I was born on a farm near Anadarko, Oklahoma, a small town to which we moved when I was about six. By the time I was 16, I was in high school and wanted to be the first one in my immediate or expanded family to graduate from college.

I went to Southern Nazarene University having grown up in the Nazarene Church, a fundamentalist church with a long list of rules regarding personal conduct, such as no drinking, no dancing, and no going to the movies.

This had made me somewhat of a social misfit in high school, and I remember feeling much more comfortable going to college with people my age who had the same religious background. That’s one reason I think I made so many good friends there.

I don’t regret, however, growing up in the Nazarene Church, where I was taught very good values ― to be tough on yourself, easy on everybody else, hate sin but love the sinner, and to always tell the truth.

As I remember it, the next phase of my personal evolution was during my three years at Oklahoma University Law School when I realized that there were many good people with high moral standards who didn’t have a Nazarene background.

I think my younger self would be quite surprised that I now live in New York City and have had a long career as a lawyer in a leading global law firm.

As to why I became a lawyer, the aptitude tests I took in high school suggested I could make it as a doctor or a lawyer, but one of those options was never going to happen, because I can’t stand the sight of blood!

So, during my second year in college, I set my sights on becoming a lawyer having spent my first year contemplating being an engineer and building things like dams and bridges that I could look at and admire when they were finished. That contemplation ended, however, when I took an advanced calculus course!

Looking back, I think my decision to become a lawyer was influenced, among other things, by my having been on the debate team in high school and during my first year in college. I also understood that lawyers were required to have high standards of professional conduct.

I had my first experience of New York City during my senior year in law school when I was on the OU Law School moot court team.

We qualified for the national tournament, held at the New York Bar Association on 44th Street. When we lost in the semi-finals, a lady in the audience introduced herself as also being from Oklahoma and offered to give us a tour of the city to help us get over our loss.

The tour ended at 4am after we sang Christmas carols underneath the Brooklyn Bridge, with all of us agreeing that New York City was an interesting place to be!

Later that year, I applied for and received a two-year fellowship at New York University (NYU) Law School.

I spent the first year obtaining an LL.M. from NYU and the second one in Buenos Aires working for Allende & Brea, still one of the best law firms in Argentina.

As my year in Buenos Aires was drawing to a close, I was hired ‘sight unseen’ by the University of Florida Law School to direct its Latin American law program, which gave me an opportunity to see if I would like to teach law later in my career.

After concluding that I would prefer practicing law rather than teaching it, I contacted the NYU Law School placement team to arrange interviews with about 10 New York City law firms, one of which was White & Case.

The Firm turned out to be my clear favorite. It had a very open environment, nobody questioned my religious background or where I went to law school, and it appealed to me that the Firm had two offices outside the United States, in Paris and Brussels.

It also appealed to me that, of all the lawyers I met during my interviews, one of the partners at the Firm who interviewed me, Ed Schmults, appeared to be having the most fun practicing law!

I’m not sure whether I met Steve Beshear on my first day at the Firm, but we arrived as part of the same incoming associate class, met early on, took the New York Bar exam together, and have been good friends ever since.

Steve was from Kentucky and he returned there after about three years at the Firm, going on to become its governor. His son Andy recently followed in Steve’s footsteps by being elected governor of Kentucky, and Andy is also a White & Case alum.

If I had one piece of advice for my younger self, I’d say always remember to put clients first, but never forget that we must first get the clients.

And always remember that everyone you meet at a client is a potential source of business, but never forget to plan well and work hard to cultivate new relationships, both inside and outside the Firm.

I like to think I formed many good working relationships with my contacts over the years, but I would have done even better if I had been able to give my younger self this advice!

In terms of career highlights, if I can only pick one, I think it would be finding out I was going to be made a partner.

In those days, partners were not appointed at any particular time of year and I remember sitting in my office at 14 Wall Street in September 1979 when Willis McDonald came wandering down the hall and invited me to join him and the other members of the management committee in the 24th floor conference room.

On arrival, I was informed that the committee was pleased to offer me a partnership in the Firm and, to my surprise, I was asked if I would like to accept the offer!

I accepted, of course, not just to become a partner, but because I felt that it would give me a permanent base on which to build my legal career. I hope all new partners feel the same way today.

When I was elected Chair, I felt both honored and humbled. Jim Hurlock had been head of the Firm during our 20-year journey to globalization and I and the members of the newly-elected management board believed our most important and immediate task was to keep the Firm on a steady course as we transitioned into the post-Hurlock era.

I was pleased to be in the position to help get that done.

When people ask me what it takes to lead a law firm, I usually say that you have to make sure your firm stays in constant forward motion.

During my two terms in office, I believe we achieved that objective, thanks to the contributions of the very talented people we had at the Firm.

Among other things, we targeted and achieved significant growth in size and revenues, more than doubling lawyer headcount and more than tripling revenues.

In 2005, we exceeded a billion dollars in revenues for the first time, which I announced to the management board as being the good news. The bad news was that we had to do it again in 2006!

As the Firm grew, we had to get things a little better organized and adopt new ways of doing things, and I was pleased that, along the way, we were willing to begin new initiatives, including appointing the first partner to be in charge of our diversity efforts, appointing our first full-time director of our pro bono activities, beginning our Women’s Advancement Initiative, and establishing our Wellness Works program.

As I’m sure Jim Hurlock felt when he neared the end of his tenure, I was most pleased and proud that the Firm being passed on to Hugh Verrier and the other members of the new management team was still in constant forward motion.

As many people will know, I led the project team that produced the Firm history book and I think we can all benefit by looking back at our history.

Since its formation on May 1, 1901, White & Case has lived through two world wars, several economic depressions and recessions, and other difficult situations.

The history book tells the remarkable story of how we faced and overcame these and other challenges. But perhaps the most important thing about our history is what it says about our culture.

When anyone asks what I like most about the book, I answer by suggesting people read the first chapter. That’s where you learn about what remarkable men DuPratt White and George Case were and why they were such good exemplars of the Firm’s culture.

They were entrepreneurial, collegial, collaborative, dedicated to clients and civic minded, traits that continue as the foundation of the Firm’s culture.

If I could relive any day of my life, it would be August 22, 1965, which was my wedding day. That’s not because of the wedding ceremony or the festivities, but because it’s the day Myrle and I made the commitment to share what became a life-time partnership.

During our first 16 years together, we moved from one city to another, on three continents, eight times. We welcomed a daughter into our lives and became Presbyterians. We made these and other decisions that shaped our lives, reconfirming the commitment we made to each other 54 years ago.

If I could have one last conversation with someone no longer with us, I would pick three people, but all for the same reason.

Firstly, my debate coach in college, for putting so much time and effort into improving my speaking skills and style, and for trying, without complete success, to help me lose my Oklahoma accent!

Secondly, my international law professor at OU Law School, for encouraging me to spread my wings and see what the world had to offer by applying for the two-year fellowship at NYU Law School.

Finally, Jim Hurlock, who was my mentor and friend from the day I joined the London office in 1972 until the day he died in 2016. I am forever indebted to Jim.

These three people had one thing in common—they all believed in me enough to try to help me come as close as I could to realizing my full potential.

If I could speak with them, I would tell them how much I valued what they did for me and that I have tried, throughout my career, to follow their example by doing the same for others, both inside and outside the Firm.