Philip Paccione has won prestigious awards for his work as general counsel of Skechers—for which he has been the only GC, helping to lead the company from startup to shoe-industry staple. Yet, he’s the kind of man who insists on describing his career path as “typical.”
Paccione’s “typical” path started at the ripe old age of 15, when his sophomore history teacher lit a fire that would lead him to law school. Instead of teaching history through memorization, Paccione’s teacher took an adversarial approach, emphasizing that there were two sides to everything, and encouraging students to take a position and defend it. Paccione, who says he wasn’t a strong math student, thrived in the analytical environment, and his teacher took notice, suggesting that he consider a career in the law. By the time he reached college, Paccione knew where he was going.
