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Leveraging Legal Leadership: Veta T. Richardson &
The General Counsel as a Mary Blatch1
Corporate Culture Influencer
President; Senior Director of
Advocacy, Association of
Corporate Counsel
The only thing we have is one another. The only competitive advantage we have is
the culture and values of the company. Anyone can open up a coffee store. We have
no technology, we have no patent. All we have is the relationship around the values
of the company and what we bring to the customer every day. And we all have to
own it.
– Howard Schultz, founding CEO, Starbucks
Introduction
Corporate culture is widely acknowledged as adding value to companies, both in terms of
improving financial performance and in
creating an atmosphere that encourages
ethical behavior. Evaluating and setting
corporate culture is an important
responsibility for boards and executive
management, and because the board chooses
the chief executive, ultimately culture
emanates from the boardroom.2 Corporate
culture is not a topic typically linked to a
company’s general counsel and legal
department, but the failure to draw that link
may prove shortsighted on the part of the
board. Given the importance of the general
counsel in matters of ethics, compliance, corporate governance, and risk and reputation
1 Veta T. Richardson is president and CEO of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), the largest global bar association serving in-house
counsel. Veta’s priority as CEO involves increasing ACC’s global footprint and charting the organization through a strategic plan geared to address
the unique needs and challenges of corporate lawyers. As a result, general counsel and governance professionals look to the ACC for strategy,
global legal trend analysis, and research related to corporate best practices, governance policies, advocacy, and boardroom trends. Veta was
previously executive director of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA). She started her legal career as in-house counsel at Sunoco,
Inc., and received a B.S. and J.D. from the University of Maryland.
Mary Blatch is the Association of Corporate Counsel’s senior director of advocacy. She directs ACC’s regulatory, legislative, and judicial
advocacy efforts on attorney-client privilege, attorney ethics and mobility, corporate compliance, and other issues of importance to in-house counsel.
Prior to joining ACC, Mary was a senior manager at Deloitte, working on regulatory advocacy and compliance issues for the tax practice. Before
joining Deloitte, she was a litigation associate at McKee Nelson LLP and Hogan & Hartson LLP (now Hogan Lovells LLP). She also served as a
federal judicial clerk in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Mary holds a J.D. from the Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America and a B.A. from Spelman College.
2 IAN MUIR, TONE FROM THE TOP: HOW BEHAVIOR TRUMPS STRATEGY (Gower Publishing, 2015).
182
The General Counsel as a Mary Blatch1
Corporate Culture Influencer
President; Senior Director of
Advocacy, Association of
Corporate Counsel
The only thing we have is one another. The only competitive advantage we have is
the culture and values of the company. Anyone can open up a coffee store. We have
no technology, we have no patent. All we have is the relationship around the values
of the company and what we bring to the customer every day. And we all have to
own it.
– Howard Schultz, founding CEO, Starbucks
Introduction
Corporate culture is widely acknowledged as adding value to companies, both in terms of
improving financial performance and in
creating an atmosphere that encourages
ethical behavior. Evaluating and setting
corporate culture is an important
responsibility for boards and executive
management, and because the board chooses
the chief executive, ultimately culture
emanates from the boardroom.2 Corporate
culture is not a topic typically linked to a
company’s general counsel and legal
department, but the failure to draw that link
may prove shortsighted on the part of the
board. Given the importance of the general
counsel in matters of ethics, compliance, corporate governance, and risk and reputation
1 Veta T. Richardson is president and CEO of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), the largest global bar association serving in-house
counsel. Veta’s priority as CEO involves increasing ACC’s global footprint and charting the organization through a strategic plan geared to address
the unique needs and challenges of corporate lawyers. As a result, general counsel and governance professionals look to the ACC for strategy,
global legal trend analysis, and research related to corporate best practices, governance policies, advocacy, and boardroom trends. Veta was
previously executive director of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA). She started her legal career as in-house counsel at Sunoco,
Inc., and received a B.S. and J.D. from the University of Maryland.
Mary Blatch is the Association of Corporate Counsel’s senior director of advocacy. She directs ACC’s regulatory, legislative, and judicial
advocacy efforts on attorney-client privilege, attorney ethics and mobility, corporate compliance, and other issues of importance to in-house counsel.
Prior to joining ACC, Mary was a senior manager at Deloitte, working on regulatory advocacy and compliance issues for the tax practice. Before
joining Deloitte, she was a litigation associate at McKee Nelson LLP and Hogan & Hartson LLP (now Hogan Lovells LLP). She also served as a
federal judicial clerk in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Mary holds a J.D. from the Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America and a B.A. from Spelman College.
2 IAN MUIR, TONE FROM THE TOP: HOW BEHAVIOR TRUMPS STRATEGY (Gower Publishing, 2015).
182
