Hitting All the Right Notes in Corporate Law

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

William Bald had a passion for music at a young age. He started playing the cello when he was around six years old and eventually fell in love with the clarinet, playing all the way through college.

“Growing up close to New Orleans, I played in a lot of jazz bands and a few garage rock bands on bass guitar in addition to the usual classical stuff,” he recollects. “For a while, I thought music might be a career. I went to Georgia State University and earned a Bachelor of Music in Music Technology, mostly focused on recording and the science side of music production. I loved music, but I realized it might not be what I wanted to do as a job.”

Bald’s dad, an officer in the Coast Guard for over twenty years, introduced him to the idea of attending law school when he joined the Coast Guard’s JAG Corps in 2006.

“Seeing that process firsthand made law school feel attainable,” Bald recounts. “I think that’s where the idea of going to law school first started. Even though I was still contemplating what a career in music might look like, I took the LSAT my junior year of college and ended up going straight to Notre Dame after graduation.”

After graduating, Bald took a position at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, and spent five years focused on capital markets, securities regulation, and corporate governance work. He calls his time there “incredibly formative.”

“Gibson Dunn had just opened its Houston office, and I was part of their first group of summer associates in 2018,” he recalls. “Law school tends to have a focus on preparing students for a career in litigation and doesn’t always prepare you for the day-to-day life of a transactional or corporate law associate. So that first summer was helpful in that I was learning a lot about the actual work and processes in addition to understanding what is expected of a big law associate. It laid the foundation for how my career has gone since I graduated.”

Hillary Holmes, the co-head of Gibson Dunn’s Houston office and one of Bald’s mentors at the firm, knew of his long-term goal to move to an in-house position and suggested he apply for a role at Phillips 66, a Houston-based Fortune 500 energy company that was a client at the time.

“She knew the deputy general counsel who was looking for someone with securities and governance experience, and everything came together quickly. By April 2024, I was here,” Bald notes.

As part of the in-house legal team at Phillips 66, Bald says that he has opportunities to partner with and become immersed in the business side of the company while also enjoying a greater work-life balance.

“It’s more cyclical than law firm work, which I really appreciate,” he explains. “On the securities side, my responsibilities are mostly compliance—making sure we’re in line with things like SEC regulations. When transactions arise, like issuing new debt or securities, that’s also where I come in. That was my background at the firm in capital markets.”

On the governance side, Bald helps ensure the company’s board and corporate governance align with best practices across the industry.

One of his most notable achievements was helping draft Phillips 66’s proxy statement in 2025. Bald noted that he was able to take an active role on the filing, which was more complicated than typically expected due to the Company’s proxy contest with Elliott Investment Management, one of its shareholders.

He also enjoys the opportunity to continue working on capital market transactions and has helped with two Phillips 66 debt offerings since he’s been on-board, one in each of the last two Septembers.

“That’s where my big law training really comes into play, and it’s nice to provide expertise from this side of the table,” Bald shares.

Bald’s leadership philosophy comes down to what some call “leading through service.” He explains that at most firms, the system is tiered so that a mid-level or senior associate leads junior associates.

“I always felt you shouldn’t just hand off the grunt work because you don’t want to do it,” he explains. “I wanted junior associates to see that everyone plays a role—that I was willing to pitch in even on the tedious stuff. It also gave me a chance to provide a positive example so that everything continues to go smoothly when those junior associates eventually take over.”

Helping younger attorneys is important to Bald, and he credits Holmes and Doug Rayburn from his time at Gibson Dunn with being great mentors, something he wants to pay forward.

“Every now and then I get calls from Notre Dame Law School students who find me in the alumni directory,” he says. “As one of the transactional lawyers in Texas, they reach out for advice on breaking into the market. Transactional law isn’t really emphasized in law school, so helping people navigate that side of the industry is very rewarding. I’d like to get more involved in mentorship as I progress. I’m still early in my career, but it’s an area I want to grow in.”

Since the big law lifestyle didn’t leave much time for hobbies, going in-house has meant more time for Bald to start picking up music again. He also enjoys attending concerts with his wife (who is also an attorney and works at a big law firm), cooking and walking their two dogs.

With less than two years in his current position, Bald admits he’s still learning the ropes of in-house life to some degree, but he’s looking forward to growing in his standing within Phillips 66.

“The governance space is pretty cyclical.” Bald says, “You can always expect to be working on quarterly reports, annual reports, proxy statements . . .  the next big thing on the horizon for me is next year’s proxy filing. That’s what we’re gearing up for.”

---