Author: Maria Dinzeo

After almost a quarter century leading Mary Kay’s legal department, Julia Simon is ready to take on a new challenge. So she’s gone back to private practice, taking a partner role at boutique Texas litigation firm Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann.

Simon quietly departed Mary Kay last fall. She told Law.com she was eligible for retirement and looking to begin the next chapter of her career, but wasn’t interested in another corporate legal role.

“If I wanted to stay in-house, I would have stayed at Mary Kay. What I wanted was a different challenge,” she said. “The idea of bringing my broad knowledge and skills back to private practice and to a top tier trial firm was compelling. I am offering my clients something unique. I think it is going to be great.”

Simon said she is proud of her legacy at the privately held multilevel marketing firm known as much for its skin care and makeup as for the coveted pink Cadillac it leases to its top independent sales directors. It’s based in Addison, Texas, with 5,000 employees, a global salesforce of more than 3.5 million, according to Forbes, and a global footprint that spans 35 countries.

Simon, who was also Mary Kay’s chief privacy officer and diversity officer, oversaw the company’s litigation, compliance and environmental, social and governance initiatives. She said that helping it navigate the tumult of the past few years has been one of the high points of her career, and one of its biggest challenges.

“Whether it was the impact of COVID, military conflict impacting our subsidiaries, supply chain uncertainty, increased regulatory activity, we were able to find a way for the company to operate successfully and continue to offer an incredible entrepreneurial opportunity to women in 35 countries,” Simon stated in an email to Law.com.

Her tenure at Mary Kay was punctuated by a number of high-profile employment and copyright cases, including a major win against a former Mary Kay “beauty consultant” who started her own online clearinghouse to resell Mary Kay products at discount prices. A jury awarded the company a $1.2 million judgment after finding the reseller, who did business under the name “Touch of Pink Cosmetics,” had violated Mary Kay’s trademark.

Mary Kay also won reversal of an $11.2 million verdict in favor of Claudine Woolf, a former Mary Kay sales rep who claimed she was fired after her pregnancy and breast cancer diagnosis affected her ability to meet her sales quotas. A jury found Mary Kay had failed to accommodate Woolf’s disability, but a Texas appeals court found “no more than a mere scintilla” of evidence that Woolf was actually a Mary Kay employee and reversed the judgment.

Simon started her career as an employment lawyer with McGlinchey Stafford in New Orleans, then became a partner at Locke Lord (then known as Locke Liddell & Sapp), where she was a commercial litigator. Litigation was one of her specialties at Mary Kay, and Simon said she was proud of her work “driving the strategy for industry impactful litigation that set precedent that continues to be relied on today.”

Simon will be returning to her litigation roots with Lynn Pinker, one of the top five ligation firms in Texas, whose attorneys worked with Simon on a range of matters during her in-house years at Mary Kay.

“Having worked alongside a number of attorneys with the firm, I know the work, the clients and the culture will be a tremendous fit for my goals and expertise,” she said in a statement.

In a separate email to Law.com, Simon said her decision to join the firm “feels organic,” as “they genuinely enjoy practicing law and are the best of the best at what they do. What they do is bring an unrivaled standard of excellence to complex commercial litigation issues. I am excited to be a part of it.”

Firm managing partner Chris Schwegmann described Simon as a legal powerhouse.

“I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with her as a client, friend, and mentor for almost 20 years,” Schwegmann said. “Julia brings a wealth of experience and knowledge and has a clear vision of the opportunities she can bring to the firm.”