< PreviousJOURNEY Even before she went to law school, Wendy Webb Williams was a high-flyer — literally. After attending Hampshire College, Williams spent seven years working as a flight attendant before pursuing her law degree at the University of Maryland. She enjoyed the work and traveling the world, but her father helped pilot her back toward her ambitions of studying law. “When I told my family I was going to be a flight attendant, I said I would do it for three years and then go back to school. Three years became five years, then became seven years, and my dad asked, ‘When are you going to get a real job?’ I said, ‘I have a real job. I just got back from London.’ Then he said, ‘Wendy, I pay your beeper bill. Some people would consider that an allowance.’ And I said, ‘Point taken.’ ” Williams was a McGuireWoods summer associate in 2000 and, after graduating from law school in 2001, she clerked for then-Chief Judge Robert M. Bell of the Maryland Court of Appeals. She joined McGuireWoods in 2002 as a corporate associate in Baltimore before leaving to serve as a Maryland assistant attorney general and in various in-house roles. She was chief legal officer for Sara Lee Frozen Bakery in Chicago before she became general counsel and vice president of corporate operations at Pairwise — a Durham, North Carolina, mission-driven company that uses its best-in-class genome-editing platform to build a healthier world through better fruits and vegetables. McGuireWoods talked to Williams about her time at the firm and how her career has advanced and evolved since then. Food for Thought A Chat With Pairwise’s Wendy Webb Williams CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 10 ONE McGUIREWOODS | SUMMER 20 22JOURNEY S“When people ponder career development, the easy way is not always the right way. You must be courageous and confident in yourself and the skills you developed. Each time I stepped off that bridge I was terrified, but the ground has met my feet and lifted me higher.” — Wendy Webb Williams, general counsel and vice president of corporate operations, Pairwise She’s an avid reader: I love serial mysteries and fantasy. I am eagerly awaiting “The Winds of Winter,” the sixth book related to “Games of Thrones.” She’s a budding art collector: There is no method to my madness. I just happen to love art. She’s a college basketball fanatic: March Madness is the best time of year, although I am not sure how I will fare being a Kentucky fan living five minutes away from Duke. Plus, my husband formerly played professional basketball. She loves what she does: I love the creative problem-solving. I love the big-picture thinking. I never would have envisioned it, but this is my jam. It’s exactly what I am supposed to be doing. FOUR THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT WENDY WEBB WILLIAMS ONE McGUIREWOODS | SUMMER 20 22 11How did you come to join McGuireWoods in 2002 as an associate? I went to law school to get my dad off my back, with no thoughts about working in BigLaw or where I was going to work. I planned to figure that out later. My law school had a program called Firm Night, and the bigger firms in the Baltimore market participated: 1L students were assigned to a firm that hosted them. The firm talked to you about its practice areas, strengths and what it looks for in an associate. I went to another firm’s night and had an awful time, so I resolved I was not going to a BigLaw firm to practice. At the time, McGuireWoods was moving its Baltimore office, and its Firm Night got pushed back. The dean of career development stopped me in the hallway and said, “I know you went to a Firm Night and you did not have a good time, but there is another firm hosting its Firm Night, McGuireWoods. I want you to meet an alumnus for you.” The dean twisted my arm and I agreed to go because at least there would be wine and pizza. I had a great time. The McGuireWoods hiring partner said to me that night, “Why haven’t I seen your résumé?” And I said, “Because I didn’t submit it. I’m trying to move out of this work environment.” He said, “Just send me your résumé.” I interviewed and joined the summer associate class of 2000. I spent half my summer working with partner in labor and employment and the other half working with in corporate. I wanted to do corporate work, but I had an offer to clerk with Chief Judge Robert Bell on the Maryland Court of Appeals. Ernie Wilson, office managing partner at the time, called me and said the firm would hold a slot for me for the 2002 associate class. As an associate, I did general corporate work with Cecil, bond work with Alan What memory stands out about your time at McGuireWoods? The best professional advice I received was as a McGuireWoods summer associate: Do your best on the first thing you do for anybody. If you do your best from the beginning, when you eventually make a mistake — as we all do — the person you work for will understand it’s not your normal course of production. I give that advice to every junior person I speak to, in a law firm, in-house or in government. Your reputation comes with your first encounter. Give it your best. What led you to join Pairwise as general counsel and VP of corporate operations? I’ve been in food for the past 15 years, so when Pairwise reached out to me, there were a couple things at play. I thought it would be exciting to get into a tech company and a food-tech company felt like the right entry for me based on my experience. Living in Chicago, my family and I felt too far away, so we decided to move back to the East Coast. I grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts, and lived in Maryland for years. The stars aligned where it was an opportunity to stay in food but move into tech and come home. The energy of a startup like Pairwise is different than working for an established company. It worked out. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10 12 ONE McGUIREWOODS | SUMMER 20 22One of the things I like about being in-house is the engagement with the business. At Pairwise, I have a business role and a legal role. It allows me to stretch and grow as a professional, in an environment that is collegial, fast-paced and engaging, but with a bit of comfort. I oversee corporate operations, so my responsibilities cover human resources, IT, facilities, regulatory and compliance, food and safety — all of the back-office roles, except finance, report up to me. How is working for a startup different from other roles you’ve had? It’s like building the plane while it is flying. It is great fun if you like to problem-solve and be creative, because you are “solutioning” without relying on what somebody else created. Lawyers are like firefighters — we run toward the fire, not away from it. It is intriguing and engaging. There is never a day like the day before. Pairwise has an engaged and active executive team. Every day brings something new to learn and something new to ponder to devise commercially viable and legally permissible solutions in a space where the legal framework is still evolving. What do you value most about your time at McGuireWoods? The relationships. I may be struck by lightning for saying this, but lawyering is not hard if you have the tools. The real magic in your practice is the relationships you build. I still have strong relationships with people I worked with at McGuireWoods and with people who joined the firm after I left who took time to build relationships with me. I can call lawyers at multiple offices on any day of the week and ask for support, advice or guidance, whether it is in Charlottesville in Baltimore or Chairman in Richmond. For the past 20 years, those relationships have borne fruit — Pairwise pun intended — and they’re irreplaceable. What in your professional journey doesn’t show up on your LinkedIn page? I’ve always said “yes” when the easy answer was “no,” or said “no” when the easy answer was “yes,” whether it was leaving the firm, taking a position in a new area or understanding when a role wasn’t right for me. When people ponder career development, the easy way is not always the right way. You must be courageous and confident in yourself and the skills you developed. Each time I stepped off that bridge I was terrified, but the ground has met my feet and lifted me higher. “I may be struck by lightning for saying this, but lawyering is not hard if you have the tools. The real magic in your practice is the relationships you build.” — Wendy Webb Williams, general counsel and vice president of corporate operations, Pairwise ONE McGUIREWOODS | SUMMER 20 22 13of discrimination, harassment and sexual violence on campus. She would go on to serve in more senior roles at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University before coming back to McGuireWoods in November 2021, continuing a series of fortunate events that began with her career-defining decision to become an employment lawyer. “It was only because I was an employment lawyer that I had that opportunity,” she says. “It was such an interesting turn of events that I ended up in the labor and employment group — a group I didn’t even know existed — and it transformed the entire trajectory of my career in a positive way.” Chicago and were mentors who were instrumental in helping her develop the skills and perspective to excel, she says. “They gave me opportunities I never thought I would have as a junior lawyer and supported me personally and professionally,” she says. “I was taking Chicago Partner Returns to the Firm After Eight Years In-House at Universities THE EDUCATION OF SARAH WAKE When was a McGuireWoods summer associate in Chicago in 2006, her experience led her to think she was on her way to becoming an antitrust lawyer. associate program. Antitrust partner was Wake’s mentor. And was a peer in the summer associate program. But when Wake joined McGuireWoods following her graduation from Notre Dame Law School, the only litigation opening available was in the Labor & Employment Department. Despite never working on an L&E project as a summer associate or studying the topic in law school, she jumped at an opportunity she now calls “one of the biggest blessings in my life.” Seven years after she joined McGuireWoods as an associate, Wake returned to Notre Dame in 2013 to run an administrative unit that handles complaints FULL CIRCLE 14 ONE McGUIREWOODS | SUMMER 20 22plaintiffs’ depositions when I was a fourth-year associate. They were putting me in front of anchor clients at a very junior level so I could interface with these people, gain clients’ trust and learn about business development.” Spitz, former chair of a napkin that Wake carried with her to a pitch meeting with a potential client. Wake retained Spitz’s advice, framing the napkin as a reminder of his guidance. “The No. 1 piece of advice he wrote on the napkin was ‘be yourself,’ ” she says. “That, to me, is the trick.” Spitz says Wake also unfailingly heeds the second piece of advice he gave her: “Be kind.” SARAH WAKE “She is respectful and kind to everyone, regardless of their position,” Spitz says. Spitz says he’s not surprised Wake kept the memento because “she was always the kind of person who wanted to listen and would take advice to heart.” She did the same when senior partners encouraged her to accept Notre Dame’s offer to oversee the university’s Title IX and equal opportunity program. “For me to be able to use the skills I had developed as a lawyer to go to this place I really cared about and improve the climate there, that was probably the only thing I would have left McGuireWoods to do,” she said. “I remember when I was talking to the partners in Chicago about leaving, they said, ‘This is the mother ship calling you home. You should go do it.’ ” ONE McGUIREWOODS | SUMMER 20 22 15Wake was named director of Notre Dame’s Office for Institutional Equity and an adviser to the university’s vice president for research, a role that allowed her to interact daily with students, faculty and staff “to hear the problems people were having on campus and try to solve them.” “That was really energizing to me, to go into the community and have dialogue and do trainings and write policies,” she says. She moved on to become associate provost and director of equal opportunity programs at the University of Chicago in 2015, then spent nearly five years as associate general counsel at Northwestern University, where her responsibilities included advising senior leadership on matters such as Title IX compliance; discrimination, harassment and access; admissions; and athletics. The role gave her a deep understanding of the difficult issues and competing interests that in-house lawyers navigate on a daily basis, requiring more than “black and white” legal advice. “In-house attorneys are constantly juggling a variety of issues with a complex set of stakeholders they need to think about,” she says. “They have to recognize the needs of their business units, what drives their various stakeholders and the mission of their organization. Being in-house allowed me to see that you always want to tell people what the law is, but you want to be nimble and flexible enough to adjust to the realities of the people on the ground doing the work. That’s a perspective that I don’t think I would have had had I not been the person in the hot seat for eight years.” Wake says she had a “tremendous experience” at Northwestern and believed the perspective she gained from eight years in higher education “could have a big impact” if she returned to private practice. “I had run business units, supervised staff and been involved in a lot of different issues,” she says. “I felt like I could help schools minimize their legal exposure so they can maximize the work they’re doing on their missions. The research and innovation that colleges and universities do are second to none. You want to be sure as an institution that you are minimizing your potential legal liabilities so you can really focus on those things you care about.” Spitz says Wake’s experience in higher education broadened her skill set and “opened a whole new practice area” for her when she returned to McGuireWoods. But Wake says she also relished the opportunity to resume practicing “pure employment law.” “We have terrific clients across the firm but particularly in the labor and employment space,” she says. “They are wonderful to work with; they have interesting issues. It has been great to dive back in and see some of those familiar faces from eight years ago.” Adds Wake: “I picked McGuireWoods because when you look around and see how many other people have stayed here, and even how many people have left and come back, it tells a really compelling story about the firm.” FULL CIRCLE 16 ONE McGUIREWOODS | SUMMER 20 22Sarah Wake says she had a “tremendous experience” at Northwestern and believed the perspective she gained from eight years in higher education “could have a big impact” if she returned to private practice. ONE McGUIREWOODS | SUMMER 20 22 17UKR AINE RELIEF OPER ATIONS 18 ONE McGUIREWOODS | SUMMER 20 22Responding to a call from client Samaritan’s Purse on day one of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, McGuireWoods lawyers are going above and beyond to ensure needed medical supplies from the United States can make their way to medical and relief operations assisting Ukrainians. Christian international relief agencies, established an emergency field hospital in Ukraine and is helping run refugee relief operations in Poland, Moldova and Romania. On behalf of the organization, London partners Charlotte and helped secure European counsel in these countries to obtain approvals from the Polish government for certain imports of drugs and medical equipment. Poland serves as an operating base for the assistance operations to Ukraine, with overseas shipments stopping briefly in the country and then conveyed to locations where they can help the most. Meanwhile, DuBiner and Charlotte partner continue to work with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Food and Drug Administration to facilitate the export of controlled substances from the United States, through Poland, and then on to locations in and near Ukraine. Washington, D.C., partner is leveraging his experience and relationships at the DEA to gauge whether the agency would be willing to waive certain export requirements, given the emergency situation and critical need for these medical supplies. Many firm lawyers see the client’s humanitarian goals as aligned with McGuireWoods’ core values, DuBiner says, so they are reaching out on a mostly pro bono basis to their personal networks and previous professional contacts to aid the cause. In the face of supply chain disruptions, for example, some are leveraging considerable personal capital within the life sciences industry to broker avenues for expedited pharmaceutical acquisitions and help Samaritan’s Purse procure medicine and devices at affordable rates to be sent to Ukraine. From left: Matthew Hall, Mebs Dossa, Brian Barger, Stephanie Briggs Evans, Royce DuBiner, Kate Hardey and John Moran ONE McGUIREWOODS | SUMMER 20 22 19Next >