Meet Alum Jess Morrison, Chief Regulatory Coordinating Counsel and Associate GC With KPMG ALSO INSIDE From the Chair Journeys Full Circle New & Now Career Moves A Story of Us Remembering Serendipity and Smarts McGUIREWOODSSummer 2021 • Vol 3 Issue 1SUMME R 20 21 IN THIS IS SUE Looking Back, Looking Forward Meet Our Amazing Alumni • KPMG’s Jess Morrison • Carnegie Mellon’s Jamie Edwards-Pasek • The William Warren Group’s Jen Om Why He’s Back: Bernie McNamee The Latest News From McGuireWoods 50 Here’s Where Our Alums Landed Unlikely Champion of Equity: Judge James B. McMillan • Michael T. Bradshaw • Boyd C. Campbell Jr. • John J. Woloszyn • Thomas F. Farrell II McGUIREWOODS Colleen B. McGushin, Editor Mary Shadler Clark, Graphic Designer Contributors: Ioanna Athanasopoulos, John Bologna, Art Brewer, Andrew Gnerre, Jonathan Harmon, Amy Krynak, Brad Kutrow, Colleen McGushin, Mike Sluss, Natale Stenzel For questions about One McGuireWoods, email alumni@mcguirewoods.com. To subscribe to McGuireWoods news, alerts and publications, click 2 ONE McGUIREWOODS | Summer 2021ONE McGUIREWOODS | Summer 2021 3 We See the Horizon There is a palpable sense of relief across the country as things slowly and cautiously begin to open once again. While there is a long way to go, we see glimmers of hope — vaccines are widely available and many of us look forward to the day we can meet colleagues, friends and clients in person again. Lawyers and professionals in McGuireWoods’ Charlotte office were proud to volunteer at client Novant Health’s recent COVID-19 vaccination clinic. On May 12, about 40 volunteers from the firm, as well as friends, family and alumni, showed up to greet people as they arrived, clean and sanitize vaccine stations, and assist with paperwork. It was a spectacular event that helped more than 1,000 people in the community receive the vaccine. While plans are underway for McGuireWoods alumni events later this year, we’ve connected with you in a number of innovative ways over the past year. For example, the firm’s successful Leaders in Color webcast series will soon mark its first anniversary. Thirty lawyers at top companies such as Dominion Energy, Capital One and KPMG have participated as panelists, sharing their insights on inclusion, leadership and racial justice issues; how they guide their organizations during challenging times; and the steps they take to mentor the next generation of leaders, particularly lawyers of color, women and LGBTQ+ counsel. We invite our alumni to attend the next Leaders in Color webcast in Later in 2021, the firm will launch an interactive directory so McGuireWoods alumni can connect with one another, update their contact information, and stay current on firm news and events. I hope you enjoy this issue of the One McGuireWoods magazine. Stay safe and have a wonderful summer. JONATHAN HARMON CHAIRMAN McGUIREWOODS FROM THE CHAIR4 ONE McGUIREWOODS | Summer 2021 JOURNEY Jess Morrison’s entrée into the legal world was — in a word — unexpected. After graduating from Washington College with a philosophy degree, Morrison wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. She loved to read, write and debate and thought law school might be a good fit, but real-life work experience beckoned. “I went to a temp agency for an assignment and they connected me with Georgetown Law to help with the on-campus interview program. This was 1995, when everything was manual, students actually filled out Scantrons to bid on employers and there was a giant room that warehoused résumés. I was among an army of temps the school hired and I loved it,” Morrison says. She worked her way up from temp to full-time secretary to career counselor and manager of the on-campus interview program. On the job by day, she took on night school, earning her law degree from Georgetown in 2001. “I would work upstairs all day, then go downstairs to class at 5 p.m. It was a great experience,” Morrison says. Serendipity and Smarts A Discussion With KPMG’s Jess MorrisonONE McGUIREWOODS | Summer 2021 5 JOURNEY SJess Morrison with sons Hunter (left) and Mikey ONE McGUIREWOODS | Summer 2021 56 ONE McGUIREWOODS | Summer 2021 How did you come to join McGuireWoods and what did you do at the firm? While attending night school at Georgetown Law, I also ran its on-campus interview program, so I interacted with hundreds of firms. When interviewers came on campus to meet with students, I quickly identified the firms I didn’t want to work for. McGuireWoods was one that, from a recruiting perspective, I liked what I saw. It seemed like a high-caliber firm with big cases, complex matters and great clients, but with a better focus on work-life balance, flexibility, treating people like people — not “we need 50 summer associates to fill this class,” but “we want to actually know who you are and whether you’ll be happy here.” The firm didn’t have huge summer associate or new associate classes, but it did give people substantive experience early on and that attracted me. I interviewed, got the job and that was my experience from the beginning. I took depositions, went to court in my first few years and started working with big clients. Partner put me front and center with KPMG, long before I was a partner. That promise to do real work right away was true. You were a summer associate at McGuireWoods and later an associate and partner. Is there one memory that stands out during your time at the firm? and I had a bench trial in Baltimore. I was a young lawyer and Jonathan was mentoring and teaching me. In discovery, the plaintiff had not produced documents we knew had to exist. I was cross-examining a witness and when I asked her where those documents were and why they weren’t produced, she said they were destroyed. I asked her how she knew they were destroyed, and she said she saw a big truck pull up and shred them. I looked at Jonathan, and he’s like, “Go get ’em tiger.” It was an amazing moment that happens on TV all the time but rarely happens in real life. The judge called us up to the bench and plaintiff’s counsel quickly agreed to a walkaway. It was fun, totally serendipitous and lucky. Our client’s general counsel was in the courtroom watching that day, which made it even better. He told me I had great instincts and courtroom presence and should have the firm send me to a weeklong trial advocacy program, which the firm willingly did. McGuireWoods recently spoke to Morrison — a former Washington, D.C., partner who now serves as client KPMG’s chief regulatory coordinating counsel and associate general counsel — about her career path, her time at the firm and how a creative solution kept her from leaving the law altogether.ONE McGUIREWOODS | Summer 2021 7 What factored into your decision to go in-house after 15 years at McGuireWoods and what was the transition like? KPMG was a firm client whose matters I worked on for a decade before I joined the company. I did challenging, meaningful work and got to know the in-house lawyers and audit teams, who are terrific people. We represented KPMG and its auditors and handled SEC and PCAOB investigations and securities class actions. I hadn’t thought about leaving McGuireWoods because the people were great and the work was interesting. But when the KPMG opportunity came up, I knew it would be a good fit for me. So I went for it. “When I was at McGuireWoods, its flexibility and outside-the-box thinking were key reasons I thrived as a young mother in the legal profession.” — Jess Morrison, chief regulatory coordinating counsel and associate GC, KPMG LLP8 ONE McGUIREWOODS | Summer 2021 What is a typical day like at KPMG? There isn’t a typical day, which is why I love it. The work changes all the time. I’m on the litigation team, so I work on a lot of SEC, PCAOB and state boards of accountancy matters as well as securities class actions and other types of litigation. I routinely counsel the business functions, which span audit, tax, advisory, as well as our internal business processing group. It’s a wonderful mix of activities that tap into my skills and experiences. It’s fresh, interesting and keeps me on my toes. I’m always learning more about the business, communications and strategy; how to get out in front of a percolating legal issue and help the business navigate; and how to efficiently inform and advise extremely busy senior leaders of the firm. It’s an added dimension to the legal work I did at McGuireWoods. How has the job changed since the pandemic? KPMG closed its offices in March 2020. There are limited exceptions where people go in with permission, but I have worked from my house for over a year and it has been terrific. I miss interacting with my colleagues, but I definitely don’t miss the commute. Most of the Office of General Counsel sits in New York, so I was traveling there a lot pre-pandemic. It’s amazing how seamlessly I can do my job from home. We use video meetings for internal meetings and witness preparation, as well as testimony and presentations to regulators. I am actually getting to know my colleagues and the engagement teams we represent better because the initial outreach is a video call and you’re immediately in somebody’s house. You see their kids run in and out. We bond over the family interruptions we are all dealing with as we work from home. I am a single mother of two teenage sons, who have been at home most of the past year and need a lot of coaching and prompting to stay engaged in class all day. My eighth grader just went back to school in person for the first time in over a year. At home I can check on them and make sure they’re engaged, but still do my job well. It has been a weird year for all of us, a hard year, but on the work front I am incredibly grateful to be at home and for KPMG’s support. I don’t know that we will ever go back to being in the office like we were before. A lot of employers are wrestling with this question. It’s going to be an interesting time when we re-enter the world.ONE McGUIREWOODS | Summer 2021 9 How can law firms best help your company during the pandemic? The answer is evolving. Be nimble, be flexible, think outside the box. Make us feel supported. My best relationships with outside counsel are with the ones who check in periodically to just see how I’m doing and whether they can help with anything. When I was a young law firm lawyer trying to cultivate relationships with clients, I sometimes felt like that kind of outreach might be perceived as obsequious or annoying, but it’s not. Everyone likes to be checked on, particularly during a pandemic. It’s valuable and makes you feel like this isn’t just about the work. “How’s it going? How are the kids? Are they driving you crazy?” As clients, we’re no different. We’re all human. What advice would you give lawyers considering going in-house? Understand the culture and the business. Determine whether you are genuinely interested in the business component. It’s a vital part of what we do in-house — strategizing with leaders and thinking about the impact of legal issues on the business and our employees’ morale. The best part of my job is strategizing with smart people on how to solve difficult problems. It’s stimulating and when you help the firm avoid a crisis or reduce the fallout, it’s tremendously rewarding. It’s a privilege that I strategize with the highest levels of our firm to navigate these issues to try to get us to the best place. Every day I work on building relationships and trust. How can law firms and companies work together to foster diversity and inclusion in the legal industry? KPMG leads the pack on diversity and inclusion and it’s important at the highest levels. Our Accelerate 2025 initiative, started by our chairman and CEO on his first day, specifically tackles one dimension of our diversity, equity and inclusion agenda, making sure people from under-represented groups choose KPMG as their employer of choice, build careers, and stay and advance to leadership positions. Making people feel included and providing the training and support they need to stay is vital. I’m proud to be part of a firm that has bold and targeted initiatives to make that happen. Next >