Lives of Consequence
Maxine Verne '76
Vice President and General Counsel, SCOR Reinsurance Company
Maxine Verne '76 had no intention of being a lawyer. Even when she enrolled in law school (thanks to her mother's nudging), she had "no interest in practicing," she says. After she graduated from law school, needing money for a bar mitzvah present, she took a part-time job at a national insurance broker.
"I got to do a lot of different things," Verne says. "Lots of acquisitions, which I didn't know a thing about at the time."
When the lawyer who hired her left, Verne was promoted to a full-time position as "the only lawyer in the U.S. for a company that had offices in thirteen different states." She learned about licensing, litigation, and a diverse range of tasks that straddle law and business. "I never would've chosen insurance, as is true for so many in the business. Insurance has the reputation of being boring, but nothing is further from the truth; insurance allows the world to operate. It's the ball-bearings and lubrication of commerce and industry, and you hardly get closer to making things work than that."
Verne left the broker when it was acquired, but continued working as a lawyer in the insurance world.
"I wasn't well suited to the law firm environment then," she says. "Now, I like being in-house; one of the allures is that you know the client intimately, know their needs and business, which is hard to do at a firm."
For more than 20 years, Verne has served as a lawyer -- first as Associate General Counsel and now as General Counsel -- for the U.S. operations of SCOR, an international professional reinsurance group focused on risk management through insuring other insurers, i.e. reinsurance.
"It's a long time to be at the same place," Verne says, "but as long as you're learning something and/or facing new challenges and you think the job is interesting, staying put makes sense. I came to SCOR in part because I wanted to work for a publically traded company; since then I have worked on many deals and transactions, which I love, and am actively involved in Federal and State regulatory matters affecting the insurance industry. Every day is different and I am never bored."
That diversity is part of the reason Verne prefers to work in-house over a firm or as a trial lawyer. As General Counsel at SCOR, Verne is responsible "for all legal areas (except claims and litigation), compliance, transactions, real estate, contracts, employment related matters—take your pick. It's all part of a General Counsel's bailiwick, which is the beauty of the job. Being in-house you have to be a lawyer but also understand and respect the practical business concerns."