Texas Lawbook Premium Bonus Content: Q&A with former Weatherford Int’l GC Christina Ibrahim
The Texas Lawbook provides unique and substantive content to our Premium subscribers. In this interview, former Weatherford International General Counsel Christina Ibrahim provides personal insight into her life, how she selects outside counsel and key things outside counsel should know about her.
You can read Mark Curriden’s full profile of Chistina Ibrahim here.
The Texas Lawbook: Any life or career mentors?
Christina Ibrahim: My life mentor would be my mom. She taught me a great deal about resilience, perseverance and not shying away from a challenge, and caring for others. Doing whatever you can to help and give back. I have been fortunate enough to have several career mentors, but the one that had the most significant impact was my former general counsel, Bert Cornelison.
The Texas Lawbook: What are one or two life-impacting experiences you’ve had?
Ibrahim: One of the most impactful experiences was my mom’s experiences. Hearing her talk about the lawyers who treated her with the respect and dignity and the ones who did not, because she was a woman and because she was “just” a secretary. My mom and dad never treated anyone “less than” for any reason. And knowing how certain professionals treated her has created a zero-tolerance for me. My team, all of my team, are expected to treat each other and everyone at the company with dignity and respect. From the CEO to the janitorial staff. No exceptions.
The other life-impacting experience occurred with Bert. I joined Halliburton/Brown and Root as an employment lawyer. And I became an employment lawyer because of my desire to impact discrimination. Bert approached me several times about moving into a different practice group but I always declined. Then one day he put his hands on my shoulders, looked into my eyes and said, “You can be the lead for the employment law practice group one day” – which was my goal – “or you can have my job one day. To do that, you need to move to different groups and get different experiences.” That was the first time I ever dared to “dream big” and I owe to him. He has always been an amazing mentor, and friend.
The Texas Lawbook: What led you to go to law school, and what led you to Texas Southern?
Ibrahim: Law school was a natural path for many reasons. If you asked my dad, it was because I love to argue the opposite position – my mom, because she worked in law offices. But I just like the law and endless opportunities to solve a different problems or challenges. I especially love being in-house. Part of the strategy to avoid or mitigate risk.
I followed my husband to Texas, and he went to Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University. The mission of the school is to expand the opportunities for underserved in the legal profession, prepare a diverse group of students for leadership roles in the legal profession, business and government. The mission resonated with me, so it just seemed natural to go there as well. He was a third year when I started.
The Texas Lawbook: What do you look for in hiring outside counsel? Do you have specific criteria?
Ibrahim: Outside counsel needs to be my trusted business partner. I look for firms and partners that staff a matter correctly, meaning lean and mean, and I look for diversity.
The Texas Lawbook: What does outside counsel need to know about you?
Ibrahim: I am a straight talker and I expect the same. It is critical that I manage the expectations of the CEO and board, so I need a no-nonsense partner that does not sugar coat anything and looks for creative solutions to our challenges.
The Texas Lawbook: How has the role of general counsel changed during the past 15 years? Do corporate executives and boards view or use their in-house legal departments different than they did in the past?
Ibrahim: I think the role of general counsel has evolved over the past 15 years from the lawyer to call to handle a problem – a reactive role overseeing litigation and other disputes – to a key member of the executive team, a trusted business partner that is a strategic asset of the company and a critical voice in the corporate decision making team. I think as compliance has evolved, that hat is even more important for the general counsel as a leader of the ethics of the company.
The Texas Lawbook: We’ve published dozens of articles 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?
Ibrahim: I think the reason we saw little to no movement when we started talking about diversity was the decision makers were not truly bought in and they remained in positions that could impact change – so no change happened. To truly move the needle, you must be intentional with your efforts, not only to improve your own diversity in your department but hold outside counsel accountable as well for their team composition.
The Texas Lawbook: I wrote one of the first articles featuring Cathy Lamboley at Shell. What is the role of corporate in-house counsel in pushing law firms to become more diverse?
Ibrahim: In-house counsel can have a major impact with outside counsel’s diversity by demanding it (specific requirements) and holding them accountable to those requirements. Also, we can have a larger impact if we hire minority and female owned firms directly.
The Texas Lawbook: What are the biggest challenges for corporate in-house counsel in the years ahead?
Ibrahim: In addition to increasing diversity in-house and with outside counsel, the pressure on cost and spend is not going away. Working with our law firm partners on win-win solutions and innovative approaches to the work is going to be more and more needed. Also, the growing reach of privacy laws and how corporations manage the landscape. How to handle cybersecurity risks and disclosures. How we work remote, especially with on-boarding new lawyers and staff. I think those are a few, but there are many more.