- After four years as a corporate attorney, a cold email got Kate Henningsen hired by Arcadia Power.
- Four years after joining Arcadia, Henningsen was named COO.
- Henningsen shared her process for making this career change.
Initially, Kate Henningsen’s career followed a pretty traditional path. She completed her undergraduate and law degrees at Georgetown University and started working as an attorney in Washington D.C.
Four years later, she realized she wanted something different. At the time, she was working as a corporate litigator, and with her first child on the way.
“I really had come to a point in my life where I wanted to be creative,” Henningsen told Insider. “I wanted to build something.”
Henningsen’s desire to build drew her to startups. She felt early-stage companies in industries which are highly regulated, such as healthcare or energy, would be an ideal fit. Clean energy stood out, specifically, because of her beliefs about the field’s importance to the future of the earth.
When she started to look for jobs, she decide to cold email five companies. She sent one of those emails to Arcardia Power, a direct-to-consumer clean energy company that is helping customers bring alternative or renewable energy to their areas. She ended up getting a job at the startup, and is now the chief operating officer.
Here's the email that she sent to the CEO
"Hello,
I am a hardworking and enthusiastic lawyer with public policy and campaign experience who would like to use my energy to create something. After stints in corporate law, I am really hungry to put my energy, smarts, and work ethic into something that is transformational. I want to grapple with the thorny questions and get up at 4 a.m. to work. I think those opportunities could be abundant at Arcadia Power and I would be very excited to be part of the team. I am not sure what you are looking for now, or in the future, but wanted to put my resume in the file if you are ever looking to hire.
Thanks, Kate"
She voluntarily wrote a memo that outlined potential legal challenges for Arcadia
Arcadia responded to Henningsen's email and asked to interview her. During the interview process, she wrote a memo addressed to the CEO outlining her thoughts on the main legal challenges the company could face. It helped her earn a job as the director of business development, overseeing all of the company's contracts.
"A lot of what I outlined in the memo are things I worked on," Henningsen said.
Eventually, Henningsen became a senior vice president and general counsel, and in 2019 she was named COO.
Six years after starting, Henningsen still enjoys the constant variety in her days and being part of a mission-driven organization. She also credits her background in history and philosophy - she also holds a masters from Oxford - for helping her address unique challenges her role brings.
"History and philosophy is my anchor of the way people and society's problems have been solved for thousands of years and actually that's where I really take a lot of my foundational centering," she shared. "So much of my job is understanding people, how organizations come together, how they function," she added.
Lessons for career pivoters
For Henningsen, the job change came with a pay cut, not ideal for her growing family, and came with less job security. Startups are volatile organizations, especially compared to law firms.
Henningsen assumed this risk because of her interest in tackling a major global problem and alignment with other personal values and goals.
"It's good for people making career switches to understand that it might not be for everyone and you have to be sober in those choices," she said.
A decision like this also can affect one's personal life. Henningsen said her family was supportive but not everyone in her life was.
"At the time my lawyer friends thought I was crazy," she said. "Now they think it's amazing."
Back in law school, Henningsen had a professor that emphasized the power of the law, and its potential to shape the world. She encourages attorneys interested in a career switch to think about how they can use their abilities to drive positive change. She also suggests leveraging their understanding of the legal risks a business faces and trying to offer strategy solutions.
Of course, it isn't so simple. Not everyone can or wants to assume the risks that come with switching from a stable job to a less stable one. But it can be very personally fulfilling, she said.
"It's a little bit of saying you're going to make your own way and live your values," Henningsen shared. "Climate change is one of those areas where I think there's tons of opportunities for smart lawyers to do that."
