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Senior Associate General Counsel, BlueKC, Kansas City
At the heart of Dillon Strohm’s career is his affinity with the business world. He brings his love of business to his practice as senior associate general counsel for BlueKC, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield health care provider in Kansas City.
Serving as lead counsel for the organization’s subsidiaries, Strohm plays an instrumental role in identifying and contracting with vendors and partners. His strong background in transactional law has spanned the aviation, technology and start-up sectors.
“I’ve been pretty much an industry agnostic attorney,” he says. “What’s consistent across all kinds of companies, including BlueKC, is they have the same fundamental need to transact in a strategic way to move their company forward.”
Strohm, who majored in business administration at the University of Kansas, says he followed a mentor’s advice to go to law school. He earned both his law degree from the University of Kansas and an MBA from Washburn University simultaneously and started his career in private practice at Jackson and Wade after law school.
He joined BlueKC in 2019 and has learned the organization’s business inside and out. He holds himself accountable for the advice he provides, whether good or bad. He believes that for in-house attorneys to be effective in-house, they must understand what their organizations deal with on a day-to-day basis. They are also charged with gaining the trust of their internal clients and to do that, they must be responsive to their needs.
“It’s kind of like you’re marrying your client, because you’re going to be there every single day with them,” he says. “While in some respects that creates additional pressure, you also learn so much about the business that you can get faster with providing advice and you get a lot more proactive.”
This attention to client service keeps him motivated every day and fulfills his passion for both business and the law, which he did not experience as strongly in private practice.
“I believe that real success is achieved by lifting others up, something I am fortunate to have the opportunity to pursue as an in-house attorney,” he says.
