When Sandra Leung was hired by Bristol-Myers Squibb in 1992 as a staff attorney in the litigation group, she never imagined that 15 years later she would be elected senior vice president and general counsel by the pharmaceutical giant’s board of directors.
“Back then, there weren’t a lot of people of color in senior positions in the company,” says Leung. “But that was a reflection of corporate America in general. Over the years, Bristol-Myers has introduced good recruiting programs to help qualified, talented women and people of color get their foot in the door, as well as good mentoring programs to retain them once they’re in.”
Leung leads Bristol-Myers’ legal department, acts as the primary legal advisor to the board of directors, and serves as a member of the executive committee and management council, reporting to the company’s CEO.
Before joining Bristol-Myers, Leung spent eight years as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, and one of New York City’s first-ever Asian American female prosecutors. Not fazed by untried terrain, Leung was part of the original special victims unit, specializing in homicides and the physical and sexual abuse of children. Leung tried her share of baby homicides while pregnant with her own child.
“Sometimes when I see TV shows like CSI, I think to myself, ‘If only we’d had the resources they have,'” says Leung. “It would have been wonderful.”
Those years spent in public service at the D.A.’s office helped her develop skills that have proved useful in her corporate career at Bristol-Myers Squibb. “I learned how to motivate people without the luxury of a lot of money,” she says. “But more importantly, I learned to make decisions quickly and to be accountable for those decisions. It surprises me how lawyers who’ve been in law firms most of their lives write memos and push things up without making a call.”
Moving from the D.A.’s office to an in-house job was a challenging transition, says Leung: “To go from prosecuting homicides to defending Clairol hair cases was a stretch, but what kept and keeps me at Bristol-Myers Squibb is our mission and pledge to extend and enhance human life. We’re a company that makes medicines in areas of significant unmet medical need. We make a real difference in the lives of patients.”
Leung’s mother and father, immigrants from Hong Kong and Canton, China, respectively, demanded academic success from their ten children. Unlike many of their contemporaries, however, her parents did not pass along any preconceived notions regarding race or gender. Consequently, Leung, who earned her law degree from Boston College Law School, did not allow stereotypes about Asians or women to play a part in her career decisions.
In fact, adds Leung, those kinds of misperceptions have served only to bolster her confidence, and, along the way, have encouraged her to strive beyond even her own expectations. DB
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From the July/August 2007 issue of Diversity & The Bar®