The CEO of pharmaceutical giant Merck is a Harvard-trained lawyer, and he shares what attorneys need to do to be 'treated as the wise people in the room' again

Emma Court

Apr 23, 2019, 20:24 IST

The CEO of pharmaceutical giant Merck is a Harvard-trained lawyer, and he shares what attorneys need to do to be 'treated as the wise people in the room' again

Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier.

Lawyers today face a lot of pressure to specialize in a particular area of law.
That emphasis comes at a price for the profession, Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, who has a law degree from Harvard, said during a talk late last month.
Having a broader set of experiences at Merck has helped Frazier lead the company, he said during the talk.
Frazier was named to Business Insider's list of the 10 People Transforming Healthcare. Click here to see the whole list.
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Forty years ago, a newly-minted Harvard Law graduate went off to work at a large law firm's Philadelphia headquarters.

Pressure to specialize in one area, like trial law, had already started to build. But upon his arrival, Kenneth Frazier found that his broader experience was valued by his new firm, where he was expected to shuttle through various departments before settling in on one.

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Frazier's career would take him from the courtroom to the boardroom, where he is today the longtime CEO of US drug giant Merck.

Other young lawyers aren't getting that same education because of an emphasis on "hyper-specialization" in law today, Frazier said during a lecture in New York City late last month.

Why lawyers are now viewed as technicians

Frazier said he's worried that's influenced how people see the field and contributed to a reduced role for legal professionals.

Lawyers were once relied on not just for legal advice but also for guidance on business and interpersonal matters, but they "are no longer treated as the wise people in the room," Frazier said. "They're more viewed as technicians."

"It's horrifying to me that my businessman colleagues think they should get advice from McKinsey. Or worse yet, Goldman Sachs," Frazier said. "And I think one of the reasons is people perceive lawyers as being incredibly narrow."

How young lawyers can 'fight against the tyranny of specialization'

Frazier's concern is grounded in his early experiences at Merck.

When he joined the company's legal department in 1992, Frazier was being groomed to be Merck's next general counsel.

But in his first year on the job, Merck's then-CEO urged him to leave the department. Instead, Frazier was advised to try out other parts of the business.

Making his way from the drugmaker's legal to finance, marketing and policy and government affairs divisions, Frazier "had to get over the fact that I didn't have that depth of knowledge" that his colleagues had, he said.

"My spouse used to say, 'Don't say you're ignorant, say you're unencumbered by orthodoxy'," he told the audience at the New York City Bar, to laughter. But as a result, "I think I'm now in a position to be the integrator inside the company."

Today, he recognizes that what that CEO did was a "great favor."

And though it's harder in today's legal world, young lawyers should think about what they want out of their careers and broaden their experience as much as possible, he said.

"What's going to help you is understanding the business and what drives the business, and so I would say to you, fight against the tyranny of specialization," Frazier said.