Osler's Razor

I'm devoting Wednesdays on the Razor to profiling my classmates in the Yale Law Class of '90, which is proving to be an eclectic and fascinating bunch of people.

Currently, Michelle Browdy is General Counsel and Vice President of IBM, one of the most important legal positions in American business.

But, back in the fall of 1987, she was one of just a few other people entering Yale Law from the Midwest.  I remember feeling great relief when I met her that fall-- not everyone was from New York or DC!

As I remember, Michelle graduated from New Trier, the remarkable public high school north of Chicago. From there she went to Princeton for a bachelors, and then to Harvard for a masters degree in math. So... yeah, she was much better educated than I was at that point, but it was still great to find someone from the middle of the country! She had-- and seems to still have based on the video below-- the sensibleness that marks we Midwesterners at our best.

While we were in school, Michelle was a high-achiever in a group of the same. She was the Managing Editor of the Law Journal, among other roles. She also had the best skeptical look given to dumb comments in class. How do I know? Well, uh... it might be that I was the one making dumb comments in class. I can be like that.

After law school, she clerked for the Chief Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court. That was an unusual move-- many more people clerked in federal courts-- but one I admire even more in retrospect, as I continue to understand the importance of state courts.

From there, she went to work for Kirkland & Ellis, where she became a partner. From there, it was a sideways jump to IBM, where she has risen through the ranks to become the chief lawyer. It's a huge job-- and one that her skill set is well suited to.

Here's a snippet of her talking about law, technology and public policy: