Kate Moor (Litigation, 2007-2015), senior counsel, Global Product Development and Vehicle Safety at General Motors, practiced in the firm’s Litigation Department. Kate received her B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University and her J.D. from Boston College Law School.
1. What are the most rewarding and challenging aspects of your role as a senior counsel at General Motors?
One of the most rewarding aspects of being in-house counsel is that you have the opportunity to become an expert in your client’s business, and that expertise translates into your becoming a valuable advisor. I loved my work at Paul, Weiss and the excitement of taking on a new case for a new client. As outside counsel, I regularly had opportunities to learn about a whole new business or even a new industry via whatever litigation I became involved in. But going in-house means you can focus your energy and efforts towards delving deeper into one client’s business and really understanding its challenges across different areas. Even though I started at GM by managing a portion of its product liability docket, I was exposed to corporate risk management concerns, public policy challenges, future product development inquiries and regulatory implications for the business. And, over time, the type of exposure in-house lawyers have to a vast array of issues puts us in the unique position of having a wider perspective about the ramifications of decisions made in one space on other parts of the business. That type of advice and counsel is incredibly valuable to the client.
In addition, showing your willingness to “dig in” and learn the business leads to expanding career opportunities. Since 2020, I’ve moved from focusing on litigation to advising GM on internal safety investigations and their relationship with regulators, as well as advising the global product development team on potential regulatory challenges as they design future vehicles. My current portfolio allows me to partner with GM in entirely new ways, and it’s been both challenging and rewarding to help support them in designing the cars of the future!
2. What attracted you to join GM’s legal team, and how did your background prepare you for the unique legal challenges of working in the automotive industry?
After a wonderful career at Paul, Weiss, I decided it was time to return to the Midwest (I’m originally from Ohio) to raise my young family. I was working with a headhunter and mainly pursuing jobs in the pharmaceutical industry, given my work with many leading pharmaceutical companies while at the firm. But the headhunter suggested I might be a perfect fit for an open position at GM. My perspective was that I was never going to turn down the opportunity to interview, particularly with such an iconic company. I was also intrigued because GM had just chosen Mary Barra to be its first woman CEO, and I knew part of her mandate was to challenge the company to grow in new ways after the Great Recession.
GM was a fit for me in terms of the people, the ethos of the legal staff and the fact that it was one of the few companies I interviewed with that expected its in-house litigators to be expert litigators and case managers. I knew absolutely nothing about the auto industry, and I’m sure some of my engineering clients were scratching their heads wondering why their new lawyer didn’t know some of the most foundational issues about designing and manufacturing vehicles. But I think I was able to prove to them that I was committed to learning and that I had in my tool box the excellent litigation skills I had learned at Paul, Weiss, so that they knew to trust my legal counsel.
3. What advice would you give a junior lawyer who wants to be an in-house lawyer?
The most important advice I would share is to take advantage of the opportunities, whether formal or informal, Paul, Weiss gives you to interact with clients. Understanding the dynamics of in-house work makes you not only a better partner as outside counsel, but also gives you a better sense of the challenges and rewards of working in-house. If you’re lucky, you will be able to build relationships with clients that can mentor you or help provide guidance should you choose to make the leap to in-house.
Also, keep an open mind. I’ve now been with GM almost 10 years, but if you had asked me six months before I interviewed here whether I would have taken a job within the auto industry in Michigan, I would have said that was a crazy question. Now, it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made and has led to a very rewarding second chapter of my career.