Cori Ulrich was a young corporate lawyer negotiating a large purchase of equipment for a client. Across the table were lawyers and officials with a European company. As talks got serious, opposing counsel and their client started talking in German about the terms of the transaction – not realizing that Ulrich speaks fluent German.
“I can understand every word you are saying,” Ulrich told them.
Opposing counsel and their client, obviously flustered, thanked Ulrich for being candid and took their discussion outside.
“I’m not sure I really had an obligation to disclose this to the other side … but my client was very impressed and proud of me and what I did, and it was a game-changer,” she says. “I think we got a better deal for it, created some real trust with the other side, and I got cool German calendars every year from the company after that.”
Ulrich is now the deputy general counsel, handling corporate transactions at RealPage, a global provider of software and data analytics for the real estate industry. She and her legal team have been busy with acquisitions and capital-raising transactions during the past three years.
The Texas Lawbook and the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter are pleased to announce that Ulrich is a finalist for the 2018 Outstanding Corporate Counsel’s Senior Counsel of the Year Award for a Midsized Legal Department.
Baker Botts partner Don McDermett, who nominated Ulrich for the award, says that Ulrich spearheaded legal teams in successfully executing 12 strategic acquisitions for RealPage ranging from $5 million to $300 million and handled capital markets transactions (including a $450 million follow-on equity offering and a $345 million convertible debt offering) during the past three years.
“Cori Ulrich is a ‘can-do’ lawyer who helps drive business results by adroitly managing and executing strategic transactions,” McDermett says. “She consistently displays a level of dedication, commitment and creativity that distinguishes her as one of the very best in the corporate legal world.
“[Cori] is an extraordinary collaborator with both outside counsel and accountants, as well as her in-house finance, HR, risk management and other peers,” he says. “She deals with opposing counsel with grace and the utmost respect. The best testament to Cori’s worthiness for this award is her demonstrable track record of accomplishment in both getting strategically important deals done while simultaneously managing the day-to-day ‘knitting.’”
RealPage has a market cap of about $5 billion and $671 million in revenue in 2017.
Ulrich’s boss, RealPage Chief Legal Officer David Monk, won the 2017 General Counsel of the Year Award.
Ulrich was born in Germany near the French border. Her father immigrated from Germany to the U.S. when he was young, but he was selected in the draft. He was a career military man in the U.S. Air Force and met her mother when he was on assignment at the Ramstein Air Force base. Her mother also worked for the military, including serving as a translator and for the base commander. Both are naturalized U.S. citizens.
The family moved to upstate New York when Ulrich was one. Several moves followed, including to Turkey, South Dakota and eventually back to Germany where she attended junior high and high school.
“We actually moved back into the very same house where my father grew up in Germany,” she says.
Ulrich went to college at the University of Rochester, where she majored in political science and economics.
“I wanted to be a diplomat when I was young,” she says. “I didn’t know what that meant, but it sounded cool.
“After college at 21, I wasn’t quite ready to tackle the world,” she says. “I have no lawyers in the family, so there wasn’t anyone to talk me into – or out – of it. So, I headed off to Boston and the rest is history. I truly went to law school without knowing much about practicing law.”
Ulrich graduated in 1990 from Harvard Law School, where she was classmates with now CEC Entertainment General Counsel Rudy Rodriguez.
Early in her legal practice, Ulrich had a partner express that she might be “too nice” to aggressively represent clients in negotiations and suggested that she should “learn to curse like a sailor.”
“I did learn a few things growing up as a military brat and I had no problem with cursing, if needed,” she says. “I just didn’t think that was how I needed [to be] to get what I needed. I remember calling a counterparty … and very kindly but firmly asking for what I needed. Without any problem, I got what I needed and quickly.
“I learned ‘my way’ was okay, and I was certainly more comfortable doing it my way than cursing at the other side,” she says.
Except for a 19-month period in 2006 and 2007 when she was a partner at Perkins Coie, Ulrich has spent the past two decades as an in-house counsel. She spent eight years at Belo where she was assistant general counsel, two and a half years at Expedia, nearly six years at MoneyGram and now the past three years at RealPage.
“When Cori joined us in 2016, she hit the ground running,” Monk says. “She was on a plane that first week and helped us get a deal signed in record time. She probably closed five acquisitions that first year and hasn’t slowed down since.
“My background is heavy in M&A so before she arrived I was chief, cook and bottle-washer when it came to getting our deals done, while handling leadership of all of the other legal aspects of a public company,” Monk says. “Cori’s ability to parachute in, get up to speed and be so successful early has made it possible for the entire Legal Department to operate more smoothly and effectively.”
Ulrich says her best days on the job are when transactions are finalized.
“Closing that first deal back in 2016, and honestly closing the others after that,” she says. “Getting to work on and close transactions, and see how it impacts the business and the support we get from the business, that’s our candy.”