90 cents, about 4 percent. “Yeah, it was
all because of me,” she says, laughing.
Armstrong makes it clear how much he
counts on Jacobs, calling her one of the
most talented people he has ever met.
“She is a driving force at AOL,” he says,
“and the company wouldn’t be where we
are today without her.”
Jacobs sees the role of corporate
counsel as establishing trust both inside
and outside the company, and helping
executives within AOL—her clients—
understand the risks in pursuing any
particular strategy. Whether in external
negotiations or providing strategic
advice within the company, she says,
communications skills are critical. She
needs to be able to explain risks, their
potential ramifications and the alternatives
that can reduce them. “I view myself as a
strategic partner with those clients,” she
says. “In order to do that, I have to be able
to help them achieve their goals and be
able to work with them to mitigate any of
the risks we identify together.”
One of the things Jacobs likes best
about being a corporate counsel,
especially at a media company, is the
range of work as AOL shifts from its
traditional role as an Internet service
provider to Armstrong’s vision of an
advertising-supported new media
conglomerate. Jacobs describes
Armstrong as a “phenomenal leader”
and believes in his vision for AOL.
“There is a need for content, and if we
have quality content, advertising will
follow,” she says. “AOL has a legitimate
shot at being one of the top sources for
content.” (Jacobs herself stopped reading
newspapers four years ago. Instead, she
gets her news from AOL, HuffPost and
other news sites.)
Working through AOL’s transitions
gives Jacobs the challenge of
anticipating and responding to changes
in Internet law, including those regarding
defamation and copyright, which she
enjoys. In addition, there is no shortage
of employment-related legal issues. Part
of Jacobs’ job has been supporting the
human resources department during
the layoffs and staff reductions that
AOL has experienced since the spinoff
from Time Warner in 2009. “Part of our
job as management is to right-size the
company and position it for success,”
she says. “We make these decisions very
carefully and I believe we’re doing the
right thing for AOL.” Armstrong and the
business leaders set the strategy, and as
their lawyer, she carries it out.
JACOBS MET HER HUSBAND, DEPARTMENT
of Justice trial attorney Andrew Skowronek,
through a mutual friend; they now have
three kids who were born less than 15
months apart: 6-year-old twins Benjamin
and Ethan, and 5-year-old Zachary. After
growing up in a household where her dad
was the only male, she now lives in a house
full of guys. “And I love it,” she says. On
a typical day, she wakes up early at their
home in the D.C. suburbs, gets the three
boys up, fed, dressed and off to school, and
then drives 45 minutes in her 2003 Honda
Accord to her office on AOL Way in Dulles.
(Her other car’s a minivan.) On weekends,
she’s a hockey mom and is teaching the
kids golf. Each got his own set of little clubs
for his second birthday. Her own golf game
is stuck around bogeys, she grimaces,
and it probably won’t get any better until
she retires—which is many years off, she
promises. For now, vacations are a week here
and there at kid-friendly destinations such
as Disney World or Cape Cod. Her advice on
work-life balance: Be present, 100 percent,
wherever you are at that moment. She
doesn’t think about work when she’s golfing
with the kids, and she’s totally focused on
the job when she’s in the office.
At a recent media industry event,
Jacobs was approached by a familiar
face: sorority sister Desiree Gruber, who
had detoured with Jacobs to see Warren
Buffett’s home on a trip to a college
football game—Colorado vs. Nebraska— 20
years earlier. Gruber went on to become a
high-profile public relations agent, one of
the producers of Project Runway and the
wife of actor Kyle MacLachlan, and though
the two women hadn’t seen each other in
years, they were soon chatting as though
they were back at the Alpha Chi Omega
house. They agreed not to tell anyone in
the room their old college stories. “People
here generally think of me as a responsible
person,” Jacobs says with a laugh.
Looking back, Gruber says she’s not
surprised Jacobs has had such a big career.
“It absolutely makes sense,” she says. “Julie
was the sort of person, even in college, who
always had that perfect sense of balance.
She was the one who got things done.”
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