Claudette Orlando (Corporate Finance, 2017-2019), senior commercial counsel at Via Transportation, Inc. practiced in the firm’s Corporate Department. Claudette received her bachelor’s degree from Vassar College and her J.D. from Columbia Law School.

What is the most interesting aspect of your day-to-day as senior commercial counsel at Via Transportation?

Because we are still expanding, various non-legal team members have innovative ideas that require new legal analysis and advice. I love that most of my day-to-day I’m interacting with non-legal colleagues and assisting them in meeting their goals. The role is a great blend of business and legal.

What traits would you say make a good commercial counsel?

1. Flexibility: By nature, as lawyers, we are risk averse, but we need to be able to investigate that first gut instinct and process it through to actual potential risk before we give advice that may be overly conservative and not aligned with practical reality.
2. Curiosity: It’s important to fully understand the business and its goals down to the sales associate who is requesting legal advice on a particular matter. I believe that elevates the level of support a commercial counsel can provide.

What advice would you give to a lawyer who wants to work in the TransitTech industry?

Be enterprising. Working at a law firm provides you with the tools that you need to work in a variety of industries, even if your work has not been tech- or startup-focused. Therefore, make sure that while you are working on these time-consuming matters you are taking the time to hone skills that increase your ability to understand a business, manage risk allocation and become comfortable working with the unknown. Make sure that when you have some breathing room work-wise, you debrief with the partner or senior associate to ensure you understand the reasoning behind processes and legal boilerplate, and glean any insights they have about a particular client, especially if you have worked with them for some time. Once you go in-house in the startup or tech space, you may not have any processes or precedent to rely on; being able to show in an interview that you can quickly get it will be invaluable.