Dream jobs: Lawyers who love what they do

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William L. Becker, Harpo Inc.

William L. Becker may have caught a few lucky breaks in his long career in law, and one of them landed him a client known the world over by just her first name.

But if luck is ”what happens when preparation meets opportunity” — a definition to which Becker subscribes — then he must have been ready in 1988. That’s when he was called for an interview with Oprah Winfrey, who had been searching the city for a lawyer with the right mix of experience as she was establishing her own production studio, a few years after coming to Chicago to host WLS-TV’s morning talk show, ”AM Chicago.”

”She liked my tie,” Becker said. ”I sometimes think that’s why she hired me.”

But Becker — who now serves as general counsel to Harpo Inc., the company that controls the various entertainment interests of the daytime television empress — knows better than that. His practice at Laner Muchin Dombrow Becker Levin and Tominberg, where he was serving as managing partner when Oprah’s agent called in the late 1980s, was focused on employment law and entertainment law. And WTTW-11, Chicago’s public broadcasting station, was among his clients.

”She sought out people in Chicago who had experience in employment law and entertainment law. There were only two or three of us in Chicago that did that kind of work,” Becker said. ”At the time, there was so little fresh television in Chicago that there just wasn’t that much need for people with that skill. But since I represented WTTW, and since they were doing a lot of new, fresh television production here at the time, I think that’s really what made the difference.”

Becker, a 1969 graduate of Washington University School of Law whose first job out of law school was as a trial attorney for the National Labor Relations Board, joined Laner Muchin in 1972. He represented Oprah — handling the full gamut of employment law issues in connection to her production studio — for about 17 years of his 33 years at the firm.

In 2005, Becker moved in-house full-time. Today, he heads Harpo’s law department of about 25 people, ten of whom are lawyers.

For the general counsel to the company that has Oprah as its chairwoman, no two days are alike.

”She’s always a challenge because she’s very creative; has lots of new ideas,” Becker said. ”Lawyers tend to be stodgy folks who like to see things handled in a certain rigorous, consistent way. So when you’re dealing with a creative butterfly like Oprah Winfrey, it’s always a challenge. But that’s what’s fun about the job.”

At Harpo (Oprah, spelled backward), Becker is responsible for anything legal that has to do with any of the company’s affiliated entities — such as Harpo Productions, which produces ”The Oprah Winfrey Show” and the women’s lifestyle web site, Oprah.com.

”I can’t think of a legal issue that hasn’t come across my desk,” Becker said. ”Legal issues that occur anywhere, among any of our affiliated companies, that have impact on Harpo Inc., would come across my desk. And everything is intertwined very closely. They’re not like separate companies.”

To name a few, union or employment issues might find their way to Becker from Los Angeles-based Harpo Films, which produces movies-of-the-week for ABC. And although O, The Oprah Magazine is published in New York under a joint venture with Hearst — which has its own staff of lawyers — Becker might oversee intellectual property issues if the legal matters are related to ”The Oprah Winfrey Show” or Harpo.

He might deal with defamation or misrepresentation issues arising from ”Oprah & Friends,” a channel on XM Satellite Radio featuring radio programming from Harpo Radio Inc. And it’s also his job to make sure business runs smoothly from a legal standpoint at The Oprah Store, the free-standing retail store near Harpo’s West Loop production house.

In his dealings with ”The Oprah Winfrey Show” alone, with its vast array of topics, Becker said, ”We have all kinds of interesting legal issues. You can name almost any area of the law.”

Given the visibility of his boss, there is also a significant public relations side to his job.

Often, ”what we say and how we say it” is as important as ”the law we practice,” Becker said. ”That’s the side of it I really enjoy, because you need to be sensitive to so many issues from a public relations point of view.”

Becker, who considered becoming a psychiatrist before deciding on a career in law, said he never had a show business dream. And while he may, on occasion, happen to meet a celebrity while passing through the production studio near his office building, he’s far from star-struck.

”People who work here typically are not star-struck, and those who are don’t necessarily fare well here only because of that fact,” Becker said. ”They fare well because they’re creative, they’re hard-working, and they bring something special to the table.”

Still, ”If I were in law school now and somebody said to me, ‘After law school, you’ll become managing partner of a boutique law firm, and then you’ll become general counsel for Harpo and Oprah Winfrey,’ I would’ve said, ‘You’re out of your mind,”’ Becker said. ”But I’m sure if someone asked me what would be my dream job, I think those would be dream jobs.

”It’s a dream job because I’m intellectually challenged every day with new things, and I have the skills because of where I’ve been and what I’ve done in life to handle most of that. So, it’s rewarding.”

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