#146: Christopher Stephens - World Bank General Counsel

How I Lawyer Podcast with Jonah Perlin

Welcome back to another episode of the ⁠How I Lawyer Podcast⁠, where Professor Jonah Perlin interviews lawyers about what they do, why they do it, and how they do it well.

Today's guest is Christopher Stephens⁠, the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the World Bank Group, a role he has held since 2022. Before joining the World Bank Group, Chris served as General Counsel of the International Finance Corporation (the private sector arm of the World Bank) and General Counsel of the Asian Development Bank. Earlier in his career, he was Managing Partner for Asia and a member of the management committee at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, where he was based in Hong Kong. He is a graduate of Colgate University and New York Law School.

In this episode, Christopher Stephens shares valuable insights about the legal profession including:

🏢💼 How his desire to avoid the repetitive nature of advanced microeconomics led him to pursue law as a career that would provide variety in clients and challenges [1:38]

📝🔄 How his initial "two-year plan" to work in Big Law before joining his father's small firm evolved into a much longer career path as he got caught up in the partnership track [3:46]

📊💰 How the 1980s "decade of greed" created a frenzy of transactional work with leveraged buyouts, management buyouts, and private equity deals that shaped his early career [5:27]

🌐📈 How the American legal market's focus on profits per partner, which increased partner mobility [7:10]

🌏💱 How the 1997 Asian currency crisis forced him to reinvent himself as a China Investment Lawyer just six months after arriving in Hong Kong [11:42]

🏦⚖️ How moving from a law firm to an in-house position at the Asian Development Bank represented a major shift from a business where law is the product to one where legal is a support function [19:21]

🌉🤝 How the public sector mindset differs from private practice, with a focus on outcomes like poverty elimination rather than profit [23:43]

🎓📚 How law students should take challenging courses like tax, environmental law, accounting, and international law that are difficult to learn after graduation [26:45]

🧠🔍 How critical thinking is the most important skill for young lawyers, who should question conclusions rather than accepting them at face value [34:30]

🛣️🔄 How being open to change and adapting plans can lead to better opportunities and more enriching professional experiences [37:36]

This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by ⁠⁠LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys⁠⁠.