Anat Hakim, the general counsel of WellCare in Tampa, Florida, was convinced through most of her childhood that she would become a doctor. She wanted to be a doctor so badly that her parents, who had a friend who worked as a heart surgeon, had her shadow him during open-heart surgery.

"I literally stood over the patient's head and just watched," Hakim recalls. "My first test was whether or not I would faint."

However, on a study abroad program during her freshman year of college, she further thought about her particular skills and what she loves to do.

"That was the first time that I sat down with a semi-adult brain and realized what I really enjoy is debating and public speaking," Hakim says.

Recently named General Counsel of 2019 by Corporate Counsel, Hakim's career began as an associate in 1993 at Latham & Watkins, where she was a commercial securities litigator, and then spent 12 years as a patent litigator at Foley & Lardner. However, after all of that time in private practice, she said she felt something missing from her career.

"After 17 years in private practice, I felt there wasn't anything left that I was excited about in private practice. It also didn't feel like I was in the sweet spot of what I love to do and what I was good at," Hakim says.

Hakim says she was not sure if going in-house would be for her. However, after her first interview to lead Abbott Laboratories' global patent litigation team, she realized she was making the right decision.

"It was exactly where I was using the skills that I most enjoy using. It is less writing briefs, going into court and doing depositions," Hakim explains. "There is more strategy, business judgment and having to make decisions with little information. It was much more fast-paced. I felt lucky they were paying me to do that. I like making those quick decisions."

Going in-house, for Hakim, felt like she was "coming home."

'Wholesale Changes'

Hakim says she loved her time at Abbott Laboratories, however, she wanted greater responsibility and relished the chance to lead a legal department. In 2016, Hakim was made the general counsel of WellCare and immediately looked for ways to change the structure and culture of the department. She says the legal department did not reflect the business.

Before Hakim joined, the business had restructured to a Medicaid and Medicare business, and the legal department did not follow suit.

"I worked with my deputies and we realigned everybody's position so that we're set up the same way the business is," Hakim explains.

Now, because of the work Hakim and her leadership team completed early in her tenure as general counsel, there is a dedicated leadership team each for the Medicaid business and Medicare business.

"We spent two or three months doing a wholesale review of what every single person [in the department] does and sat down with the leads of the businesses and restructured the entire department," Hakim says. "That way we were putting our best people on different pain in the business."

Another big change she made to the department at WellCare involved shifting people out of the company's Tampa headquarters. When she first joined the company, all of the attorneys were based there.

"None of the lawyers were out in our markets. Now, 50% of the department is spread throughout the country in our key business hubs and other locations," Hakim says.

Shifting Culture

Hakim says the legal department had operated in the same manner for a significant period of time. People could not give her an explanation on why things were done a certain way. She says that is not an acceptable answer for a department she leads.

"When I would ask, 'Why do you do it that way?' people would say, 'I don't know. That's just the way it's been done.'"

The culture of the legal department at WellCare when Hakim arrived was one where it was siloed from the business and where lawyers did not collaborate.

"There were a lot of people doing the same type of work but not leveraging knowledge from each other," Hakim explains.

Now, she asks lawyers to be involved in the business and be proactive rather than reactive to issues the business faces.

She says about half of the department have been new-hires in the past two years. However, those that stayed from the previous general counsel bought into the culture change Hakim was offering.

"A sizeable number of people are still here because they were eager. When they bought in, they would see they were happier and their work would be better. The culture of the department is a high-performing department," Hakim says.

Picking The Panel

Similar to the way that the legal department had done things a certain way just because that's how things had been done for years, Hakim says there did not appear to be reasons why certain firms were on the company's panel.

About a year into her role as general counsel, Hakim did a review of the firms and spoke to the in-house attorneys who had worked with each of them.

"We really wanted firms to show the commitment to our department," Hakim says. "We did that and ended up without 10 key firms and seven or specialty firms and better billing rates." She says the level of service has gone up because they understand the WellCare business.

A Deal In 2020

In 2020, Centene is expected to purchase WellCare for approximately $17 billion. Hakim says the lion's share of the legal department's efforts have been, and will continue to be, getting regulatory approval from 27 states and the Department of Justice to close the deal.

She says there have been a few people who have left the legal department because of the uncertainty that comes with a merger. However, when the deal was announced, she brought in a consultant who did one-on-one career consulting with each member of the staff to help ease attorneys' minds about WellCare being acquired.

"We were ahead of the curve in terms of how you deal with change. The department has come through incredibly confident. We've held onto a large percentage of our department. There is a level of confidence in what we've accomplished that is making people feel secure that I have their back, my deputies have their back, and that they're doing important work to get this deal closed," Hakim says.

Outside of guiding WellCare through the regulatory process, Hakim says it is business as usual for the legal department.

"WellCare is doing very well in terms of the business. We are continuing all of the licensing work we do and all of the regulatory things we do," Hakim says.