Laurie N. Robinson

Assistant General Counsel, Labor and Employment Division, CBS Broadcasting Inc., New York City. Age: 33

Laurie Robinson has a heavy workload as assistant general counsel in the labor and employment division of CBS Broadcasting Inc. But the Maryland native, a graduate of North Carolina Central University and Indiana University School of Law, finds time to do a whole lot more. She is the author of numerous articles, ranging from a discourse on the degree of latitude employers in America have under the Americans with Disabilities Act in using pre-employment personality testing (American Bar Association, 2005), to a discussion of “The Globalization of Female Child Prostitution,” published in 1997 by the Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies. Robinson also serves on the Alumni Board of Indiana University School of Law, and devotes time to educating her fellow parishioners at the Harlem-based Soul Saving Station’s Legal Ministry.

Raised in the predominantly African-American and relatively affluent Fort Washington community of Prince Georges County, Md., she was surrounded by lawyers, including her late father, surgeons, generals, school administrators and other professionals. She is concerned for today’s youth, who are growing up in far more challenging circumstances than she did, she says. Ever the change agent, her concern led her to form, some two years ago, Corporate Counsel Women of Color, a growing not-for-profit organization that provides a network of support to more than 1,300 women lawyers.

Along with her peers, she endeavors to use the school system to transform the realities of those shackled by unfortunate circumstances. Her hope is that some little girl will see a new picture of future possibilities and step into the power chair she or another woman attorney vacates. Robinson was recently named a “power broker” by Inside Counsel in its “GC 50” list of the most influential in-house counsels in North America in 2005.

If you ask Robinson how she finds time to do all that she does, she will give you a response straight from her religious upbringing: “With God, all things are possible.”