By Sheila Pursglove
Legal News
Professor Tom Saybolt owes his career choice to his grandfather.
“An accountant, he wished he had the analytical, negotiating and advocacy skills, and ability to see the bigger picture that law brings,” he says. “He was right, and I’m glad I followed his advice.”
After graduating from Fordham School of Law, Saybolt began a 30-year legal career with Ford Motor Co., handling U.S. and international business transactions, environmental and regulatory matters, tax planning issues, government relations work, and senior executive level management roles.
“My law school friends thought I was nuts to turn down offers with some of the biggest Wall Street firms to join the in-house legal staff at Ford, but a partner from Sherman & Sterling, who had become General Counsel at Union Carbide in New York, convinced me going in-house was a better route to being a business lawyer,” he says.
“He was right – I moved around a lot and the work was always challenging. Most people don’t realize the auto industry is one of the most regulated industries in the world, so it’s a great place to learn not just business skills but regulatory and legislative skills as well.”
Saybolt served as Vice President-General Counsel and Secretary of Ford of Europe, the company’s largest operation outside the U.S. He and his family lived in London where he promoted the use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms for resolving commercial disputes and played a leading role in the adoption of the European Union Block Exemption for Selective Distribution arrangements.
“My wife, who also worked for Ford, and I loved London. It’s a very manageable city and we were just a 30-minute train ride from central London.”
Returning stateside, he headed the tax group and later took the lead in divesting several of Ford’s financial services operations.
Promoted to Associate General Counsel-Distribution and Regulatory Affairs, he became the “face of Ford” with the lawyers at EPA and NHTSA. He became Associate General Counsel-Global Business Operations, with responsibility for the work of 65 lawyers in the U.S. and in Europe, Mexico, Canada, South America, China and Asia-Pacific.
He enjoyed the diversity of the work and the people.
“Not only did Ford have a tremendous cadre of lawyers, worldwide, but its management team was head and shoulders above those of most other auto companies and I suspect most other international companies,” he says.
“The business people who were my bosses were all pretty demanding and while they might press on major legal issues, in the end they respected your judgment, not just on the legal issue but how it would impact the overall business.”
Retired in 2004, Saybolt now teaches full-time as a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law and Co-chair of the Law Firm Program at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.
He teaches courses in Business Organizations, International Business Transactions, and International Trade & NAFTA. UDM Law has a joint J.D.-L.L.B degree with the University of Windsor, and Saybolt teaches Comparative Sales Law and Canada-U.S. Business Transactions.
UDM also offers an experiential “Law Firm Program,” founded by current Dean Lloyd Semple, former managing partner at Dykema, and Co-Chair Carol Clark of Honigman. It now has 20 LFP courses taught by law firm partners, judges, and distinguished practitioners from non-profits and business. Students “learn by doing” – how to negotiate, interview clients, and run a law firm.
“The program is so successful many other top law schools adopted similar concepts,” he says.
In June, Saybolt taught Business Organizations, Securities Law Regulation, and Mergers and Acquisitions, in a six-week program for top junior lawyers from more than 25 countries at the 47th Academy of American and International Law in Plano, Texas. The Academy gives foreign lawyers the opportunity to learn about American law and to contrast U.S. laws with laws in their own countries.
“I was attracted to teaching because I wanted to give something back,” Saybolt says. “If I could help students learn from my accomplishments and mistakes, hopefully it would make them better lawyers.
“I emphasize the importance of being more than just a good lawyer. Lawyers who stand out see beyond the law and help business people understand things like the reputational, not just legal, implications.”
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