Linda A. Madrid: Still Trailblazing
As managing director, general counsel and corporate secretary at CarrAmerica, a Washington, DC-based multi-billion dollar real-estate investment trust, Linda A. Madrid is succeeding in an industry in which historically women and minorities have only recently begun to make strides.
"For me, having a different perspective has been a positive experience," says Madrid. "It's enabled me to say things that others at the table haven't observed. If it's not well received that's OK; when met with resistance, my challenge is to be heard and seen, and to make sure that my point of view is at least considered."
Prior to being brought on board with CarrAmerica in 1998, Madrid served as senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary at Riggs Bank NA, which was also based in Washington, DC. Like commercial real estate, financial institutions were not at the forefront of diversity, but Madrid has never allowed the status quo or anything else to hold her back.
Madrid learned the importance of vision and operating a business from her parents. Growing up in Phoenix, Ariz., she watched as her mother and father focused their efforts on raising their family and the family-owned pharmacy, education was not considered the sole path to success. Nonetheless, with the help of an interested high school counselor, Madrid went on to graduate from Arizona State University and later the Georgetown University Law Center in 1984. Each of Madrid's four brothers graduated from college as well, and that wasn't something many kids in her neighborhood accomplished.
Early in her years with Riggs Bank, as the now-defunct institution's first-ever litigation manager, Madrid agreed to be representative to the DC Conference on Opportunities for Minorities in the Legal Profession, with the provision that Riggs Bank's general counsel took the stated intention seriously and followed through with specific actions. He agreed, and as a result, Madrid was able to increase the bank's use of women and minority lawyers—a goal she long envisioned. She has brought that commitment to diversity with her to CarrAmerica, where she even takes it a step further by ensuring that selected outside counsel understand Carr America's commitment to diversity.
In 1997, Madrid was honored by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA®) with its first-ever Trailblazer Award, and recently by the Hispanic National Bar Association and the Hispanic Bar Association of DC as a Latina Pioneer in the Legal Profession. Sometimes, Madrid is a bit uneasy with lofty titles: "So many before me had more difficult rows to hoe," she says. "But I suppose I must acknowledge the truth that women and minority attorneys of my age did do things that have never been done before."
While still a young associate working for a K Street firm, Madrid was inadvertently excluded from an important dinner because a senior partner booked the celebration at a men-only club. Though devastated at the time, Madrid now looks back on the blunder confident that the partner never repeated his mistake, knowing that today's young women attorneys won't be absent as her male counterparts enjoy themselves and make important contacts.
"It's essential to continue to identify the important diversity issues as they come up, and it's the diligence with which we address these issues that's going to keep us moving ahead." says Madrid, adding, "The success of getting to the platform is great, but now it's time to share in all of its rewards."
Patrick Folliard is a freelance writer based in Silver Spring, MD.
From the July/August 2006 issue of Diversity & The Bar®