After almost a decade of negotiating labor and employment disputes at O’Melveny & Myers LLP in Los Angeles, Kate Duchene was ready for a change.
“I had come off a couple of trials at O’Melveny and couldn’t see myself doing that for another 10 years,” she said.
But she wasn’t ready to walk away from law or her employment expertise.
A late 1990s call from a former boss about Irvine-based Resources Connection Inc.—a provider of accountants, lawyers and others on a contract basis—came at exactly the right time, according to Duchene.
The company—about to go public in 2000—had added a number of lawyers and met with Duchene late in the game.
“I called the then-human resource director and told him ‘You don’t know me but I’ve heard about your company and want to come down and talk,’” Duchene said.
Duchene was hired in 1999 to manage the human resources department. Within a couple of months, she added the titles of chief legal officer and corporate secretary.
Duchene was honored with a Public Company award earlier this month at the Business Journal’s inaugural General Counsel Awards at the Hyatt Regency Irvine.
Expansion
Since helping to take Resources Connection public, Duchene has overseen the expansion of the company’s human resources department, including developing and managing compensation and benefits, and designing client professional services agreements for the company.
Duchene now oversees 52 U.S. offices, 30 international offices, and more than 2,700 workers and 2,100 clients.
“I would never have had the opportunity to work with Chinese, Dutch and Italian colleagues with my old law firm,” she said.
The company, which does business as Resources Global Professionals, has grown through acquisitions and expansion of its offices.
Duchene—along with her team of five lawyers in the U.S. and Europe—has led the le-gal aspects of the company’s acquisitions, in-cluding the buys of Los Angeles-based public re-lations company Sitrick and Co. and Santa Mon-ica-based corporate advisory and restructuring company Brincko Associates Inc. in October.
The acquisitions led to the formation of Resources’ corporate advisory and restructuring subsidiary, Sitrick Brincko LLC, in 2009.
“We’re still getting to know each other,” Duchene said. “It has been the most aggressive and interesting acquisition because our businesses are pretty separate, but we see a favorable synergy in the end.”
The company saw a need for bankruptcy, restructuring and corporate advisory work during the downturn, according to Duchene.
“We had been thinking about it a while, but you want to take your time in a professional service to make sure it fits right,” she said.
Duchene also has led Resources through six global acquisitions, including the buy of parts of Deloitte & Touche LLP in Australia and a unit of Ernest & Young LLP in the Netherlands, as well as five acquisitions in the U.S.
“We haven’t done that many acquisitions, but each one has been a challenge,” she said. “They all haven’t been successful. It’s a people business, which always comes with wild cards.”
Duchene also acts as an adviser to the company’s board.
“Part of my development since joining the company has been working with the board and becoming an adviser of sorts depending on what role I’m playing,” Duchene said.
She serves in many advisory roles and as a result is involved in many aspects of the company and the board, she said.
“Understanding what role I’m playing, whether it’s advising the board, advising our chief executive, or representing the employ- ees or shareholders, comes down to look- ing at issues from many perspectives,” Duchene said.
As the master plate juggler, the balance of work and family has been a strong part of Duchene’s drive.
“I can compartmentalize so when I’m at work, I’m legal counsel,” she said. “But when I’m home, I’m a mom, complete with the baking of cookies.”
She fit the mold of Chief Executive Don Murray’s ideal manager: a multitasker with a family.
“I just love his philosophy about working with balance in people’s lives,” Duchene said.
Duchene also has been a board member for Human Options Inc., a shelter for battered women and their children.
