Missouri In House Counsel Legal news, updates and analysis
Legal Counsel, BlueScope Buildings North America, Washington University
Melvin Sims began his current job during an unusual period — the middle of March 2020, just as COVID lockdowns threw everything into flux.
“It was an interesting time to start an in-house career,” noted Sims, “but it also gave me a lot of exposure to all the problems you could see very early on.”
Between dealing with work from home policies and issues related to a data breach, the 42-year-old Kansas City native certainly had his hands full. But the former patent attorney for Polsinelli was no stranger to challenges. Having studied biological engineering at Mizzou, he was accustomed to problem-solving. Moreover, he decided to turn the pandemic into an opportunity to use Microsoft Teams to get the lay of the land nationwide.
“We have facilities all over the country,” he recalled, “so it gave me an opportunity to reach out to different folks all over the country and it gave me a chance to meet people that I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet.”
Sims believes that curiosity is an important attribute for a good in-house counsel.
“I wanted to work on real problems and find real solutions that I think are appreciated,” he said. “You get a chance to live with your decisions and see the fruits of those decisions — sometimes years later. That’s the primary reason I went in-house, to be able to actually be around the business and see how your decisions impact the business.”
Working with firm lawyers is part of the job of course but having one client means you have to be the decisionmaker.
“Your role as an in-house attorney is to understand the business more thoroughly than any other attorney,” said Sims who is on the board of the Mid-America chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and was formerly on the board of governors for the National Bar Association. “Then you can take that vision and you can give direction to outside counsel if needed.”
