Building an Elite In-house Legal Department

October 2023Management Industry

Abstract

I have served in three general counsel roles in different industries over the past 27 years, including most recently for two decades with CF Industries (NYSE:CF). CF is an international producer and distributor of hydrogen and nitrogen chemical products, headquartered in the United States, with $11B in revenue, $6B in EBITDA, $15B in market capitalization, and 3,000 employees. During roughly the first half of my career with CF Industries, we outsourced nearly all our legal work to various law firms, including Skadden. By 2015, we were the largest client measured by billings in Skadden’s Chicago office, and one of Skadden’s 10 largest clients worldwide. Over the remainder of my career with CF, I built an exceptionally strong legal department, in fact one of the very best in the world, comprised of senior lawyers from top-tier law firms.

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Building an Elite In-house Legal Department

Abstract

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