Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Lockheed Martin
Search every verified Kevin O'connor interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Kevin O'Connor, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Lockheed Martin, has discussed his approach to leadership and his career in several recent appearances. In a May 2025 podcast, O'Connor described his initial months at Lockheed Martin as a period of listening and learning, stating that to immediately propose changes would be "reckless and egotistic." He outlined his priorities for the legal department as achieving excellence and efficiency, and emphasized that an in-house lawyer's role is not to avoid risk but to ensure clients have the information to manage it intelligently. O'Connor also reflected on his career path, noting that a judicial clerkship was "probably the best thing I ever did" and that he values the ability to move lawyers across different responsibilities within an in-house department. In a separate appearance from May 2025, an attorney named Kevin O'Connor, described as being with Kconor Law Firm, discussed his approach to personal injury law, stating that after obtaining financial settlements for families, he began working to change laws to prevent similar tragedies. He said that if lawyers do not change something, "we're part of the problem as lawyers." This attorney was described as a partner of the show and dedicated to Chicago. Earlier material from 2016 references a Kevin O'Connor receiving a Distinguished Faculty Award for his work in education, with a PhD from McGill.
“I think at the time I aspired to be a federal prosecutor and I thought, well, a lot of federal prosecutors, they have this clerkship thing on their resume, so maybe I should go do that.”
“I was fortunate to get a clerkship. I can look back at that now and say it was probably the best thing I ever did in my career because I just think as a young lawyer, there's no substitute for that experience.”
“You not only go in and have a lot of responsibility thrown at you really well before you deserve it, but you also, if you do it well, you develop a mentor for the rest of your career who's there to give you advice, who's there to make recommendations.”
“Who doesn't listen to a judge when they call to recommend someone? It's not only because they're a judge, but the intimacy of a chambers, you take a comfort level.”
“This judge really does know this person's work in a way that an associate being recommended by a partner they did some work for at a law firm... it doesn't have as much weight as a judge who says, 'I spent a year or two in my chambers side by side with this young man or this young woman, and I recommend them highly.'”
“I would say to my people, we have really two objectives. We need to be excellent first. Meaning, we need to be the best lawyers to our clients providing world-class service across the board. And we need to have the talent to do that. That's a talent question. But that's only the first step. The second step is we have t...”
“I think the job of a lawyer in house at least in my perspective it's not to avoid risk. It's to make sure your clients have all the information they need to intelligently manage it. Sometimes you say to your client, you cannot do that because you'll go to jail. I would say that's 1% of the time. But often times it's a...”
“The cost of a legal department outweighs the revenue it generates. Now, there are occasions where the legal department's on an offensive footing and it's recovering money. But in most large corporations, just the sheer volume of litigation makes it very difficult for a general counsel to run a P&L that has more revenue...”
“When you go in-house, you have to listen like you may think you know, but spend six months and just listen and learn. Lockheed Martin's been around a lot longer than I have and they became a great company for reasons having nothing to do with me. So to think I'm going to go in there and be like, I'm going to change thi...”
“Being a law firm partner where you know as an associate you're kind of learning, but as you get more senior the expectation is you'll generate revenue as it should be. Every January you're starting back at the bottom of the mountain and you got to climb all the way back up. It was unique but I enjoyed it because I'm co...”
“I think one of the most rewarding aspects of being a public company general counsel is that board secretary responsibility. Most people on these public company boards are there because they've had very successful careers prior to board service. So just being in the room, listening to them share their experiences, it's...”
“A good general counsel, a great general counsel has a foundation which is I understand the business. I've gotten to know my team. So before you do anything, listen and learn. That might take you three months, six months depending on the size and complexity of the company. Be ruthless when it comes to talent. You need t...”
“You have to be able to embrace financial responsibility, fiscal responsibility. You have to be able to make tough decisions like, okay, someone's leaving. Do we really need to replace her? Maybe we can merge these two jobs. Think about this department like you'd think about your own household and take some accountabili...”
“The job of a lawyer in-house is not to avoid risk but to make sure clients have all the information to intelligently manage it. No is always the safest answer, but I'm not sure great companies grow if they're not willing to take risks. Lawyers have to understand the difference between business risk and true legal risk.”
“In-house roles are fascinating because you can move people from different responsibilities. You can take your M&A lawyer and make her chief compliance officer. You would never do that in a law firm, but in-house you can. When they become general counsel, they've had a taste of everything, which makes them better leader...”
Attorney Kevin O'Connor offers a powerful look into how the law can serve as a tool for healing. By changing laws, improving ...
Daniel Abramoff interviews Kevin O'Connor, General Counsel of Lockheed Martin, unpacking his dynamic career across big law, ...
Congratulations Kevin O'Connor – Distinguished Faculty Award -Credit MRU. Kevin's PhD in education at McGill and his job as a ...
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