Christallyn Williams
Christallyn Williams was a junior in high school when she learned that a teacher planned for her class to stage a slavery reenactment.
“She assigned the students the roles of slaves and masters and planned to have the slaves get under desks and in paper chains,” recalls Williams, who was frequently the only African-American student in otherwise all-white classrooms while she was growing up. “Some students were laughing and joking and saying to others that they were their masters.”
“There were literally no words,” she says.
Sixteen years old at the time, Williams went to the school principal to explain why this exercise was incredibly offensive and why it should not happen. The principal and the teacher agreed and killed the exercise.
But they wanted a favor from Williams.
“They requested that I be pulled from my classes all day to explain to each of her classes why they were not doing the exercise and be available to answer any questions,” she says. “The experience of having to explain how deeply painful and inappropriate this was and also answer questions from classmates who had much different views than my own was empowering and transformational.”
Two decades later, Williams is senior corporate counsel for labor and employment law at MilliporeSigma, a multibillion-dollar global life-sciences company, where she successfully manages a caseload of about 50 matters and advises business-side leaders on a variety of legal issues.
For Premium Subscribers: Click Here for a special Q&A with Christallyn Williams on challenges facing in-house counsel, her pet peeves about outside counsel and what lawyers need to know about her if they want her business.
But company leaders and legal-industry insiders say Williams has quietly been one of the most successful lawyers in Texas in pursuing diversity and inclusion in the profession. She co-founded an affinity group for Black workers, actively serves on her company’s committee to promote diversity among its leadership and aggressively pursues diversity among the corporation’s outside vendors, especially law firms.
“Christallyn has a long-standing commitment to diversity and inclusion,” says Pattern Energy senior counsel Lauren Haller. “Christallyn spent her childhood in predominately white environments and believes her passion for educating those around her, while striving to maintain an authentic sense of self, began there.”
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Williams as a finalist for the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion.
The ACC Houston and The Lawbook are hosting the annual Houston Corporate Counsel awards event Jan. 13 at the Four Seasons in downtown Houston.
Lawyers say Williams’ practical approach to the law sets her apart from many lawyers.
“No matter how complicated a legal matter may be, Christallyn always has the ability to focus on the points that will drive her client’s decisions and to build a strategy around those critical aspects of the legal issue being addressed,” says Armstrong Teasdale partner Travis R. Kearbey. “This skill equips Christallyn with the ability to liaise between outside counsel and her business colleagues at a level of efficiency that few in-house attorneys ever achieve.”
Although the legal profession is doing more to address diversity, equity and inclusion [DEI], Williams says, the numbers of ethnic minorities in corporate law remains pathetically low.
“I’ll be honest and say that although I think people are more aware of the importance of diversity in the legal profession, I am disappointed that we have not drastically moved the needle on representation and still do not reflect the diversity of the population,” she says. “I would like to see this change the most in large law firms because I think they are one of the best opportunities to train and get a foundation as a junior lawyer.”
‘Only Black person in my classes’
Williams was born in Houston at Hermann Hospital, which is where both her parents also were born. The youngest of three girls, she grew up in the northwest Houston suburbs.
Her mother mostly stayed home with the children until Williams entered the sixth grade. Then she worked for Communities in Schools helping at-risk kids. Her father had an MBA and spent his career at Shell Oil as a mechanical engineer.
“My mom is an incredible mother, and Dad was always very active in the community and is a proud product of the Fifth Ward,” she says.
For several years, her father was on the board of the Hester House, a neighborhood community center providing support programs for young people in the Fifth Ward. He was honored with a Point of Light for his service.
Williams says her parents encouraged her and her sisters to express their opinions, which she says they often did around the dinner table.
“I was typically the only Black person in my classes until I got to college, so I have been very comfortable having conversations around race since I was very young,” she says. “I think growing up feeling different is where a lot of my passion in the DEI space comes from. I love that my kids are being raised in Fort Bend County, which some experts say is the most diverse county in America.”
Williams had no lawyers in her family growing up, though one of her older sisters later became an attorney.
“Similar to many lawyers, I remember people telling me I would be a good lawyer as a child before I fully understood what that really meant,” she says. “I continued to gravitate to law school because, similar to my economics major, I liked that it was a discipline that teaches you to approach problems through a different lens.”
In 2003 Williams earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Stanford University and three years later her law degree from Washington University in St. Louis.
For five years, Williams worked as an associate in the corporate finance-and-securities practice at Bryan Cave, a multinational law firm that had an office in St. Louis.
‘The decision to go in-house’
In October 2011 Williams made two big decisions: To go in-house at Sigma-Aldrich, a life-sciences and biotechnology company, and to return to Houston.
“I made the decision to go in-house because I wanted to become a generalist,” she says. “I find many areas of the law fascinating, and at the time I did not want to solely focus on transactions.”
Williams says she decided to return home after being gone for 15 years “because I was raised that family is everything, and it was time to start my family and I wanted my children to grow up around their extended family and experience the same love and support that I did.”
During her 10 years in-house at MilliporeSigma she has built experience in many practice areas, including M&A, securities, litigation, labor and employment, real estate and antitrust.
“I love the law, so having an opportunity to practice in so many areas is really a dream job for me,” she says.
In 2015 German-owned Merck KGaA purchased Sigma-Aldrich for $17 billion. Merck KGaA – not affiliated with the U.S. drug maker of the same name – purchased Millipore in 2010 and combined the operations of Millipore and Sigma.
The merger led Williams to focus primarily on labor and employment law and DEI guidance. She also has played a significant role in shaping the firm’s Covid-19 pandemic policies and procedures for its employees.
“Given that the first five years of my career at a law firm were spent doing mostly M&A, securities, corporate finance and corporate governance, I think it’s remarkable that I ended up in-house with a focus on litigation, labor and employment and that the GC at the time had the confidence in me that I would figure it out,” she says.
Williams and her team recently won a huge multiweek arbitration, though she is unable to discuss the details.
“Parties are so inclined to settle that it’s rare these days to take something all the way to decision,” she says.
Lawyers who work with Williams say she views outside counsel as partners.
“Even though Christallyn is not a trial litigator, I believe she possesses the qualities of a successful trial lawyer: she has great communication skills, is always prepared and knows when to trust and delegate work to others,” said Sandberg Phoenix partner Mark Prost, who has worked with Williams for 15 years.
“In all the years of working with Christallyn, she has always provided clear guidance and instructions to me as to her expectations for outside counsel,” says Prost, who practices in St. Louis. “She has always treated me like a respected partner in our joint defense of MilliporeSigma. Christallyn is a talented corporate lawyer with a clear track record of success in her position, while at the same time being able to balance a busy family life.”
Kearbey, a St. Louis labor and employment lawyer, points out that Williams, who was in the M&A practice group at Bryan Cave, achieved more courtroom experience than many associates in litigation-practice groups.
“She did this by giving countless hours of her time to pro bono litigation matters alongside her primary work as an associate staffed on teams handling large mergers and acquisitions,” Kearbey said. “For example, through her pro bono work, Christallyn argued a case before the Missouri Court of Appeals just a few years after graduating from law school. This demonstrates both Christallyn’s efforts to develop as much wide-ranging legal experience as possible and her sharp focus on giving back to those less fortunate whenever possible.”
Impacting DEI
Practicing labor and employment law in-house also lets her affect change regarding diversity, equity and inclusion in the legal profession, she says.
Williams points to the 2012 launch of the Black Leadership Network and the relaunch of it in 2020 as “my proudest DEI accomplishment while at MilliporeSigma.”
The Black Leadership Network was limited to St. Louis and management-level employees for the first few years, but the group went dormant following the corporate merger.
“When the murder of George Floyd happened, we felt strongly that it was important that we all come together again and expand our reach,” she says. “We began to gather informally virtually and then we approached company leadership about relaunching, across all U.S. sites and for employees at all levels.”
The network’s mission is “to bring together Black employees to foster learning and development, create networking opportunities, develop ideas to drive Merck forward and positively impact our surrounding communities.”
“BLN aims to promote an inclusive and equitable work culture through strategic partnership, mentorship, networking, education and advocacy,” says Williams, who serves as the group’s co-leader. “We are offering programs that uplift our members, and we are also offering educational opportunities to the organization such as our Juneteenth celebration, which was open to all employees. As a sixth-generation Texan and descendent of enslaved people, our Juneteenth celebration was especially fulfilling for me.”
George Floyd’s murder also caused the MilliporeSigma legal department to search for ways to respond.
Williams responded by proposing, then leading a diversity assessment of the company’s outside counsel.
“In addition to partnering with our existing relationships to demonstrate our commitment, I have been able to refer multiple women of color for consideration in engagement in new matters,” she says. “These referrals come from connections made in diverse professional networking circles. I am pleased that this has led to engagement in two instances – notably multiple new matters for a woman-owned firm and multiple matters for a Black female partner receiving originating and relationship credit at a national firm.”
“Having come from a large firm, I understand the significance of credit, so I was sure to confirm this,” she says.
In addition, Williams works with the company’s talent-acquisition group to suggest diverse-lawyer associations to advertise for open positions.
Lauren Haller
“Christallyn is passionate about furthering her knowledge and increasing her influence in the DEI space,” says Haller, who nominated Williams for the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion.
Haller pointed out that, earlier this year, Williams completed Cornell University’s Diversity & Inclusion Certification Program, which trains executives about inclusive work environments, unconscious bias and improving diversity engagement.
In fact, Williams completed the program a week after having her third child, a daughter.
“I thought I would have time to finish the program before she arrived, but she had other plans,” she says. “I felt strongly about how valuable the program was, and I thought figuring out a way to finish something that meant something to me while being present for her was an awesome example to set for her right from the beginning.”
Williams says she appreciates that she is part of a company that responded to the social-justice reform movement of 2020 “in meaningful ways, and I am encouraged that we will see lasting progress over time.”
What has been Williams best day on the job at MilliporeSigma so far?
“The day of the Black Leadership Network relaunch was my best day,” she says. “I heard once that you should always ask yourself three questions: ‘Am I having fun? Am I learning something? Am I making a difference?’ That day was the embodiment of those three questions.”