About

Less than a year into his in-house career, Richard Calame was seconded to act as general counsel at Raytheon-owned Flight Options during its complex share divestiture from 2006 to 2007. As well as managing day-to-day legal operations during this time, Calame is praised highly by Steven Browne of Bingham McCutchen LLP for his role in ‘shepherding’ the business through the sale. ‘We had to make assessments of how we translate normal policies to a different situation and different culture,’ Calame says on the challenges of the role, adding: ‘I was wearing two hats’. Coming from a primarily M&A background, Calame reached partner-level at Sullivan & Worcester, before moving to major defense contractor Raytheon in 2005. ‘It was primarily the ability to be closer to the business and strategy considerations for transactions,’ he says on the appeals of moving in-house. ‘I had been doing mostly M&A for about 10 years and it had always been a feeling there was a bit missing’. His experience of outside counsel has generally been positive, though he says an area for improvement is ‘wiser’ use of associates, in the interests of saving costs for clients.