A mix of multicultural fluency and deep-rooted curiosity about “the international world” led Bonnie Doyle to the legal world and Freshfields. We recently sat down with the Freshfields alumna, where she shared insights about her time at Freshfields and her career’s evolution from Big Law to her role today as Corporate Counsel at Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Angling for Success
From a young age, Doyle was drawn to the intricacies of language and culture. This passion led to a thirst for learning foreign languages (too many to list) and eventually, a study abroad program; an experience that only further confirmed a professional aspiration to travel and work across the globe. Doyle decided to find her angle to do just that.
“I thought: I’m not a business person. I don’t want to sell things. But I’m very precise, and able to negotiate.” She would soon identify a career in law as a means to apply her analytical skills to the international landscape.
“Like so many people, I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do when I went to law school,” Doyle recalls. “But I had a sense that I wanted to be involved in the ‘international world’,” Doyle half-jokes while signaling air quotes with her hands.
A Freshfields Perspective
When Doyle joined Freshfields as an associate over a decade ago, the firm’s renown for complex, cross-border mandates aligned well with her global ambitions. Freshfields’ brand as an international powerhouse law firm appealed to her, as did its promise of exposure to cross-border cases and investigations. Doyle found herself immersed in high-stakes, globally significant cases from day one. In her role, she quickly experienced the nuances of international arbitration and the demanding field of corporate investigations.
One particularly formative experience came during her first few months at Freshfields, where Doyle was part of a large-scale investigation into a major international corporation. Due to her Spanish language skills, Doyle was given significant responsibility to help navigate interactions with the client’s Latin American offices. This work illuminated the often unseen gap between a corporation’s leadership and its global workforce. “Language and culture become huge factors, and we, as legal representatives, have to bridge those gaps,” Doyle explained. “On day two of Freshfields, that immediately became something I was very involved in and found very interesting.”
For Doyle, Freshfields provided more than just a legal foundation; it was also a place where she formed lasting friendships and professional networks. The bonds they formed extended beyond work, leading to friendships that persisted even after their careers diverged. Doyle has stayed connected with her circle of Freshfields friends, and while they’ve not yet made good on their group pact to join forces at the same company, they are lifelong relationships forged through shared experiences.
“As junior associates, we all sort of made a pact that we'd stay in touch throughout the years and that, if someone finds some awesome thing, we can recruit each other,” Doyle quips. “We all ended up having different interests and at different places, but it was great camaraderie.”
A Clear Career Path
After gaining significant experience in international investigations, Doyle eventually transitioned to an in-house counsel role, a shift she describes as both natural and necessary. While her work at Freshfields and at another law firm in Shanghai had positioned her as an expert in international compliance, she felt increasingly compelled to understand organizations from within. “As an investigator, you’re always somewhat on the outside, analyzing and reporting. I wanted to see if I could be part of shaping those internal structures rather than just observing them,” Doyle explained.
Doyle’s move in-house allowed her to apply her experience more proactively. Her role now as Corporate Counsel for Thermo Fisher Scientific focuses on ensuring that company policies are not just established but thoroughly understood and implemented by employees worldwide. It’s a challenge that often requires translating high-level strategies into practical, day-to-day guidelines that resonate across cultures. Doyle’s multilingual background continues to be an asset, allowing her to communicate effectively with colleagues in various regions and to anticipate the potential misinterpretations and barriers that can arise in a multicultural setting.
Full Circle
Today, Doyle’s work remains grounded in the same curiosity that brought her to Freshfields: a desire to learn and a thirst for understanding and providing clarity.
In her words, “Legal work is as much about organizing thoughts and clarifying actions as it is about knowing the law. Being a lawyer, particularly in an international setting, is about making sense of complexity and helping organizations navigate their own structures and goals.” It’s a philosophy that has guided Doyle from her early days as a junior associate to her current role in-house, embodying the very essence of a legal career rooted in global curiosity and organizational insight.
