When children are asked what they want to be when they grow up, many often throw around professions like teacher, veterinarian, firefighter or athlete — but not Nancy Laben. After taking stock of what she thought she did well, she decided at 12 years old she was good at talking — and when she grew up, she wanted to be a lawyer.
“I didn’t really know what it meant to be a lawyer, but I knew I wanted to be one,” Laben said.
Today, Laben has a law degree from Columbia Law School, and is an executive vice president and the chief legal officer at Booz Allen Hamilton.
It wasn’t just her knack for talking that drew her to law. She was inspired by her grandmother, one of the first female lawyers on the East Coast.
“I grew up knowing that about her and seeing what she was all about,” Laben said. “At that time, female lawyers didn’t get a lot of opportunity, and so she told me stories of what it was like to try to have a career in law as a woman.”
While Laben’s interest in business wouldn’t sprout until later in life, she also knew at a young age she wanted her career to extend beyond domestic borders.
Laben was born in Boston but moved to Tokyo, Japan, when she was 12 for her father’s job with IBM. She’d spend most of her formative years growing up overseas, strengthening an interest in all things international.
“I knew I wanted to have a role that was broader than just domestic U.S.,” she said, “and my desire to do that really is best served by being in the business side of the legal practice.”
Laben received her bachelor’s degree in government and East Asian studies from Smith College in 1983. Her undergraduate studies included a year abroad in Japan studying Japanese political science. She went to law school directly after, graduating in 1986.
Picking the Right Path
Laben realized early she didn’t want to be a litigator. Being a business lawyer, commercial lawyer and an in-house lawyer meant being a problem-solver, she said.
“You have to bring to bear your legal skillset, your business acumen, your financial understanding, and judgment, all to solve the problem, and I much preferred that integrated approach,” Laben said. “I just thought it was a much bigger and meatier role.”
Right before attending law school, Laben had the opportunity to interview the Asia Pacific general counsel of IBM. She wanted to know what it was like to work in-house.
“I said to him, ‘Please just tell me, what does a typical day look like? I really have no concept,’” Laben said.
As the lawyer looked through his calendar, he realized he had an upcoming project and unexpectedly needed some help.
“So, he offered me a job, which was incredibly fortuitous,” Laben said.
Her first task as an intern with IBM was to go undercover as a student (which wasn’t hard, as she actually was a student) and travel to Akihabara, the electronics retail hub of Tokyo, to look for pirated IBM hardware.
People had reverse-engineered Apple’s first computers at the time, and would call them “oranges” or “pineapples,” and IBM was concerned the same thing would happen to its computers.
Laben was already fluent in Japanese, and the international task was exciting. Plus, she was able to learn about intellectual property law. She would spend every summer in-between law school working for IBM, and even part time during her third year. She joined the team full time after graduation.
She stayed with IBM’s counsel team until 1989.
When IBM wanted to move Laben to Vermont or Colorado and not overseas, she knew she had to make a choice.
“I knew I didn’t have the career that I wanted there in the long term, even if I went to Burlington, that wasn’t going to lead to Paris,” she said.
So, Laben proposed to her boyfriend at the time (her now husband) and decided she wanted to stay in Chicago.
She’d take a position with Andersen Worldwide in 1989. While it didn’t have an international legal practice, she had made the personal choice to be near her then-fiancé and eventually start a family. Plus, Laben had let the firm know if an international opportunity were to ever come up, she’d be interested.
In 1994, while pregnant with her second child, the firm’s managing partner of legal and the general counsel asked her to move to Hong Kong to set up and run the Asia Pacific team for Arthur Andersen and Andersen Consulting.
“Sometimes, it’s better to be lucky than smart, and so that’s what we did,” Laben said.
She had her son, took maternity leave while she and her husband planned their move, and moved to Hong Kong where she’d spend 5 years.
When Andersen Consulting became Accenture in 2000, Laben was asked to move to London to take over the team already there.
“That was my next challenge,” she said.
After 3 years in London, she moved back to the States to serve as deputy general counsel.
And after 21 years with Andersen/Accenture, Laben began looking for a general counsel opportunity.
“Going from deputy to GC, it’s a big step and most organizations want to bring on board somebody who’s already had the role of GC,” Laben said. “So, how do you get on the escalator the first time?”
Booz Allen was looking for a general counsel at the time, but she felt strongly about respecting her noncompete. So, she spent 3 years as the general counsel at AECOM and when it was time, pursued Booz Allen, accepting the job in 2013.
“I think Booz Allen is one of those interesting, ‘I was meant to be here’ places,” Laben said.
A People Business
As chief legal officer, Laben said each day is different — she doesn’t know what she’ll wake up to.
“There was a Wall Street Journal article 25 years or so ago that I still remember. It said, ‘What makes an expat successful?’ And the answer is, ‘Somebody who doesn’t mind their schedule being blown up every day on a regular basis,’” Laben said. She enjoys the crisis management and problem-solving element.
When there’s a challenge, for example, and Laben is called upon to figure it out, it’s her job to find a solution with the information given.
“What I like about coming in through the legal side of things is there’s a very definitive way you’re taught in law school about how to think,” she said. “And I approach things still with that very much legal mindset, but you can’t rely on that exclusively when you’re problem-solving.”
Rather, Laben also leverages her knowledge of people, her law and business expertise and 30 years of judgment, experience and knowing whom to call to get differentiated answers.
“I love the marrying of all of that, so that it’s not exclusively a legal answer,” she said. “And it’s also one of the ways to progress a career and continue learning.”
Much of Laben’s time is also spent on people and people matters, especially in the past year during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Trying to keep a team together, trying to make sure that they’re taking care of themselves, that we are giving them the resources they need, that they’re connected to the business,” Laben said. “That’s a lot of what I spend my time on, with respect to my teams.”
Laben is responsible for three teams: legal, ethics and compliance, and corporate affairs.
And in managing three teams, she’s focused on building a strategy, tracking the marketplace and strengthening the culture for what Laben refers to as the “next normal.”
“What does that look like? What does my team need? How are we going to be working? Are we going to be live in-person? Are we going to be in-person, but also remote?” she said. “And what does that do to the culture?”
Following suit, ESG, or environmental social governance, is a big focus area for Laben and Booz Allen’s leadership team going forward.
For Laben, moving forward means constantly learning, hiring people smarter than she is and maintaining a healthy work-life balance — especially after this past year.
“There’s always someone who’s smarter than you are, and I view my role as an integrator and as someone who can speak about issues and get points across,” she said. But for the best advice, she hires up.
Being a lifelong learner has also helped Laben recover from mistakes.
“Don’t ever stop studying or learning or adding to your magic bag or your toolkit,” she said.
And finally, the pandemic has solidified life is about more than working. Laben makes sure she and her team are taking care of themselves, their people and their family.
“I used to talk a lot about work-life balance as a woman in the workplace with two young kids and a husband who worked as well, and I think the work-life balance is now a broader question about what does it mean to live your life while working and doing your job,” she said. “I try to have my team understand that, too.”
Finding a Place and Making a Difference
At work, Laben is passionate about leaving the company better than she found it.
“It’s important to me to build career paths for my team, for the individuals in my team who come to work every day or dial into work every day,” she said. “They’re my primary motivation in the immediate term. I want to make sure that there are opportunities for them.”
Booz Allen vision is to empower people to change the world, Laben added, and she believes it’s a big part of her job.
“I am one of the folks who was really emphasizing diversity, equity and inclusion. And so that’s what jazzes me right now. I get up and focus on that that every day,” she said.
Personally, Laben is turning 60 this year, and is figuring out what’s next. She has no plans to retire, but is curious about what her future holds.
“I’m trying to do a little bit of self-exploration, if you will,” Laben said.
What she does know is that she’d like to get back into international travel and spend real time in cities abroad she loves. She also knows she’s excited to help members of her team grow into her role, and for the opportunity to open doors for her colleagues.