Legal News

Law Blog Lawyers of the Day: Nicole Seligman and Marcia Goldstein

By Dan Slater

As always, the WSJ’s annual “Women to Watch” report reads like a compilation of pretty-darn-cool-sounding jobs, from ‘chairman of MGM’ (Mary Parent) to ‘CEO, Time Inc.’ (Ann Moore) to more abstract titles like ‘philanthropist, Iran’ (Saideh Ghods).

Reading the report can be a little humbling, particularly on this Meltdown Monday, but we perked up a bit at numbers 22 and 48. For they, you might’ve guessed, are two of us — the only two practicing lawyers on the list.

At 22 is Nicole Seligman, the general counsel at Sony. She who oversees legal, compliance and internal-audit issues across the Japanese company’s businesses, from electronics to movies and music, in all of its markets around the world. Not surprisingly, the 52-year-old Seligman carries some pretty hardcore credentials: magna cum laude, Harvard; magna cum laude, Harvard Law; editor, Harvard Law Review. (Between college and law school, Seligman apparently worked as an editorial page editor at The Wall Street Journal Asia.) After law school, she clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court and for Judge Harry T. Edwards at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

At 48 is Law Blog regular and Weil Gotshal bankruptcy head Marcia Goldstein. Goldstein (Cornell, Cornell Law) “sits atop what is arguably the hottest legal practice of the moment,” the profile begins.

She’s advising AIG in an out-of-court restructuring. In court, she’s lead bankruptcy counsel to WaMu and LandSource Inc., a Louisiana-based land-development company. Her team is also handling many other massive matters, including the Lehman bankruptcy. A 30-year Weil veteran, Goldstein, age 56, has served over the years as bankruptcy counsel for WorldCom and Parmalat Finanziaria.

Law Blog Readers: Last year the woman at the very top was one of our own as well — Angela Braly, the prez and CEO of Wellpoint who rose to that post via the GC’s office. (She makes the list again this year at No. 15.) Donut-loving Maureen Mahoney, the appellate litigator at Latham, also made the Journal’s 2007 list.

Any female lawyers the Journal missed this year?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on November 10, 2008 (boomark / email).