Lindette Hassan

Senior Counsel, Intellectual Property, BASF Corporation
Fox Rothschild, 2007-2017

• J.D., Temple University School of Law, 2006
• B.S. in Biochemistry, University of Delaware, 2001

What attracted you to your current position?

This was an opportunity to work for a global company and one of the biggest chemical companies in the world. BASF is a business that touches virtually every country. What I was not expecting, was how collegial and kind the work environment is.

Who were your most memorable mentors and how did they shape your career choices?

I had three wonderful mentors at Fox: Marilou Watson, Abe Reich and Tristram Fall. I appreciate them all for different reasons. Marilou taught me patent law and helped me get comfortable with the agreements side of patent law, which is a lot of what I do now. From Tristram, I learned everything I know about trademark law and a lot about corporate agreement work, which is also very relevant in my current work. Abe was instrumental in helping me get comfortable presenting in front of a large group of people. He took the time to review my slides and gave me good advice about how to get over the initial butterflies. I now give about eight trainings a year for up to 150 people per training, and my comfort level in doing that has a lot to do with the advice Abe gave me.

What skills did you hone as a Fox lawyer that remain with you today?

The partners I worked most closely with at Fox – Marilou Watson and Tristram Fall – would often include me when they had meetings with clients. Learning how to interact with clients and how to explain complex legal concepts to non-lawyers are skills I use every day at BASF. My clients now are chemists or technical people or they’re on the marketing side, so it’s essential to be able to take legal language and translate it to their terms or just terms that would be easier to understand.

Where was your most memorable vacation and what made it spectacular?

My favorite vacation was in the South of France with my husband for our 10th anniversary. We spent some time in Nice, Cannes and Monte Carlo. On the night of our anniversary, we were just wandering around after dinner and we heard this loud bang and it turned out to be the start of a huge fireworks show on the waterfront. We had no idea it was going to happen, but it really made the night magical.

Are you binge-watching anything lately? What’s in your Netflix queue?

My kids are 5 and 1, so we’ve been watching "Trolls World Tour" a lot. They really love the music. I also just finished season 3 of "Ozark," which I highly recommend.