Leaders Speak - Breaking all In-House Myths

Melissa Zujkowski

Vice President, Litigation & Disputes

Flex

Melissa Zujkowski serves as Vice President of Litigation and Disputes at Flex. She joined the company in July 2014. In her role, Ms. Zujkowski leads and manages commercial litigation, including hiring and oversight of outside counsel; provides strategic legal advice and direction to business partners related to litigation and commercial disputes; develops training and communications for management on new legal trends and litigation avoidance; and provides support in FAS 5 and audit-reporting processes.

Before joining Flex, Ms. Zujkowski spent 10 years at Ulmer & Berne LLP, most recently as a Partner. Her experience at Ulmer included regular representation of large banks and mortgage-servicing companies in defense of consumer claims brought in response to foreclosure litigation; navigating and streamlining the e-discovery process for large institutions and developing cost-efficient strategies for use in internal fact-gathering and discovery response efforts; coordinating third-party vendors and contract and/or staff attorneys; and counseling manufacturing clients to develop licensing and distributorship agreements geared toward avoiding and/or providing protection in the event of litigation.

Ms. Zujkowski has significant experience in injunctive relief proceedings, including prosecuting and defending clients in TRO and preliminary injunction proceedings. She also successfully appealed a trade dress protection case for a market newcomer accused of copying a large competitor’s unpatented product. The Sixth Circuit reversed the decision and saved the client $2 million in damages.

Ms. Zujkowski has also served as Program Director for the Cleveland Homeless Legal Assistance Program, an organization which provides free legal assistance to indigent people who are homeless, in danger of becoming homeless, or those who have been homeless during the recent past.

Ms. Zujkowski earned her JD, cum laude, from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. She also has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History from Northwestern University.

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Flex (NASDAQ: FLEX) is the Sketch-to-Scale™ solutions provider that designs and builds intelligent products for a connected world. With approximately 200,000 professionals across 30 countries, Flex provides innovative design, engineering, manufacturing, real-time supply chain insight and logistics services to companies of all sizes in various industries and end-markets. Flex reported revenues of $23.86B for FYE March 2017.

1. I would like to start off with one of my favorite questions – What got you interested in law and finally made you decide to pursue law as a profession?

The money. It’s not what’s kept me there, but I’d be full of it to claim a different original motivation.

2. If you had to give a quick overview, according to you, what kind of litigation work are in-house litigation counsels generally involved in?

For me, everything. It’s a much more diverse practice than I had working at an outside law firm. The majority of our cases are contract disputes, but we have a range of substantive issues including products liability, personal injury, tax, environmental, IP, bankruptcy, and securities. And on top of that, we have issues spread out all over the world. It makes for an interesting and dynamic practice. I’m always learning and am never bored.

3. Do you feel having a pure litigation background helps in leading an in-house litigation team?

Yes. We outsource most work to outside counsel and my primary job is to manage those outside lawyers and develop strategy in line with company goals and risk tolerances. Having a litigation background allows me to credibly challenge outside counsel, who often are overly risk averse and don’t understand our business. I have a high comfort level with the litigation process so I can push back on recommendations we get from outside lawyers and steer matters in the right direction for us. Without that expertise, we’d end up being overly deferential to the recommendations of outside counsel, which in my view are not the right path for Flex a high percentage of the time.

4. What are the traits and proficiencies which in-house litigation counsels should possess?

· Ability to juggle competing demands in high pressure environment.

· Confidence to offer opinion with incomplete information.

· Ability to relate to people from various backgrounds and help them feel at ease when on the hot seat.

· High level of comfort with ambiguity.

· Risk tolerance in line with company goals.

· Project Management skills.

5. Do you see any major trend in legal tech affecting in-house litigation?

Not really. I pre-suppose in that statement that a law department already has fundamental tech infrastructure, such as eBilling software, AI/predictive coding algorithms used in culling documents for eDiscovery, and modern versions of legal research tools. But these things are not new. I don’t see anything new out there that would be a game-changer for us (although I endure countless pitches from vendors on this type of thing.)

6. Any words of wisdom for our dear readers?

It takes too much energy to be anyone other than yourself. Be authentic and the right path will find you.

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