Aug 5, 2024
Show
Notes:
David Willbrand got married
immediately after graduation in 1992. He talks about that period of
uncertainty many graduates experience after school, and David did
not have a clear professional direction, but with an interest in
politics, he started working on a campaign for a city council
candidate in Cincinnati, which was short-lived but did lead to a
position with the Ohio EPA. David explains that he didn’t have a
particular interest in working in government or environmental
regulation but he needed a job and so took a job with the EPA,
which involved climbing smokestacks, not something he had prepared
for!
Testing Smokestacks for the
EPA
David's job was to ensure that
the testing would take place properly. He was onsite at regulated
entities who had big smokestacks that needed to be tested
periodically for particulate emissions and didn’t welcome the EPA
oversight. He would climb the 300ft smokestacks in cold
weather, sitting up there for eight hours to monitor the people
actually doing the testing, aware of the potential impact the
emissions were having on his health. Desperate for a new direction,
David decided to pursue law at the University of Cincinnati
College of Law. He shared how his unusual approach
(desperation meets urgency) encouraged the admissions department
into accepting his application. He reflects that he hated the
smokestack job is glad he did it, because it forced him to take a
step in a new direction.
Life at Law School and into
the .Com Era
David shares his love for law
school, in particular the direct interaction he had with the
faculty. He compares it to his experience at Harvard, where, with
respect to the faculty, he felt like he fell through the
cracks.
He went into law school without
a clear understanding of what it meant to be a lawyer. He initially
thought about environmental law but found it unsuitable due to the
preference for engineers. He stumbled into corporate law and found
the deal work and transactional work enjoyable. He was offered a
job at a Cincinnati law firm in 1996, graduating in 1996. The date
is relevant because 1996 is typically noted as the beginning of the
.com era, and suddenly there were multiple requests to deal
with the legalities surrounding startups. Startup work became his
area of focus.
From Cincinnati to a San
Francisco Law Firm and Back Again
He was offered a job at a law
firm in Boulder and spent three years there, advancing his career
and skill set. However, life threw a curveball, and he and his
family decided to return to Cincinnati in 2000. David worked
remotely for a year with a .com company based in Ottawa and New
York City. However, the .com bubble burst, and David decided to
leave. At 32 with two kids and a wife, he joined another startup in
Cincinnati, a B2B SaaS company. This was a difficult experience, as
the company had to lay off many people and he had to take on more
responsibilities in finance and HR.
Working with Founders and
Startups
In 2004, David decided to
return to a law firm environment; he joined Thompson Hine, an AmLaw
200 law firm, in 2004. They wanted to create a startup and venture
capital practice in the Midwest, and David was interested in being
on the front edge of that pioneering activity. Working with startup
companies and founders, he had the privilege of being a key advisor
and gaining exposure to various industries such as biotech,
hardware, devices, apps, and social media, and David shares how he
liked being involved at the leading edge of innovation. He also
felt that having a stake in the innovation economy was important
for the future of the Midwest, and it was emotionally rewarding to
participate in that mission.
From Private Practice to
Chief Legal Officer at Pacaso
David shares that he got
divorced in 2008 and remarried a year later to a woman he practiced
with. He explains why they decided to live remotely for the first
decade of their marriage. After the pandemic, David felt restless
in his legal practice; he needed either a new direction or to
change the configuration of his practice. He kept his eyes open for
opportunities. He had worked with a client who had sold a company
to Zillow and had started a new company called Pacaso. Pacaso was
growing rapidly and needed a chief legal officer due to the
complexity of the business and legal demands. In April 2021, David
walked away from his practice, which he had built over 17 years,
and has been at Pacaso since then. He explains that this experience
highlights the importance of adapting to change and staying curious
about new opportunities in one's career.
Making a Long Distance
Marriage Work
David discusses the challenges
of long distance marriages. He believes that the paradigm may be
more workable for second marriages due to different expectations in
duties. There are challenges, but a big benefit is that the couple
really values their time together and doesn't take it for granted.
They also get to spend time together without their children (when
their children are with their other parents). This segmented
approach can allow for a balanced relationship and
lifestyle.
Counseling Clients and
Monetizing Skills
David discusses his experience
as an attorney and how he found himself as a business counselor to
his clients as well. He talks about the difficulties many startup
founders face and how he became a person they could talk to, and
how he built strong relationships with his clients. He also shares
that he has found that using his legal skills through side hustles
can be a rewarding experience. David is currently an adjunct law
professor at the University of Michigan Law School, and has taught
courses on mergers and acquisitions, business associations, agency
and partnership and, currently, startups and venture capital, for
20 years. He also works with various incubators and accelerators to
help founders and startups.
Influential Harvard
Professors and Courses
David's undergraduate
experience at Harvard helped him develop critical thinking skills,
which are essential for success in law school and other careers. He
believes that his undergraduate experience at Harvard helped him
unpack inherited beliefs and biases, making him a more dimensional
human. He was actively involved at Phillips Brooks House, and the
Food Salvage initiative, which provided food to homeless shelters
around Cambridge. His experience exposed him to social issues and
helped him develop a skill set for running an organization. He
learned about people, deliverables, supply chains, and customers,
which he believes were invaluable in running a business. David also
shared his conservative, evangelical Christian background, which
influenced his political, social, and cultural views from his youth
through his time at Harvard and into his 30s. However, as he grew
older, he struggled with this belief system, and eventually moved
in a different direction and built his life on a different set of
values and principles.
Timestamps:
02:22: Career choices,
job dissatisfaction, and law school admission
08:49: Inspecting
smokestacks with a wand-like device
11:29: Career path and
personal growth in law
17:12: Career changes,
challenges, and lessons learned
20:29 Career journey in
law firm environment, including startup work and personal
life
27:02: Career growth
and change, with a focus on a lawyer's transition from outside
counsel to chief legal officer
29:33 The benefits of
long-distance relationships for couples with children, with
insights on how it can positively impact work-life balance and
communication
36:35: Career
development and pattern recognition in law
39:21: Personal growth,
education, and entrepreneurship
45:29: Religious
beliefs and their evolution in a Harvard student's life
Links:
David’s
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-willbrand-9062011/
Featured
Non-profit:
The featured non-profit
of this episode is The Kentucky Student Voice Team, recommended by
Rachel Burg Belin who reports:
“Hi, I'm Rachel Burg
Belin, class of 1992. The featured nonprofit of this episode of the
92 report is the Kentucky Student Voice Team. The Kentucky Student
Voice Team is an independent youth led intergenerationally
sustained organization. The mission is to support young people as
education research, policy and storytelling partners to co create
more just democratic schools and communities. I love the work of
this organization. So much so that ever since 2012 When I worked
with a team of high school students to conceive and CO design it,
I've been pouring my everything into it. I also serve as its
managing partner. You can learn more about the Kentucky student
voice team@ksvt.org And now here's Will Bachman with this week's
episode.”
To learn more about
their work visit: https://www.ksvt.org/