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In 2001, Danny Meyer opened a hotdog stand in New York City’s Madison Square Park, just steps away from the iconic Flatiron Building, as part of the effort to rebuild the park. Over the next twenty-two years, he turned that venture into a $3.16 billion publicly traded company called Shake Shack. Today, it has 371 locations in the US and abroad.
Ann Robertson, Shake Shack’s vice president and associate general counsel, says from the beginning that Meyer preached a single philosophy: stand for something good. “That’s how a company should operate,” she says. “You only really provide hospitality when you take care of your team. ‘Stand for something good’ starts within our own team.”
With a JD from University of Ottawa, Robertson began her legal career at Hogan Lovells, representing several of its Fortune 100 clients. “I thought it would be interesting to see how decisions are made within a company about some of the issues I had to deal with at Hogan Lovells,” she remembers.
She continued to build out her expertise on securities law teams at Time Warner and Saks Fifth Avenue before joining hospitality and leisure company Belmond as its associate general counsel, assistant corporate secretary, and chief compliance officer.
Then in 2019, Robertson accepted her current role at Shake Shack.
A self-described “generalist,” she oversees corporate governance, crisis training, and employment litigation. This requires intense collaboration with many internal groups, including HR. “It’s such a delight, my role, because I deal with so many internal groups,” Robertson explains. “I’m not just pigeonholed into a specific legal role. It demands that I look outside my office to so many people that are part of the company and develop relationships with them.”
Shake Shack, which went public in 2015, has been growing at a tremendous rate, and as associate GC, Robertson is consistently looking for better processes and procedures.
“Having had the opportunity to work with Ann in her roles at Saks and Shake Shack, I’ve been continually impressed with her cool head, impeccable judgment and high level of integrity and care,” says Jenna Levine, partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. “Her dedication and skill set always serve her well and make her a valued partner.”
A small part of her role in the company is environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts. Meyer’s corporate philosophy is at the heart of these initiatives, and its yearly ESG report is titled Stand for Something Good. The report also presents Shake Shack’s human capital management efforts by detailing its treatment of employees, training efforts, as well as the social aspects of ESG.
With the legal expertise that she’s gained throughout her legal career, Robertson’s advice to nascent lawyers is to be open to possibilities. “Don’t be afraid to jump into something that you don’t know or don’t feel you have the expertise in, or that you haven’t been taught,” she advises.
The two most important words in her leadership vocabulary are collaboration and sensitivity. It’s important, she says, to consider and understand another’s point of view and to listen intently.
Integrity, ethics, and confidentially are in Robertson’s DNA, all of which must be demonstrated by leaders in the law profession. “You have to be able to display that you can be trusted, not only by your team but also the executive team,” she says.
