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A consulting background can open many career doors, it barely hints at Malisa Dubal’s extraordinary path. Before law school, Dubal gained early experience at Deloitte and later worked as a pharmaceutical sales rep for Eli Lilly. But in a move that would reshape her career trajectory, Dubal returned to school to earn her JD—paving the way for a career defined more by conviction than convention.
Dubal’s story isn’t one of a corporate professional trading up for corporate law. In fact, it would be nearly fifteen years before Dubal went in-house at General Motors (GM) as lead counsel for special investigations in 2021. In the decade and a half between law school and GM, Dubal served as a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s office and multiple offices within the Department of Justice.
“I knew I wanted to work in the public sector shortly after I got to law school,” the lead counsel explains. “I was lucky to be offered an opportunity to work as a line prosecutor at the Manhattan DA’s office right out of law school. It’s where I cut my teeth, learned to be an advocate, and to be a strong trial attorney. You were so busy all of the time that you had to learn to be quick on your feet.”
Another learning was the emotional challenges that came with advancing as a prosecutor. The more experience Dubal got at her job, the more complex—and often more horrific—the crimes she was prosecuting became. Her caseload shifted from misdemeanors to serious felonies including sexual assaults and homicides. After five years of seeing some of the worst types of violent crime, Dubal knew she needed a change. But she wasn’t done being a prosecutor.
Dubal wanted to work on more complex cases at the federal level and give herself a chance to strengthen her writing skills. She became an assistant US attorney for the Middle District of Florida, where she prosecuted violent crime, narcotics, human trafficking, and white-collar crime.
“I was still going to trial, but I could do so much more litigating in writing,” the lawyer explains. “I got to draft more substantive motions, respond to appeals, and hone that part of my practice. And the balance was better.”
Dubal stayed a prosecutor for ten more years, including a transfer to Detroit to investigate healthcare fraud. Eventually, she received a promotion to deputy chief, handling bigger-picture matters on extremely complex white-collar cases. That experience positioned her for a new kind of challenge—this time in the private sector.
GM was on the hunt for someone with Dubal’s pedigree to handle compliance-related internal investigations globally. The change of scope was daunting at first.
Continuing to Build Connections
In addition to more than fifteen years of prosecutorial excellence, General Motors’ Malisa Dubal is a Leadership Council on Legal Diversity fellow. Dubal says the relationships she formed through the organization have turned into long-term professional connections.
“There are people I’m still in touch with when it comes to benchmarking or big-picture legal discussions,” the attorney says. “It was a fantastic experience for me early in my journey at GM and helped me think about how I can add value to the business.”
“As a prosecutor, you’re often looking at the worst of the worst,” Dubal says. “Very quickly after I got here, I found that most people are well-intentioned. By and large, most people are trying to do the right thing. It’s been rare to find the opposite.”
The lawyer says that realization was important and changed how she approaches her work. She may be a former prosecutor, but she doesn’t want the people involved in the matters she’s looking into to assume she’s ill-intentioned. Dubal isn’t looking for a fight.
“I was never that kind of a prosecutor,” the lawyer explains. “It was important for me to understand what happened and let the evidence guide the investigation.”
Dubal also knows that investigations don’t happen in a vacuum. She’s aware that GM has a business to run. In a business, people will make mistakes, and it’s not going to serve anyone well if she assumes the worst in every action. Her team’s default assumption is that people made an honest mistake, and the investigation unfolds from there.
“I was lucky to be offered an opportunity to work as a line prosecutor at the Manhattan DA’s office right out of law school. It’s where I cut my teeth, learned to be an advocate, and to be a strong trial attorney.”
Malisa Dubal
The transition to GM has worked out well for Dubal, who says that her division sitting inside the compliance and legal function allows effective cross-collaboration and teamwork. Dubal sees her team as a broader part of the organization, not an isolated task force. She’s endeavored to build connections across GM, which has allowed her to be a part of a team that can make an impact globally.
“I’m fortunate that the team has some visibility that lets us see more than isolated issues happening in a vacuum. Rather, we are able to understand the root cause of those issues across the world,” Dubal says. “I can liaise with various levels of leadership to talk about how to tackle these issues. They know we’re trying to be transparent and collaborative to achieve long-term positive results.”
Malisa’s exceptional investigation skills, strategic judgment, work ethic, and commitment to getting to the right result make her an incredible asset to GM’s compliance team. She’s also extremely collaborative and a pleasure to work with.
–Alec Koch, Partner
