About

Teresa Sebastian says one of the reasons for joining Darden Restaurants in 2010 was that she liked its focus on diversity. ‘I want my team to reflect the restaurant employees, so while I evaluate them based on skill, I want to give the many great lawyers of color, the females, and those from the LGBT community, the opportunity to realize their dream’. The same applies when instructing outside counsel: ‘I want these people to benefit so that they can climb the ladder’. This approach is appreciated by firms. Thomas Raleigh of Akerman Senterfitt notes, ‘her leadership is positively affecting the development of diverse legal talent, at both Darden and outside law firms, who are asked to report on such efforts annually’. Sebastian has proven her worth in many respects; she restructured the legal department to form teams grouped by practice area (instead of brands), oversaw the company’s international expansion through franchise (relatively new territory for the company), and introduced new initiatives to make working with outside counsel more effective. One of these initiatives was holding a summit meeting with outside counsel for in-depth discussion about the business, and making them pay for attendance to demonstrate their investment in the company. Another was introducing a dual evaluation process, whereby inside and outside counsel can give anonymous feedback on each other. Raleigh comments, ‘Darden’s legal department now is oriented to make contributions to business results’, and he describes Sebastian as a ‘true TSR (total shareholder return) contributor’.