Features Women in Law

During her 19 years with global pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, Debbie Walters-Francique has seen enough change to fill a Coinstar machine: shifts in medical technology; evolution within the company; heaving changes in the wider health care landscape. And she’s had the roles to show for it: from serving as global product counsel on a blockbuster product […]

Homer Simpson once said, “Well, I’m not one for taking new jobs on a whim. But as we say in the snow plow business, ‘I’m your astronaut.’” Homer may be a walking contradiction, and a cartoon to boot, but he hit the nail on the head when it comes to not taking a new job […]

Times change for any industry, and Philip Morris International—the world’s most successful cigarette company—has long acknowledged the old axiom about smoking being hazardous to one’s health. It is aiming for a smoke-free future by promoting products such as e-cigarettes and technology that heats but doesn’t burn. That makes it an exciting time for Adelaida Adames, […]

Family and friends thought she’d landed her dream job, and early on Lilia Pous might’ve agreed. She’d just been named department chief at Mexico’s Institute for the Protection of Bank Savings, a prestigious appointment that entailed working with high-level government data. But to hear her tell it, layers of bureaucratic red tape quickly diminished the […]

As general counsel for the North American operations of the global confectionery heavyweight Ferrero, Beth M. Kotran has literally achieved—well almost—what she had so aspired to after leaving private practice in 2002. “I was focused on one piece of a bigger pie,” she tells Vanguard from her office in Parsippany, New Jersey. “I wanted to […]

Amidst the cacophony of the national health insurance debate—over who pays what and how; and of when liability comes into play—one voice always seems drowned in the din: that of practitioners providing the care. It’s a conundrum Erin Bagley knows only too well. As general counsel for Coverys, a medical professional liability insurer headquartered in […]

Lisa Gressel knew what a big fire looked like. Truth be told, during her 30 years as a general counsel, she’d put out more than a few. Fires so big she can’t even talk about them. These were smaller than that—much smaller. A manager who left without telling his replacement about the patio furniture in […]

It’s always buyer beware in the used-car market, but it’s been especially so since autumn 2017 when hundreds of thousands of vehicles were soaked by Texas and Florida floodwaters following Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. Many of them could wind up for sale all over the country. Their appearances notwithstanding, it’s what’s under the hood […]