About Karen Jones
Articles written by Karen Jones
Flash Forward
Joyce Haag on Eastman Kodak’s transformation from film to digitalWhen Joyce Haag joined Eastman Kodak in 1981, photography meant 35 mm film. The company, including its legal department, enjoyed a conservative business approach—one that allowed ample time to “thoroughly research and discuss any decisions,” she recalls. Furthermore, its products could last for years and didn’t require constant upgrades. That all changed when the digital camera inundated the photography market about six years ago. The revolution led to massive restructuring at Kodak, as …
Juilliard Without the Drama
How Laurie Carter keeps the performing arts performingIt’s not unusual for Laurie Carter, general counsel, vice president and executive director of jazz studies at Juilliard, to see famous faces on campus. She’s had memorable run-ins with Leontyne Price (“Bigger than life,” she says) and Mikhail Baryshnikov in an elevator (“I was thrilled but didn’t speak to him,” she says), but she usually keeps her distance. At “A Tribute to Luther Henderson,” a jazz concert held at Juilliard in 2008, however, all bets were off. “I try to be …
Nice to Meet You, Mikhail Baryshnikov
Laurie Carter still gets star-struck on the Juilliard campusIt is not unusual for Laurie Carter to spot famous faces at The Juilliard School in New York City, whose illustrious alumni include Wynton Marsalis, Robin Williams, Leontyne Price, Van Cliburn and Yo-Yo Ma, but bumping into Mikhail Baryshnikov in the elevator was quite another matter. "I was thrilled but didn't speak to him," says Carter, Juilliard's vice president, general counsel and executive director of jazz studies. "I met him sometime later in the president's office. He was being awarded …
Modernizing a 16th-Century Tradition
Sharon Grubin keeps The Met apace with the timesSharon E. Grubin's post as general counsel of The Metropolitan Opera sounds too good to be true. One might assume she's constantly surrounded by glamour, romance and luxury. That wouldn't be altogether incorrect. What would be false, however, is the assumption that Grubin doesn't get her hands dirty. For instance, there was the close encounter with a maverick goat named Lulu who nudged her way into Grubin's office and began munching on a pile of contracts. "It's a great way to clean up your …
The Third Lion
Robert Vanni helps protect the New York Public Library“I am probably the only person in the world who has written a contract to get books dusted,” says Robert J. Vanni, vice president, general counsel and secretary of the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. With more than 88 miles of bookshelves (and their delicate contents) stored in the institution’s vast Humanities and Social Sciences Library, dusting is no small task. With its famous marble lions framing the grand entrance at Fifth Avenue and 42nd …
The Human Drama of Life
Patricia Barbarito specializes in spooling unraveled livesTwenty-eight years ago, Patricia Barbarito, then an eager law student from Seton Hall, had an interview scheduled for a part-time law clerk position at a law firm headed by Peter Harris and Theodore Einhorn, located in Denville. A raging blizzard engulfed the region, but she was not to be deterred. She recalls, “It was such a horrific snowstorm! I got there three hours late, sobbing, because I thought I missed the interview.” She almost did; Einhorn and Harris were leaving when she pulled …
That's Not All, Folks!
How cartoonist Michael L. Goodman went from Bugs Bunny to the business pageMichael L. Goodman, a founding member of Goodman Allen & Filetti in Richmond, spends weekends doing what kids often do. He draws cartoons. Of course, his cartoons appear every Sunday in the Richmond Times-Dispatch business section. “I can lose myself in the drawing,” he says. “It’s a good catharsis.” His drawings represent a generic slice of business life, featuring uplifted noses and officious manners, and he takes an occasional poke at Donald Trump, Alan Greenspan and the like. …
All the Livelong Day
Susan Armstrong’s been working for the railroad“I love seeing the expressions on the jurors’ faces,” Susan C. Armstrong says, “when I put on a hard hat, safety goggles and work boots and demonstrate some aspect of railroad operations.” Armstrong, a partner at Troutman Sanders in Richmond, began working with railroads when she represented CSX, a Class 1 railroad, in 1986; but it was in 1988, while second-chairing a successful week-long trial in an anti-railroad venue, that her mentor, Jack Kay, decided she’d earned the privilege …
Doing the Right Thing
Corporate lawyer Maya Eckstein knows why this day is different from all other days, and it shows in her pro bono workAs Maya Eckstein opens the door of her Richmond home with an 8-week-old baby perched on her hip and a 2-year-old standing shyly by her side, she looks like any busy young mother. The toddler pulls on her hand and Eckstein ruffles his hair, promising him a story after his nap. This is the same woman alternately described by colleagues as formidable, intense and a sharp thinker. Eckstein is a study in such contrasts. A partner at the Richmond office of Hunton & Williams, she is …
The Keepers of New York's Treasures
They may be invisible — they like it that way — but the lawyers who protect the Guggenheim, The Metropolitan Opera and The New York Public Library system watch over the city’s cultural iconsProtecting New York Literacy “I am probably the only person in the world who has written a contract to get books dusted,” says Robert J. Vanni, vice president, general counsel and secretary of The New York Public Library. With more than 88 miles of bookshelves (and their delicate contents) stored in the institution’s vast Humanities and Social Sciences Library, dusting is no small task. With its famous marble lions framing the grand entrance at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, The New …
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