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While it may be willing to take risks in funding new start-up companies, Charles River Ventures played it safe when its general counsel position opened up. The Boston-based venture capital firm turned to a familiar face: Sarah Reed, who had occupied the post for almost eight years earlier in her career.

Reed, 45, replaces Lisa Haines, who left to join law firm Outside GC. Reed originally joined Charles River in 2000 and left at the beginning of 2008 to establish a new office for Lowenstein Sandler. At Lowenstein, Reed advised venture and private equity funds for a year and a half. She says she's glad to be returning to Charles River, where she will be the sole legal officer, handling not only the firm's internal legal issues but also legal relationships with the firm's investors and portfolio companies. She will assist in the internal activities of some of Charles River's portfolio companies, which include Twitter, Inc., and other media and technology start-ups.

Although she welcomed the opportunity to build a new office for Lowenstein, the combination of a new job and three growing children—the youngest of whom was adopted from China—may have been too much for her, admits Reed. "Maybe it was a kind of arrogance that I thought I could be very successful and still manage to have a decent family life," she says. "It took a huge toll on my family."

Reed and her husband, a busy litigator, don't employ a regular nanny. Reed prefers to do it all herself. It's an unconventional, hands-on approach that has defined much of her career.

At Charles River, "I really have a much broader range of legal opportunities than I do in a traditional operating company," says Reed, who is fluent in Chinese (no small feat, but helpful with a Chinese child at home). "I'm a jack-of-all-trades." Although she focuses on corporate work, she started out as a litigator in the Boston office of Foley, Hoag & Eliot (now Foley Hoag) and says she'd be willing to represent Charles River in court.

After her time at Foley Hoag, Reed has devoted most of her career to in-house work, which she says is much easier to balance with family life than firm practice because it’s easier to plan for and prioritize. Before arriving at CRV for her first stint, Reed served as general counsel at Palomar Medical Technologies, Inc., a medical device manufacturer. She earned both her undergraduate and law degrees at Harvard.

Reed says she’s thriving at her job, but if she needs a break, she might have another career option: "I like to joke that I have more fitness certifications than legal certifications," she says. Not only does she run marathons, but she also teaches spinning (indoor cycling) and Pilates in the mornings and weekends, even introducing spinning to CRV’s company gym. Jack-of-all-trades, indeed.

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