Washington, D.C. Office Managing Partner David Sanders Offers Insights for Aspiring General Counsel
Foley’s clients entrust our firm to look beyond the law to deliver holistic business solutions for their most challenging problems. Doing this successfully requires that we approach our work through the client lens with a focus on the trends, risks, and opportunities they face.
David Sanders, a corporate partner at Foley, recently participated in a panel with members of The Vanguard Network’s General Counsels Advisory Group to discuss lessons learned from Vanguard’s Next Gen GC Program. The Vanguard Network supports senior executives as they build high-performance organizations.
Two themes emerged from the GC panelists for this program, Sanders said. The first is that they view the world with a people first, mission first perspective. “Legal terms come up well down the list.” While it’s legal matters that are bringing us all together, it’s first and foremost about “really understanding how to help businesses grow, thrive, and limit risk.” The second is the need to have that judgment when making tough decisions.
“You don’t want to be viewed as the person always saying no. But at the same time, you don’t want to be too risky. So how do you gain the experience to figure out how to correctly calibrate that?”
Sanders serves as managing partner of the firm’s Washington, D.C. office and vice-chair of the firm’s Business Law Department. He is a member of the firm’s Commercial Transactions & Business Counseling, Private Equity & Venture Capital, and Real Estate Practices, as well as the Sports and Medical Devices Industry Teams and the Innovative Technology and Health Care & Life Sciences sectors. He is the former co-chair of the Transactions and Securities practice groups.
Watch David’s full discussion with Vanguard General Counsels Advisory Group members Greg Baker, General Counsel, Giant Eagle Inc., and Alfreda Bradley-Coar, EVP, Chief Legal and People Officer, Obama Foundation:
