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Q&A with Prosperity Bank GC Charlotte Rasche
The Texas Lawbook provides unique and substantive content to our Premium subscribers. In this exclusive interview, Prosperity Bank General Counsel Charlotte Rasche provides insight what she looks for when hiring outside counsel, key things that outside counsel need to know about her, how the role of the GC has changed and the need for more diversity in the legal profession.
To see Mark Curriden’s full feature profile of Charlotte Rasche, go here.
The Texas Lawbook: What do you look for in hiring outside counsel? Do you have specific criteria?
Charlotte Rasche: There are a number of things, but one of the most important criteria is hiring someone who I think we can build a lasting relationship with. When I was outside counsel, the more deals I did for a client and the more I learned about the client’s business, strategy and focus, the more effective I was. Additionally, I believe the personality fit with the team you work with is key. We work hard, but we want to have fun doing it.
I look for someone who understands our business or is willing to invest the time to learn it quickly. Being highly regulated and publicly traded with 275 banking center locations has its challenges. I also expect responsiveness, dependability, competency, trust, creativity and the willingness to go the extra mile.
Our in-house legal team is pulled in a number of directions with the various clients we serve. Our outside counsel needs to be an extension of our internal team by supporting our efforts and not creating additional work or questions.
The Texas Lawbook: What does outside counsel need to know about you?
Charlotte Rasche: That I am fair and transparent but have high expectations. Any legal work done by outside counsel is a reflection of our company and our department. We have a strong legal team who works very hard, and we expect the same from our outside counsel. For litigation counsel, most already know this, but I do get impatient with lawsuits. This is an understatement, but deals happen much quicker than lawsuit resolution, and I struggle with that.
The Texas Lawbook: Have your duties and responsibilities increased as GC?
Charlotte Rasche: They have. In addition to my role with the legal department, I also supervise the company’s compliance and bank secrecy functions and the internal audit department. As a member of the executive committee, I am involved in many companywide issues and endeavors. Having a global perspective has been helpful in fulfilling the various roles that I have at the company.
The Texas Lawbook: The Texas Lawbook has published dozens of articles over the past eight years about the lack of diversity in the legal profession. Despite all the efforts, the numbers seem to barely move. Why is that? Are there actual solutions to improve diversity within corporate law firms and in-house legal departments?
Charlotte Rasche: That is a hard question. I think it starts with law firms and larger corporate legal departments that recruit directly from law schools. Based on my knowledge, many in-house legal departments recruit directly from the law firms they work with when possible. That has been the case with Prosperity. So having diversity in the firms should serve to improve diversity for in-house legal departments. Increasing diversity at the firms however has been challenging. I recall that it was a focus at Bracewell during my years there, and I know that it continues to be.
I know there have been and are programs to mentor law school students and mentor and engage young and midlevel attorneys, but I think the fostering of natural mentors and teaching associates and partners what mentorship truly means and looks like is important.