LEGAL
Corporate Counsel Connect had the unique opportunity to speak with a remarkable woman, attorney, and leader, Nancy Nord. Not only does Nancy have an impressive background ranging from time as the general counsel to the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to serving as an attorney at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and with the U.S. Congress, she also served as the Director of Federal Government Relations for the Eastman Kodak Company. This was all before her eight year stint as commissioner on the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), serving as chairman from 2006 2009.
While all of these acronyms should be familiar to corporate counsel, there is one more that should certainly catch any in-house counsel's attention Nancy Nord was in the extremely unique position to help found the ACC Association of Corporate Counsel. Here Nancy speaks about her experience throughout the 80s as ACC was initially being formed. Visit the Legal Solutions blog for more conversations with Nancy regarding the CPSC and the challenges facing corporate counsel today.
CC Connect: You helped launch the premier association for corporate counsel in the 80s. What were the drivers to start the ACC? What type of networking opportunities were there for in-house counsel prior to ACC?
Nancy Nord (NN): In the early 1980's, the practice of law was in the early stages of very dramatic change fueled in part by globalization and the growth of the digital economy. The growth of the in-house bar was one of the indicators of that change. A group of general counsel of major organizations recognized that as companies increasingly brought their legal work in-house, there needed to be a mechanism for addressing the somewhat different professional challenges that lawyers face as part of a business organization. In addition the process of retaining and proactively managing outside counsel in an environment of constrained resources was not a subject of high priority for established bar associations.
Networking opportunities for in-house counsel were very limited prior to the formation of ACC. Bar associations were generally dominated by attorneys in firms. The perception, if not the fact, of many was that the work being done by in-house attorneys was limited to the routine and non-challenging. The notion of an in-house counsel actually litigating a case was unthinkable. In some states it was even difficult for in-house counsel to be admitted to the bar. While these perceptions and practices did not reflect the changes that were taking place in the legal community, they did limit the networking and professional development opportunities for many in-house practitioners.
Although the American Bar Association did make efforts to respond to the professional needs being described by leaders of the in-house bar, after much debate, a group of very innovative general counsel determined that a separate organization was needed and formed the American Corporate Counsel Association (later Association of Corporate Counsel, ACC). There was some initial push-back to ACC both from the organized bar and from some in-house practitioners who were concerned that the organization, by emphasizing differences between inside and outside counsel, might lock in place a "second-class citizenship" for the inside bar. However, as the organization developed its agenda, its programs and its strong membership, this concern soon disappeared.
CC Connect: How did you become involved? Can you share some of the experiences from those first couple years?
NN: I had the honor of being named Executive Director of the newly-formed organization in 1982. I was given a small office, a desk, a phone and told to get to work building the membership. Having been the general counsel of a small federal agency, having been a lawyer in a large organization, and having been in a membership organization, I understood the need for ACC and the task ahead of me. That task was made manageable by two important factors:
The key to building ACC was to create value for members where they practice and to create networking opportunities and professional development opportunities in their practices. Therefore, establishing chapters was the focus of much of our early organizational work. Many of the chapters were established in major metropolitan areas where a number of corporations are headquartered. However, as ACC became known throughout the bar, I would get calls from in-house lawyers in middle-sized cities who talked with me about having coffee with their in-house peers in other medium or small companies and feeling the need for some connection to others facing the same issues. It was those calls that gave me the most satisfaction since it told me that ACC was filling a need and we were on the right path. I would happily get on a plane to go to Sioux City or Hartford or Indianapolis to help established ACC chapters. By the time I left ACC at the end of 1990, we had established 35 chapters around the country.
The Committee structure illustrates how the organization was developed by the members to address their needs. Here are two examples. A member discussed with me the fact that his practice dealt almost entirely with jurisdictions outside the U.S. He wondered if corporate counsel in non-U.S. companies had an organization such as ACC. He took on the challenge of reaching out to his counterparts in other jurisdictions around the world and through his work, the International Legal Affairs Committee was founded. As a contrasting example, another member, who was a sole practitioner, founded a subcommittee of the Law Department Management Committee to address the unique situations faced by sole practitioners and small departments.
It soon became clear in the very early days of the association that ACC would need to develop an advocacy program. Much of this work was driven by Lawrence Salibra and Carl Liggio, ACC board members, and both notable in-house litigators. The focus of this early advocacy work included matters affecting corporate counsel's ability to render efficient legal services, defend equal treatment of corporate counsel as members of the bar and promote bar admissions standards that recognize the interstate nature of corporate legal practice. While these are all important achievements, I was especially proud of the association's efforts to encourage the development of corporate compliance programs and to argue to lawmakers and the courts that these programs should be considered in determining corporate liability and penalties.
CC Connect: What are you most proud of in the ACC's 30+ year history?
NN: Many of the impressive member services now offered by ACC developed back in the 1980s out of member-initiated projects or by efforts to drive services out to the membership. For example, the DOCKET magazine was initially put together by myself, Susan Hackett and several board members as a way to involve members in sharing learning that resided in their departments and as a branding piece for the organization. It has grown into a truly impressive journal. The first annual meeting took place in the middle of a freak mid-November Washington snow storm. Nevertheless 300 members showed up and each year it grew larger until it became the huge event it is today.
When I left the organization in 1990 it had 10,000 members and today it has over 35,000 members from all over the world. Obviously ACC is a success and this success validates the vision the founders had of an organization addressing the special professional needs of the in-house bar. As long as ACC stays true to this vision, and remains an organization where members drive the agenda and where individual members can find the means for participating at whatever level meets their professional needs, then ACC will continue to flourish and I will be proud to have been part of its early history.
Visit the Legal Solutions blog for more conversations with Nancy regarding the CPSC and the challenges facing corporate counsel today.
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