Since July, Clarissa Cerda has been general counsel of Pindrop Security, a voice-fraud prevention and authentication firm. She was an attorney at Dentons predecessor firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP from September 1995 to January 2008, during which time she was a Corporate and Securities partner.

Who was a significant mentor for you during your time at the firm?

I was very lucky to have many mentors at the firm. As the first female Hispanic partner in the 100-year history of the firm, I understand it is not always easy to find someone that “looks like you” to mentor you in your chosen field, so a collection of different mentors is advisable—especially for women and minority lawyers. My most significant mentor was the legendary [former Sonnenschein Partner] Paul Miller, who looked the most “not-like-me” at the firm. We were opposites when it came to gender, cultural backgrounds, preferred working hours and political parties, but we had similar negotiation styles on which we bonded and became fast friends. He will always hold a very special place in my mentor collection.

Describe an important milestone in your career from your time at the firm.

This one is easy: the day [former Sonnenschein Chairman] Harold Shapiro talked me into adding a specialization in technology law to my corporate and securities background. According to him, it was going to be the next big legal specialty of the future, and I had a chance to get in on the ground floor. So, I went to those original “First Tuesdays in Tech” with him, and 20-plus years later, I am a four-time general counsel of cutting-edge, hyper-growth technology companies—utilizing every bit of my technology licensing, data privacy and cybersecurity expertise on a daily basis alongside my corporate transactions and public securities background. Thank you, Harold!

What are some of the most important skills lawyers must develop in order to succeed and stand apart from competitors?

One of the most important skills a lawyer needs to truly stand apart is the ability to navigate the gray. For me, that means not just being an aggressive lawyer (from his or her perspective everything is white) or a conservative lawyer (from his or her perspective everything is black), but rather being a good enough lawyer from a technical perspective that you can be an aggressive lawyer when the law is white, a conservative lawyer when the law is black, and a really creative lawyer when the law is gray.