I am Hanna Hasl-Kelchner, a licensed corporate attorney whose 27 year career includes stints as adjunct professor at top-ranked Duke University Fuqua School of Business and the Darden School at the University of Virginia where I taught Legal Leverage® to executive MBA students. I am currently Associate General Counsel and national counsel for trademark enforcement at Lorillard Tobacco Company. I earned my law degree from Rutgers University-Camden, my MBA from Cornell University, and my undergraduate degree from Duke University.

     My legal career began in Washington, D.C., spanning private and government practice, including service at the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). On a trip back to D.C. a young lawyer pointed out the Ronald Regan building to me on Pennsylvania Avenue and I couldn’t help mentioning that when I was living in the area the Ronald Reagan “building” was called the White House. Actually, Ronnie decided one of my ITC cases. Opportunities such as having your case reach the White House are part of what makes D.C. a unique and fascinating place to practice law, particularly for young lawyers. I still get Potomac fever from time to time and feel compelled to return.

     I moved to in-house practice in 1984, developing a diverse portfolio of increasing responsibility at Degussa Corporation, a subsidiary of Frankfurt-based Degussa AG, and at Reichhold, Inc., a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Dainippon Ink and Chemicals. Being close to the business decision making is where the action is. It lets me tap into my MBA strengths and I love it.

     I live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with my husband and a menagerie of pets. A frequent guest speaker on the subject of preventive law, I also serve on the advisory board of WeComply, Inc., and the editorial board of the Journal of Business Ethics Education.

     Some people have a hard time taking ethics advice from someone who works for a tobacco company. I respect that point of view and if you’re one of these people I’m sorry you let tobacco politics obscure a good message by shooting the messenger.

     This blog expresses my personal views, and may not necessarily represent the views of any past or present employers. It’s both an appetizer and dessert to The Business Guide to Legal Literacy: What Every Manager Needs to Know About the Law. I hope you’ll check them both out and help spread the word about the untapped business potential of legal literacy.

     You can let me know what you think by sending an e-mail to:

                     HHasl-Kelchner (at) legalliteracy (dot) com