When at 16, Adelmise Rosemé Warner moved from Haiti to the U.S., she threw herself into learning English for the first time. Within two years, she'd been admitted to UC Berkeley. Today, she's the Chief Counsel for Employment, Compensation and Benefits at America's leading online radio company—Pandora. We have all the details about her journey to becoming an in-house employment lawyer—including her tips on how to prioritize personal development and better manage a team, plus an inside look at her ever-evolving role with Pandora.

I moved to the United States when I was a sophomore in high school. I did not speak any English, so I worked extremely hard (taking English as a Second Language classes) to graduate and get admitted into college. I was accepted into UC Berkeley, where I dreamed of becoming a doctor, but I quickly realized that I did not like blood, nor was I comfortable around people who were sick or dying—so I decided to major in Political Science instead.

During my junior year [of undergrad], I interned at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as part of UC Berkeley’s "Cal in the Capital" Program. I found myself interested in employment-related issues—like discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and the process for addressing those issues in the workplace, and so I decided to apply to law school.

I realized that I really loved employment law in my first year at UC Hastings. After graduating in 2001, I took a job at Heller Ehrman as an Employment Law Associate. As I worked with various clients and advised them on employment-related issues, I realized that, ultimately, I wanted to work in-house with companies and partner with Human Resources proactively to address issues in the workplace. Before that, though, I knew that it was important to get as much practical and deep experience in employment litigation as possible (including trial experience).

On Her Journey to an In-House Role

I left Heller Ehrman in 2005 and took a role as a Deputy City Attorney at the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office. While on that team, I co-chaired my first trial. Six years later, in the pursuit of my dream job (an in-house role), I decided to take a role at another law firm, Morgan Lewis & Bockius. There, I would have the opportunity to work directly with private companies (as opposed to government departments).

While at Morgan Lewis, I had an opportunity to do a secondment (temporary in-house role) at Gap, Inc. on its employment team. That was one of the best experiences of my career. After that secondment, in 2013, my former mentor at Heller Ehrman had an opening on his team at Electronic Arts (EA), Redwood City, and he reached out to me to apply for that role. I applied and was offered my first full-time in-house role at a private company.

On How She Knew Pandora Was the Right Fit

In 2015, I learned that Pandora was hiring its first employment lawyer. Although I loved my role at EA, I had a very long commute—3 hours each day—and I also had three young children. Pandora is a company whose product I had used for years and thoroughly enjoyed. It's also headquartered in Oakland (where I live). I applied for the role and was offered the opportunity to start an employment team.

On Pandora's Growth–Including Her Own Role

Basically, I am an employment attorney. I work with human resources and management to strategize and develop solutions to issues relating to people, within the appropriate legal framework. I partner with HR to ensure compliance with employment laws, but also to help develop people into the best workers and leaders they can be.

When I joined Pandora in February 2015, the company had about 1,400 employees. Now, it has nearly 2,000 employees. Pandora has gone through significant changes aside from the fast growth since 2015 as well. We've had four mergers and acquisitions, two divestitures, and shut down our Australia and New Zealand offices. We also went through a mass layoff earlier this year.

In 2016, Pandora released some aggressive diversity goals and commitments, including increasing the percentage of its U.S. employees of color from 35% to 45% and aiming to achieve gender, racial, and ethnic promotion parity by the year 2020. I work very closely with the Diversity and Inclusion Team in supporting Pandora’s diversity efforts.

In addition to those company-wide changes, my role has also evolved and expanded. I was twice promoted from Senior Employment Counsel to Lead Employment Counsel and to Chief Counsel—Employment, Compensation, and Benefits. I hired another employment attorney to help support the Human Resources team, and had one contractor for a period of time.

On Her Best Strategies to Manage a Team

The top three lessons that I’ve learned about leading a team are—

1. Communication. It is critical to maintain constant communication with your team members. This can be accomplished not only through 1:1s, but even ad hoc check-ins. Keeping your team in the loop on what’s going on in the company, and what may be coming down the road is very important to help them plan and manage their work and personal life accordingly. 

2. Transparency is key. I personally don’t like surprises. So, one of my requests of my team is to keep me informed so I am not surprised. For example, if we think a matter is going to end up in litigation, let’s talk about it and not wait until we get the claim. I also make sure that I am as transparent with my team as possible in terms of what roadblocks they may face in doing their work, what information that I may have received from senior leadership that I think my team should know about.

3. Development and mentorship are of the utmost importance. I am always looking for ways for me to develop in my career and learn new things. I also make a concerted effort to talk to my team about development opportunities. Being a leader inherently means that you have to be a mentor, and take a proactive approach to developing and growing your team members.