Tom Sager

Tom Sager is the former General Counsel and Senior Vice President at the DuPont Company. In 2014, Tom joined Ballard Spahr as a Partner, where he leverages his experience steering the legal department at a heavily regulated, Fortune 100 global corporation to a broad portfolio of areas at the firm, including litigation and trial practice, internal investigations, environmental issues, and mergers and acquisitions. Tom began his career with the DuPont Company as an attorney in the Labor, Benefits & Corporate Security Group and spent more than a decade as chief litigation counsel before being named Senior Vice President and General Counsel in 2008. During his tenure, he oversaw significant litigation involving governmental investigations, product liability, environmental, toxic tort, labor and employment, securities, antitrust, and tax issues.

Tom was a strong and early proponent of diversity in the legal profession and helped pioneer the DuPont Company Convergence and Law Firm Partnering Program, or the DuPont Company Legal Model—an industry benchmark that has received national acclaim for its innovative approach to the business of practicing law. The program redefined the way in which clients and law firms measure success, encourage creativity and collaboration, increase efficiency, and retain and promote women and minorities. Many of his early innovations, including use of preferred providers and flat or fixed-fee billing, have become commonplace in corporate law departments. In naming him in 2013 as one of “The Top 50 Big Law Innovators,” The American Lawyer wrote: “Thomas Sager and the DuPont Legal Model are to the legal industry what Derek Jeter is to the Yankees.”

Tom received The American Lawyer’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. In addition, the Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s Thomas L. Sager Award is given annually to law firms that demonstrate a commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Professional Activities

American Bar Association Task Force on Preservation of the Justice System

Business Advisor to Business Law Section of the ABA 

Distinguished Lecturer, Corporate Counsel Technology Institute's Inaugural Annual Technology Lecture Series, held at Widener University School of Law, 2005

Ballard Spahr's Diversity and Inclusion Council

Recognition & Accomplishments

Recipient, James H. Gilliam, Jr. Award, American Heart Association, 2016

Recipient, Lawyers of Color Legacy Award, 2015

Named in 2015 to the Lawdragon Hall of Fame as an Innovator

Recipient, Louis L. Redding Lifetime Achievement Honorarium, Delaware Barristers Association

Recipient, Lifetime Achievement Award, Philadelphia Business Journal's 2014 Corporate Counsel Awards

Recipient, The American Lawyer's 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award

Named in 2013 as one of the Top 50 Innovators in Big Law in the Last 50 Years, The American Lawyer

Recipient, 2011 Founders' Award, Community Legal Aid Society

Named in 2010 as one of the 40 most influential attorneys, The National Law Journal

Recipient, 2009 CPR Corporate Leadership Award

Recipient, American Bar Association Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession's 2001 Spirit of Excellence Award

Publications

"The Legal Profession Needs More Givers Than Takers," The Legal Intelligencer, February 18, 2015

"Creating a Climate of Trust Before Crisis Emerges," The Legal Intelligencer, November 12, 2014

Speaking Engagements

"Cutting-Edge Legal Departments: Creating a Loss Recovery Program to Generate Revenue and Preserve Assets," Canadian Corporate Counsel Association, Toronto, ON, February 7, 2019

Board Memberships

Advisory Board, DirectWomen

Past Chairman, Minority Corporate Counsel Association

Chairman of Finance Committee, Delaware Historical Society

Past Board Member, CPR International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution

Past Board Member, Delaware Law Related Education Center

Past Board Member, Atlantic Legal Foundation

Board Member, Executive Committee, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

Past Board of Trustees Chairman, National Association for Law Placement (NALP) Foundation

Chairman, Delaware Community Foundation

Board of Trustees, Widener University

Advisory Board Member, University of Delaware Weinberg Center

Law Board of Visitors, Wake Forest University School of Law

Trustee, Christiana Care

Wake Forest University School of Law (J.D. 1976)

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (B.A. 1972)

Delaware

U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware

U.S. Supreme Court