Please describe two of your most substantial, recent wins in practice.
A remarkable deal I recently worked on was our advisory to Johnson & Johnson regarding its transformative separation of Kenvue, Inc, a banner global transaction in 2023. I was part of Baker’s global leadership team working closely with Johnson & Johnson and Kenvue’s deal leads, allowing me the unique opportunity to work hand-in-hand with exceptional lawyers and business leaders at the companies and my firm.
As part of this role, I led our M&A and corporate workstreams for LatAm and the Caribbean, covering parallel transactions and related matters in multiple countries. The deal took place over a challenging period that saw the region face major elections in several countries, residual Covid restrictions, and social unrest.
In another recent transaction, we advised Mercon Coffee in a first-of-its-kind global restructuring involving parallel actions in the US, Brazil, and the Netherlands, for which I led the M&A and corporate workstreams. I headed a team that simultaneously ran three competitive processes and negotiations for the sale of the company’s assets across the globe, involving colleagues in five different jurisdictions. Being part of a global, collaborative effort like this and providing integral and seamless cross-border solutions to the management team in order to navigate a very difficult period was extremely rewarding.
Locally, I am very proud of our firm-wide work on the Homeless Youth Handbook—a publication dedicated to youth experiencing homelessness and other challenges, helping them learn about their rights and protections during very difficult times. I collaborated with fantastic teams at The Walt Disney Company and Florida’s Children First in writing the Florida edition.
What is the most important lesson you learned as a first-year attorney and how does it inform your practice today?
Our business is a human enterprise that focuses on our clients, 100%. We must meet them where they are, understand their expectations and concerns, and help them achieve their goals. However, the term “client” encompasses so much more than external clients.
Being a successful lawyer stems from understanding the word “client” also means the partners, associates, paralegals, and support staff that a practitioner works with on a day-to-day basis. Thriving at a large law firm means building trust amongst those around you and dedication to their well-being. A great indicator of success is the strength of the team you surround yourself with.
How do you define success in your practice?
Success to me is helping clients make the best of every situation. As a lawyer, clients reach out during their best moments (e.g., receiving a life-changing offer to sell their business) as well as their most difficult moments (e.g., an unfortunate turn in the market casting doubt on a business’s viability). In every engagement, clients turn to us as their trusted advisors and champions.
We owe it to them to bring the same level of creativity, empathy, energy, and dedication on every matter. Success is embodied in seeing the joy in a client’s face at the closing of a transformative transaction just as much as seeing their relief at the end of a very trying episode.
What are you most proud of as a lawyer?
I am most proud of seeing the more junior lawyers I work with grow and succeed. Seeing the light bulb moment in an associate working on a difficult matter is a fulfilling and validating experience.
In that moment you realize you have successfully shared the knowledge given to you by your own mentors. The success of a law firm lies in the ability of senior lawyers to transfer their institutional knowledge to the next generation.
Building capacity in others is both a sign of mastery over the subject matter itself as well as the ability to teach and share the experiences one has gained. The feeling of pride is especially strong when working with diverse lawyers like me, knowing that I am providing them with the same support that allowed me to succeed within the firm.
Ultimately, it’s about honoring the mentors I had coming up as a junior lawyer and showing them that, thanks to their efforts, I’ve been able to impart the same lessons they gave me to others.
Who is your greatest mentor in the law and what have they taught you?
One of the greatest mentors I’ve had in the law is Judge Virginia Kendall from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Like many, my first year of law school was very difficult. At the end of my spring semester, I was exhausted, and a bit beat up, trying to remember why I went to law school in the first place. The summer I spent externing for Judge Kendall reminded me why.
Judge Kendall was art-in-motion, showing us the importance of being a zealous advocate and a professional lawyer. Seeing the judge in action and hearing about the path she took to the bench was the inspiration I needed to realize I was in the right place. She showed us that the legal profession is not about the lawyers that work in it; rather, it’s about the people who turn to the law for help.
Our job as lawyers is about serving people, first and foremost. I still think about the lessons I learned that summer on a weekly basis, even as a transactional lawyer who hasn’t seen the inside of a courtroom since.
Tell us your two favorite songs on your summer music playlist.
Two songs have shaped the summer for me: Pearl Jam’s “Something Special” and “El Pregon de los Aguacates” by Carlos Vives, a song he sang on a TV show called “El Club de Los Graves” that my kids watch.
“Something Special” has a line that struck a chord in me, “afraid to fail, same as afraid to try.” Seems so commonsensical but it came at the right time for me. Words to live by!
“El Pregon de los Aguacates” is just a fun song to listen to. My family and I have had countless (maybe too many) sing-a-longs to it this summer, and we still have half the summer to go. It has become a Peter Pan-type of “happy thought” for me.
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