Big oil
JANET L. KELLY
Senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary,
ConocoPhillips
Age 52
COMPANY PROFILE
Headquartered in Houston, ConocoPhillips was created by the 2002 merger of Conoco, founded in 1875,
and Phillips Petroleum, which dated to 1903. The combination created the third-largest U.S. oil and gas company,
behind Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp.
ConocoPhillips reported 2006 net income of $15.5
billion on revenues of $188.5 billion. Some 32,500
employees work in 38 countries. ConocoPhillips operates several joint ventures, notably its half-interest
with Chevron in Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. ConocoPhillips holds a 20% stake in Russia’s largest oil
company, OAO Lukoil. ConocoPhillips’ refining operations include 12 facilities in the United States and six
in Europe that produce 2.7 million barrels of petroleum products per day.
The company owns 10,600 gas stations in the
United States under three brands: 76, Conoco and
Phillips 66.
ROUTE TO THE TOP
Janet L. Kelly began her corporate career in 1984
as an associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in
New York. In 1989, she moved to Chicago and joined
Sidley Austin, where she became partner in 1991. In
1995, she moved in-house at Sara Lee Corp., becoming general counsel later that year. In 1999, she moved
to Michigan to join Kellogg Co. as general counsel,
OUTSIDE COUNSEL
secretary and executive vice president. In 2003, Kelly
was named chief compliance and administrative officer
for Kmart Corp., which had just emerged from bankruptcy. Kelly hoped to help shape Kmart’s strategic
path, but soon concluded that joining the company had
been a “mistake”—her ideas didn’t mesh with other
executives’, she said. Kelly left after six months.
She worked part time at the Kalamazoo, Mich.,
office of Zelle, Hofmann, Voelbel, Mason & Gette, a
litigation firm based in Minneapolis, and taught mergers-and-acquisitions law at Northwestern University
School of Law. She returned in-house in 2006, moving
to Houston to become ConocoPhillips’ deputy general
counsel for corporate legal services. She succeeded
her predecessor, Steve Gates, when he retired as the
company’s general counsel in September.
LEGAL TEAM AND OUTSIDE COUNSEL
Kelly reports to Chief Executive Officer James J.
Mulva and oversees a team of 130 lawyers worldwide, half of whom work at company headquarters.
The department is organized into three main areas,
COMPANY
CONOCOPHILLIPS
CORPORATE
TRANSACTIONS
COMMERCIAL LAW AND
CONTRACTS LITIGATION
Glynn & Finley
TORTS AND NEGLIGENCE
Adams and Reese; Brown &
James; Landreth Law Firm;
Latham & Watkins; Lathrop &
Gage; Spears & Gary; Specter
& Willoughby; Watkins & Eager;
Zelle Hofmann
EMPLOYMENT AND
LABOR LITIGATION
Akin Gump Strauss
Hauer & Feld; Hall
Estill; Holland &
Hart; Tueth, Keeney,
Cooper, Mohan &
Jackstadt
IP LITIGATION AND
PATENT PROSECUTION
Baker & McKenzie; Daffer
McDaniel; Hovey Williams;
Merchant & Gould
