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Hilary Barrett hired a direct report eighteen months back. PENN Entertainment is the lawyer’s first in-house role, and Barrett provided some wise advice that she herself got when initially going in-house for the first time.
“I told her exactly the same thing that I was told: ‘You aren’t going to feel like you know what you’re doing for at least six months,’” Barrett says. “Practicing in-house is wildly different than acting as outside counsel, and it takes some time to understand the business.”
Fortunately, that’s what Barrett, the VP of employment and litigation at PENN Entertainment, loves about her job the most. The variety of in-house work is unrivaled, especially at PENN. It’s not just a gaming, hospitality, food and beverage, hotel, finance, interactive, or retail-specific industry. It’s all of them combined. On any given day, Barrett is tackling wage and hour issues for tipped workers, litigating income and property tax matters, and negotiating with various labor unions.
“I’ve either been in-house or outside counsel in the gaming and hospitality industry for my entire career,” the VP explains. “Obviously, Las Vegas is the right city for me to be in, and I have over twenty years of experience doing this work. But I still learn something new every day. That’s the kind of job you dream about having.”
Throughout her career, Barrett says she’s been blessed with the kind of mentors who were willing to give her hard truths and throw her in the deep end. The VP says those mentors provided stretch opportunities to branch out into work she hadn’t done before and were willing to take a gamble on a younger attorney who believed she could rise to the task at hand.
“Having a leader who identifies where your growth opportunities are helps you recognize the kind of development you should pursue,” Barrett says. “I’m a firm subscriber to the belief that you hire good people and get out of their way because those are the kind of leaders that mentored me. I’m candid with the people I hire, I look for ways they can grow, and I act as their safety net if they need it.”
The variety of work is almost as wide as the challenges Barrett oversees in her role. Operating in the gaming space makes navigating complex regulation high stakes, but then one must consider that those regulations are different in every jurisdiction in which the company operates, and every property PENN owns may run their operations slightly different to comply with those regulations and other local laws.
Minute details like how table games are staffed from location to location can vary widely, and Barrett needs to be a de facto expert on all of it. And the variety of industry that Barrett loves so much? For her, that means multiple business units are encompassed in a single company, creating exponentially more stakeholders all with a different view of their business.
Then consider the ramp-up of the interactive gaming space. It’s an entirely different world, and PENN has been doubling down on its presence.
“I have not worked for a gaming or hospitality company that has such a robust online presence and interactive division,” Barrett says. “That’s forced me to learn the tech industry and examine how those dynamic layers lay on top of everything else.”
As Barrett has continued to seek out challenging roles in her career, she’s also taken the time to help cultivate the next generation of Hilary Barretts. She was asked to teach a hospitality law class at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas that encompassed everything from innkeeper rights to security standards to health and safety. Barrett admits that she herself had to brush up on some of the law and probably reviewed the textbook as hard as the undergrads she was teaching.
“Practicing in-house is wildly different than acting as outside counsel, and it takes some time to understand the business.”
Hilary Barrett
While Barrett doesn’t really have much spare time, she has still found time to devote to the Shade Tree of Las Vegas over the last six years. The Shade Tree is a shelter for women and children fleeing domestic violence and has been servicing the Las Vegas area for forty years. Barrett is a board member for the nonprofit and says the mission of the organization has remained close to her heart.
There is one other area, among the dozens, in which Barrett has become proficient in the last handful of years. The wife and mother has made it to a point in her career where she can unplug when she needs to and enjoy her life outside of work.
“My humorous out-of-office memos are a running joke here, internally,” Barrett says, laughing. “I didn’t always have the luxury of being able to set those boundaries, but I do now. I worked hard to get to where I am and have always been willing to go above and beyond to get there. But kids grow up so fast, and I want to be there to see them grow up. Part of what I had to learn was the humility to realize that I don’t have to be the one to do everything. If it’s not something I can add value to, maybe I can let someone else do it who can gain some experience from the process. I think that’s part of maturing, and it’s taken a lot of time to get here.”
But should you wish to contact Barrett while she’s out, you might be greeted with, “Sorry I’m not available to respond to your message. I’m on a beach with a drink in my hand and the sun in my face.” The VP has earned it.
