INSIDE VIEW
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15)
at GATX. Each time she’s entered a new industry,
there’s been a learning curve. “You get into an
industry and it’s hard to understand what people
are talking about—everything is an acronym,”
Golden says. It takes about 10 months of going to
meetings, listening, and asking questions more
seasoned employees might not ask, she says, before
she feels like she really understands both how the
business works and how to help it achieve its goals.
Industry specialist
Understanding a complex industry was less
of an issue for Cliff Berman (JD ’85), who as a
pharmacy major at the University of Michigan knew
he wanted to be a pharmacy lawyer. He worked
as a pharmacist at the same time he was enrolled
at the School of Law. At Loyola, he took a diverse
courseload to ensure he was prepared for wherever
his career took him.
After he graduated, Berman worked as a
litigator at Rooks, Pitts & Poust, where he handled
drug product liability suits. Four years later, he
decided he’d prefer the broader array of work
as an in-house counsel at Baxter Healthcare,
which later spun off into Caremark Inc. He spent
nine years there, four years at Allscripts Inc.
and five years at Abbott Laboratories, before
landing at SXC Health Solutions (now known as
Catamaran Corp.), a company focused on
pharmacy benefit management.
Each stop was distinct. For instance, Abbott
had more than 100 specialized attorneys working
in house, which meant it was essentially a small
firm with specialized lawyers handling specific
types of issues. Because SXC, which at the time
had less than $100 million in revenue, didn’t have
a single in-house attorney, Berman was able to
have a broad practice.
“It’s more interesting to address a number of
different areas—intellectual property, securities,
mergers and acquisitions, employment law,
litigation, contracts, and regulatory issues,” he says.
Berman landed at SXC while it was in the midst
of dramatic growth—between 2005-10, its revenue
increased 3,400%—and its revenue is projected
at more than $14 billion this year. Part of that
growth has come from the eight different mergers
and acquisitions during his tenure, including
the company absorbing formulary management
business Zynchros and specialty pharmacy services
company MedfusionRx Inc. After merging with
Catalyst Health Solutions, the company changed its
name to Catamaran.
The rapid growth has required Berman to
build up the company’s in-house staff—it now
has eight attorneys on staff—as well as work with
outside counsel on mergers and acquisitions and
regulatory issues. Those issues involve everything
from how to structure a deal to ensuring that senior
management fully understands the potential risks
and rewards involved in a deal.
“Those are the types of things that an in-house
counsel knows best because an outside counsel,
no matter how good, doesn’t understand the
business as well as someone on the inside,” says
Berman, who is Catamaran’s senior vice president,
general counsel, and corporate secretary, as well
Deb Golden
went from a firm to in-house
counsel positions at several
companies, most recently
GATX Corp. She likes the
challenge of learning the ins
and outs of different industries.
Cliff Berman
knew he wanted to be a
pharmacy lawyer and followed
a specialized education and
career path to his current
position as general counsel at
Catamaran Corp.
as its corporate compliance officer and chief
privacy officer.
No typical day
That type of inside perspective ensures that
an in-house counsel understands the company’s
workings, says John Bulfin (JD ’78), senior vice
president, general counsel, and corporate
secretary for correctional services company The
GEO Group Inc. “You have to deal with different
aspects of the business,” he says. “I have to
understand the operations part of our business
to be able to prevent issues that might involve
the company in a lawsuit. I also work with risk
management to help with safety issues. Part of my
job is knowing how we can avoid situations that
could cause trouble later on.”
Bulfin, like many others, didn’t leave the
School of Law seeking in-house work. “Most of my
classmates became trial lawyers,” he says. “I never
really thought about the corporate world.”
But after 20 years as a trial lawyer, he was
ready for something else. Part of his job involves
overseeing the company’s litigation, but from a
supervisory capacity in which he oversees what
trial lawyers are doing and helps make decisions
on whether to take a case to trial, settle, or pursue
another tack. He also deals with a host of other
issues: most notably, as secretary of the corporation,
he works with CEO George Zoley on the agendas
for quarterly board meetings, provides information
for the board, and compiles the minutes and
resolutions for the meetings.
There’s no typical day as an in-house counsel,
Bulfin says, as he spends a lot of time interacting
with different members of senior management in
the corporation’s 250-person Boca Raton, Florida,
headquarters. “I may be in three or four different
meetings, each dealing with different issues facing
the company, in a given day.”
Working as an in-house counsel means juggling
a number of different roles, but ultimately it’s quite
simple, says ConAgra’s Catanzaro. “It’s to add value
to what the company is doing.”
■
“I have to
understand
the operations
aspect of our
business
to be
able to prevent
issues that
might involve
the company in
a lawsuit.”
—John Bulfin (JD ’78), senior vice president,
general counsel, and corporate secretary, The
GEO Group Inc.
John Bulfin
parlayed two decades of
trial experience into an
in-house counsel job at
The GEO Group Inc., where
overseeing litigation is only
one of his roles.
SPRING 2013
17
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LOYOLA LAW
