Rob Naudin | Primoris Services _____________________________________________________________________________
You can’ t pass the buck. You’ re the subject matter expert.” For many lawyers, risk is something to analyze. For Rob Naudin, it is something leaders must act upon. Across nearly three decades in law, Rob has advised leaders facing decisions they could not afford to get wrong. As a Navy JAG officer, he sat alongside military commanders weighing operational risks in real time. As a prosecutor, he handled cases where preparation could determine whether someone lost a career or went to prison. In commercial litigation, he spent years unpacking disputes that often began with a single decision, a single conversation, or a single sentence buried in a contract. Today, as Associate General Counsel at Primoris Services Corporation, he helps business leaders navigate contracts, acquisitions, disputes, compliance, and growth. The settings have changed. The responsibility has not: understand the risks, provide judgment, and keep progress moving.
In every role, Rob worked alongside leaders who could not wait for certainty before making decisions. Whether the consequences involved military operations, criminal proceedings, or infrastructure projects, the challenge was the same: assess the risks, weigh the options, and chart a path.
I know that risk evaluation must be made by the lawyer, applying the law, the situation, and judgment. Sometimes, you must give your opinion, and you can’ t pass the buck
Different missions
Like many law students, Rob worried about choosing the wrong path too early. The JAG Corps offered something few legal careers could: the chance to practice across multiple disciplines while serving a larger mission.“ The military provides a very broad range of legal practice. Essentially, it is a very large law firm, with about 800 lawyers practicing environmental, military, criminal, and international law. While I was in the service, I practiced family law, commercial law, international law, and a good deal of the law of armed conflict.”
Before advising executives, litigants, and project leaders, Rob spent eight years in an environment that gave him early responsibility most young lawyers don’ t see. It was a stage where many young lawyers are still finding their footing.
That variety of law the military offered proved valuable, but the experience that shaped him most was advising senior leaders during Operation Iraqi Freedom. As a young lieutenant serving as legal adviser to a naval task force commander, Rob found himself at the center of conversations where decisions carried immediate consequences. The lawyer was not there merely to explain the law. The lawyer was there to help leaders make decisions.“ Leaders must make real-time decisions that have impact. I know that risk evaluation must be made by the lawyer, applying the law, the situation, and judgment. Sometimes, you must give your opinion, and you can’ t pass the buck.”
What stayed with him wasn’ t the military setting itself; it was the realization that leaders need judgment as much as legal knowledge.“ A lot of lawyers will just say,‘ Well, it depends.’ But when your client asks you the question, they want your opinion. They need to know the risk, and they want your honest assessment.”
Years later, the questions sound different, but the challenge remains remarkably familiar.“ When the CEO says,‘ What do you think?’ I have been in that situation before.” Decisionmakers want advisers who can frame risk clearly, explain consequences, and guide them toward a confident decision.
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