Are You an Outlaw? Meet Rebecca Wissler

WHO HAS REDEFINED WHAT IT MEANS TO THINK OUTSIDE THE LAW (AKA OUTLAW) AND IS HELPING EACH OF US IN THE PROCESS?

Meet Rebecca Wissler, Director of Business Development at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP. Rebecca has experience in AmLaw 200 and AmLaw 50 firms and, throughout her career, her expertise has evolved from small firm marketing to global business development and practice management. She works with firm leaders to analyze client relationships and industry trends, execute firm strategy and build plans for increased profitability. Rebecca also describes herself as “a mom to two girls, wife to a sweet man, and a fiercely loyal friend (#ScorpioLife).” In her free time, Rebecca is a relentless creator of themed playlists on Spotify.

Enjoy getting to know this Outlaw!

Q: What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
A: Sitting in a hot airplane on the tarmac, delayed, then falling asleep and waking up from my power nap, still in the steamy, parked plane. If you know you know…

Q: Where would you like to live?
A: Everyone who knows me knows our family’s love of New Orleans. We’ve been back and forth much of our adult lives, but I love being in D.C. now, close to my nieces and raising the cousins as friends. New York has also really grown on me over the years. When I win the lotto, though, we are moving to wine country and starting a vineyard, so forget about it, East Coast!

Q: What is your idea of happiness?
A: Beach, pool, family, friends, wine. The simple life.

Q: Who is your real-life hero?
A: Chef José Andrés. To create World Central Kitchen and build teams who are willing to go into dangerous and suffering corners of the earth to provide nourishment is truly God’s work. With the increasing frequency of natural disasters in our world, humanitarian work like Chef’s is critical. He inspires me to do more to contribute to the betterment of my community and to help those who can’t help themselves. I should always be doing more.

Q: What is your motto?
A: If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry!

Q: To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
A: Talking. I love it. My toxic trait is my gift of gab, which sometimes inhibits my ability to listen as effectively as I should. I’m working on it! Awareness is the first step.

Q: Finish this sentence: “If I could have one super-power, it would be...”
A: …Time travel, so I could go back and edit some awkward things I may have said over the years. Please see “gift” of gab.

Q: Who are your favorite authors or what are your favorite books?
A: Anything by Harlan Coban when I want an entertaining escape. Anything Malcom Gladwell when I want to challenge what I too easily accept as true.

Q: If you could have dinner with one person, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
A: My dad, who I miss every single day. Hold your loved ones close, friends.

Q: What got you into working in the legal industry?
A: I was working at a marketing agency in Biloxi, MS, which catered to plaintiff firms and ran focus groups to test the lawyers’ arguments. It was fascinating—and this was the Big Tobacco, freshly-post-tort-reform South, so it was an interesting time in the industry. I was also getting my Master’s in Integrated Marketing Communications at the time and learned the defense side hired people with my skills in-house, which felt like a great fit for me.

Q: Your favorite musician or band?
A: Beyonce. My queen.

Q: What is your current state of mind?
A: Hopeful, always. A self-identified Pollyanna addicted to good vibes only.

Q: Your favorite virtue?
A: Integrity. It’s foundational to who I am and I’d like to think that everyone who knows me would say the same thing. I strive to be a trustworthy and dependable friend. Both in our professional and personal lives, it’s all we have.

Q: What would you consider your greatest achievement? 
A: Potty training a toddler while working remotely full-time during a global pandemic and marshalling remote school 5th grade simultaneously. All while staying married. Those were big, big things and I commend all working parents for making it to the other side. We are all different people now, with strength we never knew we had.

Q: Finish this sentence: “If I won the lottery tomorrow I would...”
A: …Stay in my role at the firm and continuing business as usual because I love litigators. Ha! Just kidding! I’m buying a vineyard and becoming a client!

Q: Who would you have liked to be?
A: It’s all relative, isn’t it? Right now, being myself is feeling really nice.