General Janet Reno—“a straight shooter
with some of the strongest ethics I’ve
known,” Roseborough says—approved for
her to commute from Atlanta to D.C. and
serve as deputy assistant attorney general
in the Office of Legal Counsel of the
Department of Justice.
Roseborough’s reputation as a quick
study and a cool head, in and out of the
courtroom, got noticed. After returning
to Sutherland Asbill & Brennan in 1995,
it was put to the test in the high-stakes
confusion of the 2000 presidential
election, as the recount battle between
George W. Bush and Al Gore heated up
daily on television and in the courts. On
behalf of the Democratic candidate, she
argued and won two cases before the en
banc 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals;
one initiated by Florida voters in four
counties at the center of the crisis, and
the other brought by Bush. When the
issues moved to the U.S. Supreme Court,
she assisted on briefs and attended oral
argument as second chair to David Boies
during the suspenseful deliberations.
“That was an exhilarating experience
because of the weighty, historic outcome,
and we knew we probably would never
work on another case that would be as
important,” she recalls. “I have to say that,
notwithstanding the emotional intensity
of that time, the lawyers on both sides
conducted themselves with the utmost
courtesy toward each other, in a way that
made me proud of this profession.”
Roseborough argued her first case
before the Supreme Court in 2002. “I
represented foster children in Washington
state,” she says. “I argued that the state
was violating the Social Security Act by
using their benefits to cover their foster
care expenses before covering expenses
associated with their disabilities.” (In a
unanimous opinion delivered by Justice
David Souter, the court held that the
state’s use of foster children’s benefits to
reimburse itself did not violate the Social
Security Act’s anti-attachment provision.)
That year the Supreme Court Historical
Society tapped Roseborough to re-visit
the 1824 case of Gibbons v. Ogden before
Justice Antonin Scalia.
“[In Ogden] the court faced the
challenge of defining both the scope of
the power granted to Congress under
the Commerce Clause and the power of
the states to engage in the regulation of
commerce,” she says. “Virtually every law
student’s study of the Commerce Clause
begins with this decision, so I was honored
to re-enact the arguments made on
behalf of Mr. Ogden.”
In 2003, The American Lawyer magazine
ranked her among 45 of the highest-
performing members of the private bar
under age 45.
When Roseborough joined MetLife as
senior chief counsel of litigation in 2006,
she felt she had reignited the torch her
father lit while she was growing up.
“Because my father was so passionate
about African-Americans having access to
life insurance, taking a position there felt
like closing the circle,” she says.
Roseborough traveled every week from
her home on the south side of Atlanta to
the company’s New York City offices, where
her leadership revealed her managerial
skills as a democrat, lowercase “d.” She
became deputy general counsel of MetLife
in 2010.
“Teresa has a knack for spotting talent
and, by the same token, if she saw that
you needed help in public speaking or
other aspects of your work, she would
use her capital and find resources—
classes, mentors—to help you grow,”
says Murphy, who still works as associate
general counsel at MetLife. “She finds
everyone she meets utterly fascinating.
She will get the life story out of a cabbie
during a short taxi ride.”
As an afterthought, Murphy adds: “And
there’s the hugging. That made her stand
out among New Yorkers.”
In 2011, Roseborough saw a new
challenge that appealed to her activist
spirit and offered a shorter commute.
“I was drawn by the story of Home
Depot,” she says. “I liked that the founders
used their wealth to improve their
community. Also, I had never worked [in
the legal space] in retail, which is a huge
part of the economy that creates jobs and
opportunities.”
The chain was founded in 1978 by
Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank with a
“customer’s bill of rights” and extensively
trained employees to lead the DIY
movement. The franchise now comprises
more than 2, 200 stores with 365,000
employees in the United States, Canada
and Mexico. Roseborough is responsible
for litigation, securities, employment,
mergers and acquisitions, real estate,
store operations, risk management and
intellectual property, as well as lobbying
and government relations. She oversees
40 attorneys and 110 support staff, and
she answers only to the CEO, who, until a
changing of the guard over the summer,
was Home Depot chairman Frank Blake;
he’d also clerked for Stevens.
“There’s an inverted pyramid structure of
power,” Roseborough says. “Customers are
on top, at highest priority, with store-based
associates next, followed by managers, and
then the CEO at the bottom. It’s a good
indication of the priorities.”
Among the things she likes about The
Home Depot: It provides its employees
with one of the country’s largest employer-
sponsored child care centers—the “Little
Apron Academy”—and its foundation
affiliate has poured funding and resources
into employment opportunities and other
assistance for military veterans. “More than
35,000 of our associates are veterans,” she
says, “and our company has committed
more than $80 million in investments
toward their housing needs.”
When Hurricane Sandy pounded the
Northeast, and when an ice storm famously
shut down Atlanta’s freeways and stranded
shivering drivers for hours, The Home
Depot stores swung into action. Their
associates handed out doughnuts and
thermoses of coffee and quickly assembled
makeshift pallets where members of the
public could sleep overnight. They even
provided shelter to pets. The company
opens its doors as readily as Roseborough
opens her arms.
“What is most remarkable to me about
our company’s quick response to disasters
and other crises is that our associates
didn’t clear their actions with managers—
they knew they didn’t have to,” she says.
“They did it knowing that they not only
had approval, but also encouragement,
locked in, in advance. That’s what we’re
empowered to do, and that, in a nutshell,
that explains why I work here.”
