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Laura Arredondo-Santisteban has a good friend who reminds her of how a decade of hard work has played out.
“She just always says, ‘You’re doing it,’” the corporate counsel for marketing and advertising at Lowe’s explains. “‘You said you were going to be an in-house marketing counsel, and you’ve done it.’”
The first lawyer in her family has done it. She’s in-house counsel for Lowe’s, a Fortune 50 company. Even though she says her husband and father are the ones typically picking up the hammer or climbing the ladder, like the rest of us, Arredondo-Santisteban is a consumer. And she’s spent the last decade deeply entrenched in the ever-evolving regulation of advertising, marketing, and even telecommunications.
Most attorneys ultimately take a different route than they envisioned for themselves, but Arredondo-Santisteban has made her law school dream come true. It’s a dream she didn’t even know was a real job when she was going through college.
Like so many without the aid of a network of lawyers while she was growing up, Arredondo-Santisteban just assumed that a life in law meant yelling over each other in courtrooms and living and dying with every verdict.
“Most people are happy to speak with you, and maybe even flattered. And at worst? They’re too busy and you can move on. It’s so easy to connect with people now. Just go for it.”
Laura Arredondo-Santisteban
Transactional, trademark, health, or regulatory law is rarely featured on weekly dramas. If you don’t grow up with a lawyer in your orbit, the idea of law existing anywhere but a courtroom may come as a shock.
“My mom always told me I should consider law school, but my assumption of the law was so narrowly focused,” Arredondo-Santisteban remembers. “I was very much an introvert, and I had no interest in going to court and litigating.”
But one class changed everything. While earning her undergrad degree at UNC at Chapel Hill, Arredondo-Santisteban had to take a challenging media law class. Arredondo-Santisteban absolutely loved it, and the class showed her an entirely different part of the law that she was both interested in and passionate about pursuing.
In her first law firm internship, Arredondo-Santisteban got exposure to advertising and marketing law. More importantly, she also found mentors who she’s still close to today. They opened her eyes to roles that focus more on consumer protection, ensuring truth in advertising, and making sure consumers have all the information that purchasing a product or service requires.
The lawyer’s practice in the ambiguous world of advertising law is buttressed by the very clear cut world of telecom law. Yet again, it wasn’t an area the lawyer ever thought she’d be practicing in, but when she and her husband uprooted and moved to Atlanta, Arredondo-Santisteban decided to take a chance.
“So much of advertising law is open to interpretation, but telecom law can be very, very specific,” the counsel explains. “Being in that space taught me strength in two very different ways. On the one hand, there’s creative and outside-the-box thinking from the advertising world. On the other hand, there’s the more risk-averse world of making sure you’re paying attention to the strict guidelines of telecom regulations. Both of those worlds set me up well to go in-house.”
What Arredondo-Santisteban loves most about her role at Lowe’s is that no two days are the same. She can work across the broader organization and her own legal department, helping the massive business get where it wants to go.
“On the one hand, there’s creative and outside-the-box thinking from the advertising world. On the other hand, there’s the more risk-averse world of making sure you’re paying attention to the strict guidelines of telecom regulations. Both of those worlds set me up well to go in-house.”
Laura Arredondo-Santisteban
Last year, Arredondo-Santisteban aided the development and launch of a new customer loyalty program for the homeowner. The project required a great deal of ideation outside traditional advertising considerations.
The program’s development and launch are also a reminder that in her in-house role, Arredondo-Santisteban gets to see projects all the way through to implementation, helping weigh in along the way with her input and counsel. It’s the reason she wanted to go in-house in the first place. She wanted to be part of a bigger plan, from start to finish.
It’s hard to reconcile the fact that, at some point in her career, Arredondo-Santisteban was very shy. She’s personable and easy to talk to, and she speaks with her hands. She now wishes she would have been more willing to reach out for advice and connections earlier in her career. For those who might be afraid of bothering someone or worried that they’re annoying a potential contact, the counsel says, “Put those fears to bed.”
“I would encourage people to just reach out. Stop thinking about it and stop worrying,” Arredondo-Santisteban says. “I didn’t have a family with roots in the law, and I wish I wouldn’t have worried so much about bothering someone with my questions. Most people are happy to speak with you, and maybe even flattered. And at worst? They’re too busy and you can move on. It’s so easy to connect with people now. Just go for it.”
That’s advice from someone who is living the life she built in her head more than a decade ago. Arredondo-Santisteban has built a practice and a reputation that’s earned her an in-house role in a world-renowned organization.
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