Leading Asian American Lawyers | Wei Chen, EVP & General Counsel at Infoblox

As part of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we connected with leading Asian American lawyers who inspire us to discuss their careers and insights as lawyers, in order to showcase the significant contributions of Asian American lawyers to the legal field.?

Wei Chen, EVP & General Counsel at Infoblox

Has your AAPI identity impacted your professional experience??If so, how?

I came to the U.S. from China after graduating from college. For the first twenty years after arriving, all I could think about was how to assimilate into the American “mainstream” culture. I saw my Chinese heritage as a burden because it directly and adversely impacted my ability to stay in this country (i.e., a green card) and to make a living as a lawyer (i.e., English as a second language). For a long while, I did not speak up because I felt that I sounded different. Aside from the accent, I had a different perspective on things and I asked different questions.

As I grew older and became more experienced, I stopped caring too much about what others thought of me. I became less afraid of being different. I realized that being different reflected who I was, where I grew up and how I was raised. I started experimenting with being authentic - some politely backed away. But, for others, I was able to connect and build a deeper relationship. I feel happier, freer, more entrepreneurial, productive, optimistic, and sometimes even invincible. Being true to my AAPI identity helped me get away from worrying about what others think of me so I can focus on what is important: how I make a positive contribution to the world we live in.

What is the professional accomplishment you are most proud of?

I am proud of founding The Atticus Project, a non-profit organization that aims to accelerate AI development in contract review by creating and disseminating legal datasets and information.

I’m particularly proud of it because I’ve decided to be a part of the solution to a difficult problem. Early on in my career as an M&A attorney, I spent countless hours going through legal contracts as part of the due diligence process—a very labor-intensive job. With the rise of artificial intelligence in recent years, we’ve tried to alleviate some of the manual work that goes with this task. But because AI tools are only as good as the training data used to develop them, the AI industry needed experienced lawyers to annotate relevant provisions in lots of legal contracts. Instead of waiting for the AI scientists to solve my problem, I decided to tackle the problem myself. After a few months of trial and error, the volunteers of The Atticus Project released an open-sourced labeled dataset for legal contract review with over 13,000 annotations from 200+ Edgar commercial contracts corresponding to 40 types of clauses. The lack of high-quality training data has long been a bottleneck for Legal AI development. We hope this dataset will be a catalyst for more legal AI innovations and move the industry forward for all. We are a long way away from coming up with a solution, but I am proud of the accomplishments we have achieved since the start.

What AAPI role model has inspired you and why?

I would pick Chloé Zhao, Academy Awards Best Director (technically not Asian American because her nationality is Chinese), and Indra Nooyi, former CEO of Pepsi. Seeing the possibility of people with similar backgrounds achieve heights in professions that were considered off-limits: that’s the power of role models. Once you see someone like you in a position that you never thought was possible, you cannot help but say to yourself: “Maybe I can do this too”.

What do you think is the most important issue facing the AAPI community today?

I don’t want to place the entire AAPI community under one label, so I am going to limit this observation to just me. Too often, we wait for permission to speak up. A month ago, I joined Infoblox as its General Counsel. Even as a member of the ESuite, I found myself unconsciously waiting for permission to speak up. After all, I am new; I don’t know much about the business and the products; I am a first-time GC; etc. Until one day, I said to myself: “You know what? I am just going to do it. What’s the worst that could happen?” So I wrote down my thoughts on the company’s vision and culture and shared them with the entire ESuite team.

The positive feedback I got from my CEO, CFO, and other peers was overwhelming. It helped to reinforce the idea that we all have the power to speak up without waiting for permission.?

What advice would you give AAPI lawyers interested in building their careers in-house?

I would say maintaining a growth mindset and having the courage to stretch yourself. During my first 1:1 with Jesper Andersen, Infoblox’s CEO, he told me that I should aim to spend 70% of my time thinking about the company’s strategy, vision, and culture, and 30% about my function. I need to be a leader to the whole company as well as my own team. I have to admit, I was overwhelmed at first. It is a powerful reminder of what it takes to be a great in-house attorney. It is not enough to be just a gatekeeper or an enabler. A great in-house attorney takes the steering wheel and drives.

What does allyship to the AAPI community look like or mean to you??How can law firms promote AAPI allyship?

An ally is a student of culture willing to have courageous conversations.

Imagine you walk into a room; all heads turn and awkward silence follows. An ally would be one who walks up to you not just out of the kindness of their heart, but out of their genuine appreciation of the value that people from different cultures bring to the table.

In terms of courageous conversations, I am going to limit this observation to just me again. I appreciate the ally who taught me the importance of effective communication more than the one who said nothing due to the fear of offending me. My CEO, for example, did not stop at encouraging me to share my thoughts, he sat down with me and provided feedback on them. That’s what true allyship looks like.

If you could design an AAPI superhero, what would the superhero’s power be?

The power of spreading positive energy and the courage to make a difference to everyone.??

Have questions? Contact the Hogan Lovells D&I - Americas team at [email protected].