In-House Q&A: Emily Menchaca Of Schwan’s Co.

Schwan’s Company, a subsidiary of CJ CheilJedang Corporation, is a multibillion-dollar private company with more than 7,500 employees and a rich history dating back to 1952.

Based in Minnesota, the company brings food to millions of people every day in grocery-store freezers and in the food-service industry through a suite of well-known brands.

Today, we speak with Emily Menchaca, senior corporate attorney at Schwan’s, about her insights into the in-house counsel role. As a law school classmate of the author’s, a few trips down memory lane were also inevitable.

EM: Can you believe it’s been 10 years? Isn’t this our 10-year law school class anniversary?

JW: Yeah, sometimes it feels like 10 years went fast. Other times it feels more like it’s been 100. So how did you wind up in-house at Schwan’s?

Previously I was doing transactional work at a private firm. I worked on contracts, regulatory compliance, mergers and acquisitions, and a variety of other transactional work. Much of it was within the healthcare industry.

While there was a lot to like about that work, it was usually project-by-project experience. You’d take on a small piece of something, and often would never really find out where it fit within the big picture.

That’s why I think I was eventually drawn to in-house work, because it really allows me to focus deeper within a particular industry and a particular organization. Do you do transactional work or more litigation?

I do 100 percent litigation.

You’re a brave soul.

Brave or stupid.

Ha. No comment.

So when I hear “Schwan’s,” I think of those yellow freezer trucks I saw driving around the neighborhood as a kid. Is that still part of the business?

Actually, while those trucks are still around, that portion of the business is separate and independent from Schwan’s Company.  Schwan’s Company was acquired by a South Korean company named CJ CheilJedang in 2019, and is better known to most people through its popular brands in grocery stores, like Red Baron pizza, Freschetta pizza, and Edwards desserts.

Oh, I love Red Baron pizza. Do you supply restaurants too, or is it just grocery stores?

Restaurants too, and other areas of the food service industry (e.g., schools, convenience stores, etc.). That’s a big part of what we do.

Did you see the balance between the restaurant and the retail parts of the business shift during the pandemic?

Oh, definitely. We’ve seen some parts of the business, like grocery retail, booming during the pandemic. Of course, we didn’t see people going to restaurants as much and schools were not operating in their normal state — that part of the business faced obstacles during the pandemic. 

What about the corporate office, how was that impacted by the pandemic?

The corporate headquarters have been just about 100 percent remote since last March. Of course, the whole company can’t be remote, we need to have people on the line who are actually producing the food.

It has been wonderful to see the company so diligent in putting protections in place for those employees who continued to go into plants every day throughout the pandemic. Without them, the business couldn’t function, and people wouldn’t have our delicious food in stores.

I’m thankful that Schwan’s is a company where safety is a core value, and that really proved its worth during the pandemic.

I figured at least the corporate offices were probably remote. I thought I heard a dog in the background there a bit earlier.

Oh yeah, you heard a dog. It has been a learning experience to work from home with dogs, kids, and miscellaneous home life distractions, and I know I’m not alone there. 

Everyone has been so gracious and understanding when there are interruptions during calls (such as children saying hello, dogs trying desperately to terrorize neighborhood squirrels, etc.). We’ve had a unique opportunity to glimpse into the lives of our co-workers and to see them as whole people, rather than only seeing them in the work environment. 

I think we’ve all learned to be more patient and understanding when home life interrupts work life, and I hope that patience and understanding continues.  

Background noise aside, do you enjoy being in-house?

For a variety of reasons, I love being in-house versus being in a private firm setting.

You get to really dive in deep with a single client. You understand the current state of the business, give advice step-by-step, and see it implemented. You gain a holistic view.

In private practice, you may work with a variety of clients, but you don’t necessarily have the same opportunity to truly understand the business of each client. I personally feel that I can provide more practical, useful advice in house because of this, and I find that very rewarding.  

It sounds great.

I really enjoy what I’m doing, it makes the days fly by. At Schwan’s, the business is growing exponentially, which makes for a lot of work in a variety of areas.

It’s interesting work with great people. I feel like a valuable part of the team, and I have the opportunity to make a positive impact with my advice.

Some of that is the nature of being in-house, but a significant aspect is the Schwan’s culture. It’s been great to find an organization where I feel such a strong company culture fit. 

Any advice for people looking to transition into an in-house role?

There were two misconceptions I had about in-house roles when working in a law firm. 

First, you give up the flexibility of a law firm, with being able to work kind of when you want as long as you’re billing enough, when you go in-house. People think an in-house counsel role is automatically going to mean you need to be in your seat in the office all day, every day, without exception, which is just not really the case.

There is no less flexibility in an in-house role than there is in a law firm setting, at least if you have a good workplace culture and a good boss. 

Second, there is an idea that you may work less hours in-house than in a law firm setting. Unfortunately, that is not necessarily true. 

Each in-house position varies in terms of expectations, and understanding the work-life balance in an in-house position is something you may want to understand before signing up. For people interested in exploring in-house options, I just really encourage people who are interested to take a look at what’s out there.

You’re not going to know everything you need to know to be an in-house attorney coming out of law school or coming out of a private firm, and that’s fine. There’s going to be a lot of learning on the job with any in-house position, but being able to pivot and change course is a good life skill in any context.

I couldn’t agree more. Well, thank you for taking the time to speak with me today, it’s been a real pleasure.

Absolutely, it was fun catching up. We should get together sometime in real life when things start opening back up.

I can’t wait.

Want to be featured in our next Q&A, or know someone who would? Email [email protected].

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Jonathan Wolf is a civil litigator and author of Your Debt-Free JD (affiliate link). He has taught legal writing, written for a wide variety of publications, and made it both his business and his pleasure to be financially and scientifically literate. Any views he expresses are probably pure gold, but are nonetheless solely his own and should not be attributed to any organization with which he is affiliated. He wouldn’t want to share the credit anyway. He can be reached at [email protected].