Janet Langford Kelly
Senior vice president, Legal, general counsel and corporate secretary
ConocoPhillips
Janet Langford Kelly is revered as one of the leading in-house international lawyers on complex energy matters with 25 years’ experience in the industry. ‘I don’t know if there is any straight “path” to becoming a GC, it is often as much luck as preparation,’ she says.
‘Work extremely hard at your craft; become an extremely good lawyer first. Develop a genuine interest in business – I think what separates good lawyers from good general counsel is a deep abiding interest in the business you’re associated with.’ Prior to her joining the oil major, she was a partner at Sidley & Austin in Chicago and moved in-house at Sara Lee Corporation in 1995 and then Kellogg Company in 1999, before moving to Kmart Corporation in 2003.
Law firms used: Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Fulbright & Jaworski, Kirkland & Ellis, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
2006-present: Senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary, ConocoPhillips
2003-06: General counsel, Kmart