Carlos M. Hernandez
Fluor Corporation
Chief Legal Officer and Secretary
“Staying on top of regulatory developments is the biggest challenge,” shares Carlos M.Hernandez, chief legal officer and secretary for Fluor Corporation. The Irving, Tex.-based company delivers engineering, procurement, construction, maintenance, and project management to governments and clients in diverse industries around the world. As he points out, “More than 50 percent of our revenue is from outside the U.S., so keeping track of regulations at home and abroad is vital.”
And the job’s biggest reward? “Without a doubt, it’s playing a part in Fluor’s business successes.”
As a general counsel for four different companies since 2001 (Fleming Companies, International Steel Group Inc., ArcelorMittal Americas, and now Fluor), Hernandez has learned the importance of thoroughly knowing a particular industry to be effective. “Because of my corporate and public company background, I’m fine with a lot of industries, but I’m most comfortable in manufacturing and construction,’ he reflects. “When I went to work at a food distribution company, I was surprised to learn just how complicated the business was. Many of its concepts and practices were entirely new to me. It’s imperative to know the industry, or to learn it quickly.”
Born in Cuba, Hernandez came to the U.S. as a political exile with his parents when he was eight. He grew up in Miami. He attended Purdue University in Indiana, where he majored in civil engineering.
“My life-long dream was to build bridges and other structures, but it didn’t work out quite that way,” shares Hernandez. “In part to finance my education at Purdue, I did their co-op program, alternating semesters working at an engineering firm with going to school. My experience [in that program] wasn’t strictly in design; I was exposed to contracts and specifications, and became interested in the legal aspects of projects.” Due to this new perspective on his chosen career path, he went straight from college to law school at the University of Miami.
“I broadened my background…and became a corporate lawyer doing litigation… it opened the door for everything that followed.”
“Like most in-house lawyers, I got my start at a law firm,’ he reflects. “Largely because I’d studied engineering in college, my practice was construction litigation.“After two years, he moved in-house with an international engineering,architecture, and consulting firm, and then on to Armco Inc., a steel company then based in Middletown, Ohio, where he eventually became assistant general counsel. Hernandez recalls, “It was during my 19 years at Armco that I broadened my background from engineering/construction law and became a corporate lawyer doing litigationmy first area of expertiseand a lot of transactional work. That was a great opportunity for me; it opened the door for everything that followed.’
After years of inhouse practice, Hernandez sees his role not as a lawyer but a businessperson with a legal perspectivea part he hopes to continuing playing at Fluor for some time to come. DB
Return to MCCA® 2009 Fortune 500 Minority General Counsel Survey
From the September/October 2009 issue of Diversity & The Bar®