Southwestern Magazine | Fall 2019

9 SOUTHWESTERN WHENSHEMUSES on her original career plans, Amanda McMillian ’95 can’t help but laugh. “It’s funny because early in our lives, we get these ideas about things, andwe come to thosewith, quite obviously, far less experience thanwhenwe’re, say, 46,” she says. McMillian arrived at Southwestern planning a career in politics but “quickly cooled” on that idea. Shemajored in political science, minoring in philosophy and communication studies, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Not two weeks after graduating from SU, she began an accelerated joint-degree program at Duke University, where she earned her master’s in political science and a juris doctorate in a scant three years. The Southwestern alum then spent over six years specializing in corporate and securities law at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP, an international firm. Corporate law, she explains, is a wide-ranging practice, but a significant portion of herwork entailed buying and selling companies or company assets. Securities law, meanwhile, involves helping client companies complywith the laws and regulations designed to protect investors. McMillian admits that she did not initially think she’d be interested in these fields, but she discovered that she loved the inherent challenge of negotiating transactions. “In litigation, theoretically, you’ve got two sides arguing to a neutral thirdpartywho thenmakesadecisionabout the dispute,” she explains. “But in a transaction, you have to convince a biased other side that you’re right…. It’s a lot of fun.” In 2004, McMillian began her 15-year tenure withAnadarko PetroleumCorporation, an oil and natural-gas company based in The Woodlands, Texas.Inpartbecauseofherabilitytocommunicate CONTINUED ON PAGE 50 Photos by Steve Peixotto A L U M N I S P O T L I G H T Listening for Understanding AmandaMcMillian ’95 negotiates change throughout a distinctive career. byMeilee Bridges