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From the day the Center for Disease Control issued its initial coronavirus warning for U.S. hospitals, Methodist Health System need to lean on its youngest vice president. Ashley Yen and her legal team responded, answering and engaging the plethora of legal issues and regulatory procedures vital to dealing with a global pandemic.
Mark Curriden, founder of The Texas Lawbook, had the opportunity to discuss those challenges and a variety of other issues in a special Q&A.
She speaks about the best days in her young career, the legal profession in general and her observations on the need for diversity in outside counsel.
To read Mark Curriden’s full feature profile of Ashley Yen Click Here.
Texas Lawbook: How did you choose outside counsel for your matters? What were the biggest factors?
Ashley Yen: We deeply value and rely heavily on our outside counsel to assist us with matters. Our outside counsel was chosen because they are not only incredibly knowledgeable about healthcare law, but more specifically knowledgeable about our business. Most of our outside counsel has been our outside counsel for many decades.
Texas Lawbook: What has been your best day working at MHS?
Yen: When the vaccines were finally rolled out.
Texas Lawbook: How has the Covid-19 pandemic impacted MHS and your role in the legal department?
Yen: Our job as in-house counsel is to advise business units, and our business units are those front-line workers dealing day in-day out with the Covid-19 pandemic. We were consistently on call to answer legal questions about unprecedented emergency scenarios and/or how to ensure newly created Covid-19 specific processes were created appropriately – especially as it related to end-of-life care issues. At a time when I think most people wanted to help with the pandemic but didn’t know how to help or couldn’t help, it felt incredibly rewarding to be able to assist our hardworking front-line workers – even if it was just from a legal perspective.
Texas Lawbook: How important is diversity in your selection of outside counsel?
Yen: Incredibly important. It is imperative that in-house counsel request, require and source more diverse outside counsel. I have previously specifically requested female outside counsel on certain projects. Once requests like these are made, the impact of that request trickles down from there internally within a firm.
Texas Lawbook: Are you involved in any pro bono/public service matters?
Yen: Ever since high school, my main volunteering passion has always been Habitat for Humanity builds. I always love seeing the direct and immediate impact that builds have on the family’s lives who are receiving the homes. With Covid, I have not been able to attend builds. However, to still fuel my passion for public service matters, I joined the Dallas Asian American Bar Association Community Service committee, which held successful Covid-safe volunteering events. During our most recent event, we were able to virtually fundraise and donate over 850 pounds of food to a local food pantry as well as host a Halloween trick-or-treat drive by event.
Texas Lawbook: Why is mentoring so important to you?
Yen: In the same way that I was mentored and continue to be mentored, I have seen the direct benefits of how important it is to give back. In the legal profession, it’s easy to just work and work and work some more. But after we finish work, what comes after? Just more work. Lawyers are high-achieving and high-functioning individuals who grind day in-day out on their assigned tasks, so having a mentor to talk through those difficult times is really invaluable professionally and mentally. As a mentor, it is an incredibly rewarding feeling to not only see a mentee flourish and develop into a phenomenal attorney, but also see that mentee begin mentoring their own mentees. It creates this cycle of giving back that is really needed in this tough and draining legal profession.
Texas Lawbook: Have you had any life-changing experiences?
Yen: Is it too cliché to say life has been and continues to be a life-changing experience for me? I don’t think I have any “life-changing” flashbulb moments that stand out, but I do feel like every step of my journey thus far has molded me in a specific way. Being at Rice taught me to pursue my passions. Going to law school taught me how to be proud of my Asian American identity. This pandemic has taught me how persevering and resilient humans can be. Even as recently as February 2021, the Texas Snowmageddon taught me how much I take things for granted and the importance of humans coming together – especially in a world where we seem to have become more and more divided.