November 22, 2019 at 12:06 AM
7 minute read
Patricia Lee hit the ground running when she joined the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority as general counsel in 2016, where she's responsible for everything legal at the D.C.-area transportation agency, from litigation over personal injury claims to broader challenges to WMATA policies.
Lee joined WMATA after doing in-house work for several years, including a past general counsel role at the Munich-based communications company, The Unified Group. Before that, she was a Holland & Knight partner and a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice.
WMATA has faced criticism in recent years, particularly after a deadly smoke inhalation incident in 2015 by the L'Enfant Plaza station, which led to a settlement between the authority and the family of the woman who died in 2018. And former Metro board chairman Jack Evans recently resigned after ethics violations were detailed in a memo authored by Lee, the board of directors' ethics officer.
WMATA is also fielding legal challenges to its ad policy, which blocks issue-oriented ads. The Archdiocese of Washington has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to take up its case against the policy, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that WMATA could block religious ads.
Lee sat down with the National Law Journal for an interview about her work as WMATA's top lawyer. Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Among WMATA's most high-profile cases are the lawsuits challenging the ad policy. How did you approach those cases, especially since it was pretty early on in your time as general counsel?
I can't talk about those particular cases because they are pending litigation. But as a general matter, I took a look at all the litigation we had when I arrived, and it seemed we were settling more than I thought we should. So to the extent we have reasonable defenses, we don't settle.
We've been a lot more aggressive in either trying cases or getting them resolved through dispositive motions. And the other approach we have is it's important for WMATA to preserve our immunities and privileges.
With that strategy, does that mean building up your litigation team? Are you adding more attorneys to help bolster up that side?
One of the things I saw when I came here, there was so much litigation, and there were a lot of things that the team was doing that I wanted to go in a slightly different direction. I also wanted to go more electronic: I wanted all our documents to be online. I wanted there to be an examples folder so that we wouldn't have to create documents from scratch, such as a motion to dismiss. We'd have templates for those things.
I needed somebody to come in and help, so I hired a very talented attorney to help me with that side of the house, especially because I was getting busier at the board and senior management levels.
You have such a wide range of responsibilities in this role. How do you juggle all of those on a daily basis, and how easy or difficult do you find delegating some of those responsibilities?
It's not difficult if you have the right talent. You have to surround yourself with good and talented attorneys, and that's what I've done. I've hired the deputy general counsel for litigation. I've also hired another deputy general counsel to help me with the other side of the house, which is mostly administrative and regulatory work. I've hired a number of attorneys since I joined WMATA over the last three years.
The three qualities I really look for in attorneys: Good judgment, good written and oral communication skills, and then excellent legal technical skills like reading, writing and advocacy. If you surround yourself with very good, talented attorneys that have those sorts of skill sets, then I'm very comfortable delegating where necessary.
You've held a variety of jobs during your career. How has that range of experiences helped prepare you for this job?
I've been very fortunate to have a long career and I hope it continues longer. Each of those jobs have cumulatively helped me prepare for this job. With law firms, you have rigorous training and legal analysis, and writing and research. That's been extremely helpful.
When I was at the Justice Department as a trial attorney, I think the thing I learned there was that not all advocacy and litigation is about increasing shareholder value. There [are] other reasons that people will litigate, and some of it is to preserve immunities or to preserve or uphold policies.
When I was at my various positions in private industry, the most important thing was to learn the business. That's the only way you can give effective legal advice.
In a law firm, you have a tremendous amount of time to research issues and write 20-, 25-page memos. In private industry, a lot of times you're being asked to make decisions on imperfect information. Which is why it's important as an in-house attorney to have good judgment.
Diversity has generally been a struggle for the legal world. As a minority woman holding such a prominent legal job, what kind of message do you hope that sends people?
I think we're very lucky here in D.C. There's a lot of talent. There's also a lot of diversity, and so I think it's not hard to get talented attorneys who also happen to be people of diverse backgrounds.
If young attorneys see this interview, I hope they take away that there are opportunities out there, and that they should continue to work hard and don't get discouraged to the extent that there are barriers put up.
It's true, as a woman, as a minority in the legal field, that when I do start jobs, usually I don't walk in with a bucket of credibility. And it might take me a little longer to earn the trust and confidence of the managers here, the executive team and the board. But I think it is worth doing.
Do you have any final pieces of advice for young attorneys that are starting off right now?
I would encourage them to work in a range of environments. I would definitely encourage them to work in a firm, if they can, just for the training. It's not dispositive that if you don't do that you can't become a general counsel. But I found it very helpful.
And then, spend some time with the government. I think it's important to see the public sector because you get a different perspective on your legal work.
And then do you what you like. Don't pick a field because somebody told you to pick it or you're doing it for the money. You should pick something that you want to do because at the end of the day that's what you're walking in and doing every day, so you should enjoy it.
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