Voice of Experience: Lucy Reed, Global Co-Head of International Arbitration Group, Freshfields

By Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)Reed_Lucy[1]

“It is not the amount of money that affects how hard I work. I worked as hard when I was a GS-7 law clerk as I do now as a highly paid law firm partner. The most important thing for me is that I have a varied practice and a varied career. I’m always looking for new challenges, which is why I like international arbitration— each case involves a different sector, different expert, different issues,” said Lucy Reed, the global co-head of the International Arbitration Group at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP.

Reed started her career clerking for a federal trial judge in D.C. who had a number of international cases, including a 9-month criminal trial of the first defendants accused of the assassination of former Ambassador Orlando Letelier ordered by Augusto Pinochet. She then went into a D.C. law firm that had arbitration cases before the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal set up in The Hague after the Iranian Revolution. Read more

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Risk, Rhyme and Success: A Conversation with Sallie Krawcheck

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By Natalie Sabia (New York City)Wall Street

As part of the 2009 Henry Kaufman Financial History & Practices Lecture/Symposia Series, the Museum of American Finance recently held “A Conversation with Sallie Krawcheck.” In front of an audience, Fortune senior editor-at-large, Carol Loomis, caught up with Ms. Krawcheck to discuss the current economy and her new position with Bank of America as Head of Global Wealth and Investment Management.

“We thought that Sallie would be an exciting addition to our Lecture Series,” said Jeanne Baker Driscoll, Director of Development at the Museum of American Finance. “She is a big part of our Women of Wall Street Exhibit, so this was a very timely discussion.”

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Ask-A-Career Coach: Don’t Tell Me About Yourself

jobsearchContributed by Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStart™

What do recruiters expect you to cover when they ask you, “Tell me about yourself?”

When recruiters ask the popular question, “Tell me about yourself,” they don’t really want you to tell them about yourself.  Recruiters don’t care to know where you’re born or why you selected that college or how you got your first and subsequent jobs.  They may ask and nod appropriately but they don’t really want to know.
Instead, they only want to know about you in relation to them.  If where you grew up means that you have an affinity to a geography that’s pertinent to an open position or their searches in general, then they care where you grew up.  If your first job is a direct parallel to a role they may have for you, then they want to hear about that.  The items of interest aren’t about you, but rather the link between you and the position.  Therefore, your primary objective isn’t to talk about yourself but rather to make that link between you and the position.

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The Top Family-Friendly Employers

By Elizabeth Harrin (London)iStock_000006039696XSmall

If you are in the market for a new job, and want to make sure that your next employer is family friendly, you’ll want to check out Working Families’ list of top employers.

U.K. work-life balance charity Working Families has launched an inaugural list of the best of the best family-friendly employers. The list recognises employers whose policies and practices have created working environments that are both flexible and great places to work. The 20 organisations have shown track-records and leadership in the areas of flexible working, childcare provision, maternity/paternity policies and eldercare policies.

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35 Under 35: Caroline Doran, Partner, Sprecher Grier Halberstam LLP

caroline-d_big[1]by Elizabeth Harrin (London)

“Anyone who sees employment law as “touchy feely” probably hasn’t had a HR problem,” says Caroline Doran, partner at London law firm Sprecher Grier Halberstam LLP. “HR problems need a lawyer who can be commercial simultaneously as dealing with understandably emotional clients who may be stressed about paying mortgages, school fees or, if a company, protecting the business and profits.”

And on top of that, the work changes with the economic climate – something employment lawyers have to keep up to date with and plan accordingly. “In the past few months we have seen a disturbing trend,” says Doran, “although thankfully the redundancies have slowed. Many employees are reporting that work ethics have deteriorated. A high flying executive in a London bank commented that it was as if she had been transported back 40 years in terms of the behaviour of the management and what was deemed acceptable. In her opinion, some appear to have the attitude that people are ‘lucky’ to have a job in this climate and will simply have to put up with boorish behaviour.”

Doran, who specialises in both contentious and non-contentious employment issues, is pragmatic about how the difficult economy is affecting those working with less-than-perfect management. She believes that there is an element of truth in the attitude that people have to keep their heads down and ignore work ethics that would have been unacceptable not that long ago. “Only the bravest or those who cannot face another day of mistreatment will jump ship in this economic climate,” she explains. “However, we expect a glut of claims in coming months and years using the current pattern of behaviour as evidence of mistreatment or discrimination.”

It’s something that Doran is well prepared for – she’s never wanted to be anything except an employment lawyer, after her original dream to be part of the Cagney and Lacey team faded. “My school work experience programme sent me to the Employment Tribunal which gave me an insight into the cut and thrust of employment issues for businesses and staff,” she says. “I saw first-hand the passion this issue was fought by both sides and the commercial impact of the decisions. I knew then that I was going to be an employment lawyer.”

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In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-up

Contributed by Martin Mitchell of the Corporate Training Group.Martin Mitchel of CTG

The proposed sale of General Motors’ Opel business to Magna International and Sberbank has suffered a setback. US banks Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan all reported third quarter results. CEO of Lazard and ‘father of modern M&A’ Bruce Wasserstein died aged 61. These are but a few highlights of important market events that we’ve gathered to help you start the week well informed.

Economic Backdrop

  • US Federal Reserve minutes showed that the Fed is still cautious on growth. Despite positive factors such as rising activity in the housing market and stabilising consumer spending, the ‘economic recovery is likely to be quite restrained’.

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On Your Bookshelf: Encore – Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life

By Andrea Newell (Grand Rapids, MI)

Books

“The first of 77 million baby boomers turned 60 in 2006, and every day, another 8,000 join them.” A large portion of the American workforce is reaching a stage of life where society considers them to be too old to work, yet lengthening lifespans make them too young to retire. They are simultaneously encouraged (or forced) to leave their midlife careers to make way for younger workers, while discouraged from drawing benefits by increasing Social Security age minimums and unable to go without income because of plummeting 401k values. Many take “bridge jobs” – retail positions with Walmart or Home Depot to span the years until they can retire completely. “Joseph Quinn, professor of economics at Boston College, estimates that as many as one-third to one-half of older Americans hold some kind of bridge job before retiring completely. Retirement, he observes, has become ‘a process, not a single event.’”

Marc Freedman, CEO of Civic Ventures, believes that while bridge jobs benefit both employers and employees, they shouldn’t be the only choice for “the largest, healthiest, best-educated population of Americans ever to move through and beyond their fifties.” As the author of Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life, he outlines several compelling arguments for why 50+ knowledge workers should work longer (if they are able) and have an encore career – and how, as a society, we can only reap the benefits of boomers and future generations working longer and happier.

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A New Bright Line: The 6th Annual Businesswomen’s Sustainability Leadership Summit

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

iStock_000009708883XSmall

In 1972, we got our first real glimpse of what the Earth looked like from outer space with the iconic “Blue Marble” photograph taken by astronauts aboard the Apollo 17 spacecraft. But as Kathy Robb, Partner at Hunton and Williams and Chair of the Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future (WNSF) explained, it wasn’t just a pretty picture— it represented much more.

“This perspective, never before possible, dramatically affected our appreciation of the natural environment,” she said. Today’s view of sustainability “may well be another bright line,” she continued.

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Voice of Experience: Carla Brooks, Managing Director at Commerce Street Capital

By Elizabeth Harrin (London)Carla Brooks

“I come from a family of bankers so it must be somewhat ingrained,” says Carla Brooks, managing director at Commerce Street Capital. But it’s more than just growing up with the knowledge a career in finance meant. Brooks excelled in math during her school years and took this interest and skill with her to further education. “My college undergraduate thesis was titled ‘Bank Holding Companies: Their Growth and Future,’” she says. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Brooks has ended up in such a senior role in fund management.

“I joined the team at Dallas-based Commerce Street Capital LLC and its predecessor firm in 2002,” Brooks explains. Since then, she has put her three decades of experience analyzing financial institutions to good use. Having built a successful career in bank regulation and oversight, Brooks was in a unique position to help create private equity funds to invest in banks at Commerce Street Capital. “Private equity’s involvement with banks is relatively a young concept,” she adds.

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Sandra Pianalto, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Speaks on the Current Economic Crisis and the Coming Recovery

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By Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)iStock_000003731985XSmall

Economic recovery is likely to be “gradual and bumpy” according to Sandra Pianalto, the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. In her remarks to a packed house at the Market News International event on October 1st in New York City, she shared her thoughts on both the current economic conditions and the potential challenges on the road to recovery.

The Economy Was in Critical Condition

“My colleague Janet Yellen, president of the Federal Reserve bank of San Francisco, compared the economy to a hospital patient who was in the intensive care unit and only gradually stabilizing,” said Pianalto, adding that she believes that the economy was in “critical condition.” As evidence, she pointed out that the current recession has already lasted nearly seven quarters, almost four times as long as a typical two-quarter recession. “Even with today’s encouraging signs,” said Pianalto, “we have a lot of ground to make up before we even get back to the levels of output seen in 2007.”

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