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Since joining the City Electric Supply legal team in November 2021, Clinton Willett has “successfully risen from a driven new attorney to the ‘go-to’ finance, corporate structure and IP counsel for the C-suite and other top business leaders of our multibillion-dollar company,” according to City Electric Supply Chief Legal Officer Meg Shockley.
Some of Willett’s biggest accomplishments during the past two years at City Electric Supply include:
- Implementing a company-wide contract lifecycle management platform;
- Securing a registered trademark for City Electric Supply’s primary logo;
- Bringing all corporate finance work in-house; and
- Establishing a robust extern program through SMU law school.
The Lawbook visited with the 2023 DFW Corporate Counsel Rookie of the Year finalist and UNT Dallas College of Law alumnus about law school recruiting and what outside counsel should know about him.
Texas Lawbook: What are the biggest challenges facing corporate legal departments and law firms for accomplishing DEI objectives in today’s legal and political environments?
Clinton Willett: School-based recruiting. Many or most law firms and, by proxy, corporate legal departments, unnecessarily limit themselves to a few select “good” law schools. This invariably excludes strong candidates from differing backgrounds from being considered. Is a top 50 percent candidate from Yale/Harvard/Stanford really better than a top five percent candidate from a local no-name law school? The ones I have met lead me to believe otherwise.
Lawbook: What are the factors you consider when deciding about hiring outside counsel?
Willett: Service-mindedness, expertise, reputation, price and overall effort to learn about CES’s preferences.
Lawbook: What does outside counsel need to know about you?
Willett: Inside counsel are just as capable as outside counsel. The process should be collaborative and client-minded. I also expect all of our outside counsel to have done some legwork to learn about our business and view the matter we are working on together in the context of the larger picture. As primarily singularly focused, many outside counsel fail to appreciate context.
Click here for the full profile of Clinton Willett