Jessica Alsop
Senior Vice President & Chief Legal Officer, WVU Health System
Photo by WVU University Relations.
DAWN NOLAN
PRACTICING HEALTH CARE LAW was never part of Jessica Alsop’ s career plan. In fact, neither was being an attorney.
“ I thought I would be an accountant and didn’ t stray too far from that plan until I went to law school,” she says.
While attending the West Virginia University( WVU) College of Law, Alsop met her now-husband, Rob, and found that she enjoyed her tax and business classes. So, after graduating in 2002, she went to New York University for her Master of Laws in taxation.
“ I planned to be a tax lawyer and then quickly realized I didn’ t like practicing tax law in real life,” she says.“ I was blessed to work at a firm, Jackson Kelly, that helped me find my way into mergers and acquisitions.”
Most of the work in that area was for coal, oil and gas companies. After more than a decade, Alsop’ s experience led her to an in-house counsel position at Noble Energy.
“ At Jackson Kelly, I learned to work hard but also to find areas and people I enjoyed because that’ s when I would be able to do my best work,” Alsop says.“ At Noble Energy, I learned first-hand how businesses and leadership teams operated and the role of in-house counsel in a business.”
Alsop was approached by then General Counsel of WVU Health System Bob O’ Neil about coming to work at the health system.
“ Even though I had done very little health care work, the health system was on the verge of acquiring several new hospitals, and he needed help managing the acquisitions,” she says.“ He promised that if I managed the acquisitions, he could teach me what I needed to know about health care along the way. Four years later, I succeeded him as general counsel and have been in my current role for six years. In that time, I’ ve had the opportunity to assist with the addition of 19 hospitals to our health system.”
As senior vice president and chief legal officer for WVU Health System, Alsop oversees legal services, insurance and risk management for the organization, which consists of 40 attorneys and 60 other staff members.
“ Some of the challenges I face are being able to keep up with the pace of our organization while making sure I am available to help remove obstacles for my team,” she says.“ We are consistently focused on making improvements so there is constant change. It is a good thing, but it can be challenging.”
She also advises the senior leadership team on key initiatives daily, one of her favorite parts of her position.
“ I have the privilege of working with some of the smartest people I know and the opportunity to be part of the conversation when decisions are made,” Alsop says.“ Understanding our leadership’ s thought process behind decisions gives me invaluable insight to help provide legal services and advise my team to help the organization achieve its goals.”
Though she’ s only worked for three employers over the course of her career, Alsop has learned some valuable lessons at each.
“ At the health system, I’ ve learned that even in large organizations you can be nimble. Just because things have been done a certain way in the past by others doesn’ t mean that is the way they have to be done,” Alsop says.“ Also, the most important thing is to make a decision and start taking action. Almost every decision can be paused or changed along the way if needed, but if you spend too much time analyzing and never making a decision, the moment may pass you by.”
Alsop says she has been blessed to be around leaders who mentored her or taught her by example at each place she has worked.
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WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE