About

‘The highlights and biggest achievements of my in-house career to date are related to my ability to assist the company with navigating some of its most significant risks,’ says Karen Hale on her time at Abbott Laboratories and its recently spun-off research business Abbvie. Hale currently leads Abbvie’s global compliance function in its Office of Ethics and Compliance (OEC). Following the separation she helped to establish processes for both corporate governance and the legal function. ‘In both legal and OEC I have enjoyed the constant evolution of our company and the complex legal and compliance issues we navigate’. On the subject of law firms, Hale cites ‘creativity’ as an area which could sometimes be improved upon. ‘The best law firms have lawyers who think outside the box and suggest novel solutions’.