Over three months recently, Latesa Bailey traded in her heels for some steel-toed boots and safety goggles.

For Bailey, the head of the human resources department and senior corporate counsel at Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia, getting into the plant and observing the work done there was the best way for her to truly understand the business. It was a theme many at a general counsel roundtable at the International Association of Korean Lawyers conference last week in Atlanta agreed with.