Getting to Know Phoenix Office Managing Partner Laura Pasqualone

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Laura Pasqualone started working at the Phoenix office of Lewis Roca, now Womble Bond Dickinson, as a law school student at the University of Arizona College of Law. Today, she leads the office of nearly 200 attorneys and professionals as the Phoenix Office Managing Partner.  She also co-chairs the firm’s national labor and employment practice section.

In between, she’s built a thriving practice as a Chambers-ranked labor and employment lawyer. Laura is proof that career advancement and finding a work home aren’t mutually exclusive. Recently, she took time from her busy schedule to share her story:

How did you get interested in a career in the law? When did you first decide that you wanted to become a lawyer?

I didn't grow up knowing any attorneys. I didn't have any attorneys in my family, so I didn't really consider becoming an attorney until a little later stage in my education. I was an English major in college, and I loved writing and history. In my second or third year of undergrad, I registered for a U.S. Constitutional History class, which just happened to be taught by a law professor at the school. It was pretty much run like a law school class. And I really took to it.

I'm a rule follower and I like the process of analyzing rules and figuring out how they might apply in unusual circumstances, which I think is really what being an attorney is about. At the end of the class, my professor asked me if I'd ever thought about going to law school. He told me I should consider it, and I owe him for my career choice because I don't think the idea of becoming a lawyer would have ever crossed my mind.

You’ve focused your career on labor and employment law, including employment related litigation. Once you decided that the law was what you wanted to do, how did you get in your particular practice area?

I started out as a commercial litigator practicing in all areas of commercial litigation. I happened to work with a partner here on some employment-related projects, Mary Ellen Simonson, who's an employment and labor partner in our Phoenix office. She's been a great mentor of mine and I just really clicked working with her.

Gradually, the practice of labor and employment law became more and more of what filled my plate. What I like about labor and employment law is it's such a human-focused area. We are dealing with critical aspects of a person's life—their livelihood. There's a lot of emotion and drama that comes with the territory, which can make things interesting. As I tell people, you can't make up the kind of things we see in our work.

But what I like most about my practice area is the close, deep relationships I develop with my clients. They come to me looking for a solution for whatever challenging situation may be percolating in their workplace. My goal always is when I end a conversation with a client, that I have a plan of action so that they feel good about the situation, and we come up with a way to resolve it together.  I'm invested in my clients and their businesses. My goal is to help them be successful at the end of the day, and I find the work to be very rewarding.

In terms of your current work, what are the most pressing issues that your clients are facing?

One of the biggest challenges my clients are facing now is trying to assess the employment law landscape under the Trump administration. It often feels like employment rules go through these big pendulum shifts with each changing administration. That has been particularly the case under this new administration, just a few months into it. It's a lot to keep up with.

There's a lot of uncertainty regarding what the changing rules really mean and whether they're going to be upheld in court. One thing that has helped me give my clients the best advice is being able to seamlessly bounce these new developments by our team of Labor and Employment attorneys across Womble. To me, this has been one of the biggest upsides of our combination. Many of the questions our clients are struggling with do not have clear answers. Fortunately, we have a team of experts we can strategize with to give our clients the best practical advice for going forward.

You’ve spent your entire career with one firm. What made you decide to put down roots with Lewis Roca then and now Womble Bond Dickinson.

I joined Lewis Roca as a summer associate, after my second year of law school. I’m an Arizona native, so I wanted to stay in Arizona, and I wanted to be at a firm with deep ties to the Arizona community. Lewis Roca had such an excellent reputation with a strong history in Arizona.

On top of that, the people who I met during the interview process were just top-notch attorneys. At the end of the day, Lewis Roca was the clear choice for me.

Looking back on that decision, I'm grateful that I made the choice I did. The people at Lewis Roca are what have kept me here. I've had the best mentors—people who took me under their wing and taught me how to be a good attorney. And it's not just the attorneys that have made this place great. It’s also the staff. We really are a family, and that makes it easy to stay here.

What are some other advantages that the Womble Bond Dickinson-Lewis Roca combination offers your clients?

We have a bigger footprint now, so we can help our clients in more places. We have boots on the ground, attorneys who are familiar with the local laws and courts that we can turn to where we couldn't before.

Because employment law is so state-specific, having employment attorneys in more jurisdictions has been so valuable to our national clients. Not only have we expanded geographically, but the breadth of our knowledge has expanded, too. This helps even our local clients.

Just the other week, for example, I had a local client with a nuanced legal issue that I wasn't quite sure how to resolve. And no one in our legacy Lewis Roca firm would have had the background to help. But I was able to pull in an attorney from our D.C. office who had dealt with the issue before. We were able to give immediate, cost-effective advice to the client.

In addition to your busy practice, you're also the managing partner of the Phoenix office. How do you balance that role with what you do for your labor and employment clients?

On top of those roles, I'm also a mother of two young children. Time management is definitely an ongoing challenge that I work on.

With that said, I think being busy has taught me to focus my time on the work and the relationships I most value. I've also learned to say no to things. It's great to be a “Yes” person, but you have to learn to say no to things that you decide just aren't worth your time.

I also have the firm to thank for the flexibility that makes everything manageable. Having the ability to work from home when my kids have a school event and being able to manage my own schedule really goes a long way.

Also, working with other women who are living through the same challenges and are succeeding provides a support system that has been instrumental.

How do you integrate new employees onto your team? And what are the keys to successful employee integration?

I've tried to learn from my mentors and what worked for me. When I work with younger attorneys, I strive to make them an integral part of the team. From the outset of a case, I seek direction from them rather than just giving direction. This is how I felt valued as a young associate, and this is what allowed me to learn and grow. That's the approach that I try to take when working with new team members.

What do you like to do when you're not working? How do you unwind?

Free time, what’s that, right? I’m kidding, though. I have two amazing children. A 10-year-old son and a six-year-old daughter. They're so much fun and they make my husband and my life go round. Their hobbies are my hobbies basically these days. My son wanted to be in the chess club, so I had to brush up on my chess. But he beats me despite my best efforts!

I'm also getting back into gymnastics, a hobby I had as a kid, because my daughter loves it. She's surpassed me already at six. But it's just fun watching them do the things they love. That's how I enjoy spending my free time.

And as someone who enjoyed school as a kid, I love keeping up with my kids’ school activities. Just the other day, my daughter had career day at school, and I had to explain to a kindergarten class what being a lawyer is. You think being a lawyer is hard? Try explaining what we do to a kindergarten class. I'll take going to court over that any day.

Finally, can you talk a little about your involvement in the community or with organizations that you feel strongly about?

A lot of my work is for nonprofits here in Arizona which I really love. I'm General Counsel for the Board of Directors of Donor Network of Arizona. I do employment work for the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, Catholic Charities, and the Phoenix Art Museum. We’ve done work for the Phoenix Zoo over the years. I value my nonprofit clients and finding ways to support them and their critical missions.