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If you ask Jan Fink Call about her values, she talks about the minister and teacher who raised their family to think of others before themselves. If you ask Call about her professional career, she talks about the mentors who provided guidance and counsel for an eager pupil. And if you ask Call about her success, she’ll talk about her husband who made a career transition to social work and her children who are pursuing lives in public service in their own studies and early careers.
Any question asked of Call about herself is usually answered through the works and service of others, and in so doing, she reflects the values of both her parents, the in-laws Call married into, and those she is determined to live up to.
The head of global litigation at DSM-Firmenich has spent the last nine-and-a-half years and three promotions perfecting the in-house service she came to later than most in her career. Call has a clear passion for litigation—she spent over twenty years working in private practice after she earned her JD from the University of Kansas School of Law.
“For such a bad business experience, it was an incredible learning experience where I got incredible mentorship from our CEO.”
Jan Fink Call
“I was one of those strange people who knew they wanted to be a lawyer since the third grade,” Call says, laughing. “I grew up in a time where women were really starting to make strides, and my father, in particular, told me that I could have any kind of career that I wanted. Law as a ‘man’s job’ didn’t even occur to me, and I credit so much of that to my dad.”
Call says early mentors for her in private practice offered real-time education in litigation. She remembers sitting in a deposition and getting passed a note from a colleague letting her know that the phrasing of an attorney’s question would benefit from some rewriting with an explanation of why. From her time in school to her career to early motherhood, Call says she always felt supported.
Private practice often gets a bad rap for the hardships it can cause families, but Call says she was able to stay in the firm life for so long precisely because she worked with people who appreciated her time management and commitment to both her family and her work.
“My colleagues knew I was going to get the work done and done well,” Call says. “And they also knew that I took my role as a mother very seriously. I remember one of my female partners talked with me a lot about the challenges of working with a family; she said she learned that depending on what age your kids are, you find yourself just exchanging one set of issues with another. You’re juggling a lot.”
Mentorship would play a critical role when Call decided to make the leap in-house. The role turned out to be an absolute nightmare. Within six months of her hiring, an inopportune merger essentially tanked the entire company, and an executive was brought in not to work through bankruptcy or restructuring, but to wind down the business entirely.
“This was the kind of experience I’m glad I [had] but would never want to go through again,” the lawyer says. “It was advocated that I stay onboard until the very end because of my negotiating experience.”
“I grew up in a time where women were really starting to make strides, and my father, in particular, told me that I could have any kind of career that I wanted. Law as a ‘man’s job’ didn’t even occur to me, and I credit so much of that to my dad.”
Jan Fink Call
A small group helped take things to the finish line, all while Call’s CEO repeatedly encouraged her job hunting and said he understood if she found her next opportunity and needed to leave.
“But this whole time, I was getting this amazing education and learning so much about areas I had never worked in before,” Call recalls. “For such a bad business experience, it was an incredible learning experience where I got incredible mentorship from our CEO.”
Fortunately, the last nearly ten years at Firmenich have been much calmer. But as evidenced by her repeated promotions, Call is much more than a skilled litigator. Her generalist skills continue to accrue, and the lawyer now acts as a mentor for others in numerous ways.
“Jan Call has a rare combination of tremendous litigation skills, natural leadership gifts and the compassion to mentor and elevate everyone around her,” says Jonathan Segal, partner at Duane Morris LLP. “It’s a real privilege for me and Duane Morris to work with Jan and her excellent team at Firmenich.”
Call has participated in a cross-divisional mentorship program that connected her with a younger colleague out of her department; her most recent partner was a food technologist. The lawyer may not understand the first thing about the day-to-day work of a food tech, but she does know how to support someone early in their career.
“We can talk about what she wants from her career and how she wants to develop,” Call explains. “I encouraged her to apply for a development program we have, and she was chosen for it. I’m lucky to work for a company that is focused on helping its younger people learn and grow.”
Then there’s the mentorship and service outside of work. Call became a first contact for a woman in her community who died after adopting and raising six children from the foster care system. Without a will, Call got involved to help connect the family with an estate lawyer and make the best of a difficult situation.
Call also acts as a scholarship reader for her college sorority and is an advisor to the St. Joseph’s University chapter. She says her day job doesn’t often connect her with people in their late teens and early twenties, and this work has helped convince her that the future is in good hands.
That view is best exemplified by Call’s own children. Her daughter is developing programming for seniors with Alzheimer’s or related memory issues. Her son wants to work in public affairs addressing healthcare inequities in the US. In all things, the Call family has adopted the values of their forebears, the ones who put service before self. A better tribute to their family would be hard to find.
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP:
“Jan is a consummate professional—decisive and practical. She is a leader who solves tough problems insightfully and efficiently. We very much appreciate working with Jan, especially her humor and grace under pressure.”
—Bonnie Allyn Barnett and Judith M. Praitis, Partners
“Jan’s sharing of her extraordinary inter-personal skills, demonstrated leadership, legal acumen, ability to see the big picture, plan and set priorities, make her a model for mentoring attorneys internally and externally to succeed in their careers.”
—Ellen Radow Sadat, Of Counsel
