Andrea Zopp is the vice president and deputy general counsel at Sara Lee, where she manages senior attorneys at the operating divisions, Risk Management, Environmental Services and Safety, and supervises litigation.
After receiving a J.D. from Harvard, Zopp became United States District Court Judge George N. Leighton’s law clerk. Later, she was named first assistant to the Cook County States Attorney’s office. There, Zopp managed the day-to-day operations of a 900-lawyer office with a $75 million budget. “It was a high profile and difficult job where I honed skills that have been of critical use to me: personnel management, budget management, crisis management and communication, among others.”
Currently, Zopp is a member and former President of Chicago Inn of Court, and is active in the ABA and the Black Women Lawyer’s Association. In 2000, Illinois Governor George Ryan named Zopp to serve on the Commission to Review the Illinois Death Penalty Process.
Andrea Zopp urges women to take responsibility for their own careers. “Too many people expect that things will just happen to them because they are talented. They assume that someone will recognize their abilities and they’ll get good assignments.” The reality is, continues Zopp, “if you don’t take responsibility for your own career, no one else will.”
Return to In-House Women-of-Color Leaders List
From the March/April 2003 issue of Diversity & The Bar®