The Mission that Inspired Janet Kwuon to Join Gilead

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Janet Kwuon says that when she took on her role at Gilead Sciences, she already had a connection to the biopharmaceutical giant. Its medicines saved a friend who was diagnosed with HIV after a prolonged illness. Gilead has been a pioneer and leader in the treatment and prevention of HIV, and Kwuon saw firsthand how its mission transformed HIV into a treatable, preventable, chronic condition for millions of people worldwide.

“Over the course of thirty-five years, Gilead Sciences developed twelve HIV medications and antiviral curative therapy for hepatitis C that have been revolutionary,” Kwuon explains. “That mission always spoke to me, if only from afar.”

Kwuon is just as surprised as any that she wound up as vice president and global head of litigation at Gilead. By all estimations, the career partner at Reed Smith had achieved virtually everything she could hope with a busy practice and as a member of the firm’s executive committee, cochair of the global commercial disputes group, chair of the audit and talent committees, founding member of the firm’s diversity council and women’s health products group, and director of complex litigation and e-discovery and a member of the finance committee.

The attorney’s practice at Reed Smith evolved from complex litigation and trials in the pharmaceutical, life science, and medical device space to juggling increasingly more complex managerial roles, leading hundreds of attorneys across a wide spectrum of clients, markets, and geographies. What prompted the Reed Smith attorney of thirty years to go in-house and begin an entirely new chapter at this stage of her career?

There’s the mission, the challenge, and the fire. Not the fire within, but the one that burned down most of Kwuon’s house.

From the Ashes

The VP says that her kids rib her about working “the fire” into any conversation. But there’s a reason for that. During the pandemic, a city electrical issue resulted in a fire beneath Kwuon and her neighbor’s houses, burning most of the homes from the inside out. Firefighters had to cut massive access portals through Kwuon’s house to even get to the fire. Each opening let loose a mushroom cloud of smoke and soot previously trapped under the floor.

The entire house was contaminated; there was smoke damage even inside the refrigerator and freezer. Kwuon wasn’t afforded the simplicity of being able to say her house burned down—it  just burned.

“We all should have been sleeping while this was happening. Luckily, my daughter is a night owl and woke us up. I stopped nagging her about staying up so late after that,” Kwuon says with a laugh.

Kwuon had to oversee the rebuilding of her home while managing two hundred attorneys. The process took two years, and the attorney eventually had to sue the city to be reimbursed for the damage. The family relocated to multiple temporary housings in the interim, but Kwuon often had to meet contractors, insurance adjusters, and city officials on-site. Kwuon sat in her backyard working early morning hours in the dark, with no electricity or power, and an extension cord running to her neighbor’s house.

“There were things that had to get done,” Kwuon says. “So, there I was, waiting for a city inspector to come, working away in the backyard or garage.”

The same qualities that made Kwuon an indispensable people manager at a law firm, her strategic decision-making superpowers on top of exemplary legal practice, also got her through the most trying experience of her life. Kwuon was the one in charge of advocating for her family, rebuilding her home, and ensuring that her daughters were able to continue their education uninterrupted at a time when the pandemic was interrupting everything.

A New Mission

It was a transformative moment for Kwuon. Just as her home was finally complete, with the wallpaper as the finishing touch, she got a call about a role at Gilead.

“It coincided with my youngest child getting launched into the working world,” Kwuon says with a smile. “Everyone was where they needed to be, and I suddenly could look at life a little differently. I didn’t have the same obligations as before. Gilead Sciences was a company I had admired from a distance for a long time, so I came up here to interview and check out the San Francisco Bay Area campus.”

After meeting General Counsel Deborah Telman and CEO Daniel O’Day, Kwuon says she was surprised by how much she wanted the role. Her justifiable reticence to leave her firm, to leave the house she just rebuilt, and to go in-house was immediately turned on its head. Curiosity became excitement, and trepidation became opportunity.

“What got me immediately was the way that people talk about the mission here,” the VP explains. “That mission-driven focus was inspiring. From the litigation perspective, we’re always trying to communicate our commitment to develop innovative and transformative medications for all people. That is what we do here. That motivates me.”

“It is inspiring to see Janet’s passion for Gilead’s mission and her commitment to incorporating it into all facets of her exemplary litigation counseling and business strategy,” says Jay Lefkowitz, partner at Kirkland & Ellis. “Kirkland is honored to partner with Janet in furthering this mission and looks forward to our continued collaboration in the future.”

Kwuon says from the legal vantage point, she still gets to be a part of the many medical breakthroughs, including further advancements in HIV treatment and prevention and oncology.

The VP says her years in big law have served her well, particularly when it comes to leading high-impact litigation with Gilead’s bench of excellent outside counsel. She has an implicit understanding of how to weave and maximize the partnership across two different organizational structures. It often includes frequent and direct communication. 

“I’m grateful for my years at Reed Smith because of the variety and depth of practice and the opportunity to help lead the firm while managing many lawyers with their own disparate practices,” Kwuon says. “It enabled me to step into this role, which covers the entire span of all of our litigation and investigations, including areas that are beyond my former wheelhouse.”

“Throughout her career, Janet has worn a variety of hats. She has been a strategist, a pathbreaker, a litigator, and a gifted team leader,” says Dave Bassett, Ron Machen, and Vinita Ferrera, partners at WilmerHale. “In her role at Gilead, she combines all these attributes, and it is a privilege to work with her as outside counsel.”

Pursuing Justice

Kwuon was pushed to fight for fairness from a young age. The second-generation Korean American was born into a culture that didn’t place the same value on gender equality as the country she was growing up in. The middle child felt the push-pull of her upbringing and the changing cultural norms around her.

At the same time, Kwuon was growing up as a minority in Los Angeles. Being an American of Korean descent didn’t come with the same cultural awareness of today. She was simply from somewhere else, despite being born in the US.

“The law interested me because its focus seemed to be the pursuit of justice, equity, and representation so that all people can have a voice,” the VP says. “I didn’t know any lawyers, but it felt like what I was meant to do.”

Kwuon was ultimately the first diverse woman in the US elected to her law firm’s executive committee. The VP’s daughters, a lawyer and a city planner, respectively, have grown up seeing a mother who had achieved big-law success on a massive scale. They’ve seen a mother who shouldered all of those responsibilities while rebuilding a home. And now they’ve seen a woman chasing a new beginning.

The lawyer’s hardest question to answer is what her biggest challenge is in the days to come. It’s not about getting through a traumatic event or navigating her new career. It’s how she spends her free time.

“I’ve spent so many years working and also being the point person for my extended family,” Kwuon says. “I suddenly have a little more time in my life, and I need to think about what that means for me. I have to spend the next few years learning how to unplug a little more often. As an employer, Gilead Sciences places a priority on its people having more balance in their lives, and it’s honestly something I’m going to have to focus on to get good at.”

Kwuon can manage rebuilding a house more easily than relaxing in one. That tracks.

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