Nona Lee, chief legal officer and executive vice president of Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks, describes herself as a one-time reluctant lawyer. But once the former college athlete discovered that she could combine her legal knowledge with her passion for sports, she knew she had found her calling.

Corporate Counsel recently spoke with Lee, who just ended her term as president of the national Sports Lawyers Association, about her 20-year in-house career with the Diamondbacks and the obstacles she faced as an openly gay, African American woman. Here are excerpts from that conversation, edited for clarity and brevity: