Les Parrette, general counsel and senior vice president of Novelis Inc., was among six GCs honored as 2012 “Legends in the Law” at the Burton Awards in Washington D.C.
The award goes to the general counsel of a company with more than $1 billion in annual gross revenue who has demonstrated leadership, character and authority in a specialized area of law.
At Novelis, Parrette oversees a global team of 35 legal professionals and is responsible for corporate governance, litigation, mergers and acquisitions, securities law and more. Parrette, who also holds the titles of corporate secretary and compliance officer, rejoined the aluminum company in October 2009. He held the same position from 2005 to early 2009.
Novelis CEO and president Phil Martens congratulated Parrette on the achievement, saying that “his wisdom, business savvy and leadership go well beyond diligent application of legal processes and strategies, and have, in fact, tremendously helped transform Novelis from a regionally focused organization into a truly world-class global enterprise.”
The other five winners of the award were Amy Schulman, general counsel of Pfizer Inc. and winner of one of the 2011 IC 10 awards; Marschall Smith, general counsel and senior VP of legal affairs at 3M Co.; Maria Pasquale, SVP and deputy general counsel at Celgene Corp.; James Strother, GC and executive vice president of Wells Fargo & Co.; and Prudential Financial Inc. general counsel Susan Blount, who also recently won a diversity award.
Now in its thirteenth year, the Burton Awards honors legal professionals at an annual black tie gala attended by law firm partners, law school deans and U.S. Supreme Court justices.
