SheTech Intern Interviews Neela Pack
Neela Pack of Mayer Brown shared about her passion for helping people through listening, learning, and working hard, as well as how the support from those around her has guided her to success.
People & Culture
Salt Lake City, Utah — September 15, 2025
“I am passionate about my family, and helping others, and learning,” said Neela Pack, an associate at the Salt Lake City office of global law firm Mayer Brown. She loves seeing what her clients and their companies accomplish. “We have numerous clients who come to us with big ideas, and we support them through the full life cycle — from forming their company to ringing the bell at the New York Stock Exchange.”
“I have loved seeing transactions. I love seeing what companies have become. We have numerous clients where they come to us and they say, I want to do this crazy thing. And we're like, Okay, we're here to support you. We'll help you form your company. We'll help you get your investment. We'll help you scale. We'll make sure that we're with you through the full life cycle, from someone having the light bulb all the way through, like being at the New York Stock Exchange, ringing the bell, going public.”
Pack believes emotional intelligence is one of the most valuable skills she brings to her work. “You have to be able to read personalities and the emotion behind things,” she said. “That makes you a better negotiator, deal maker, and litigator. I think women generally have a superior skill set on that front, and it’s immensely valuable.”
Pack feels that her ability to listen has helped her to best support her clients and become a leader. Listening, she explained, has been key to supporting clients and leading effectively. “I am very purposeful about listening a lot. I like to be well informed before I speak. I am very comfortable saying, ‘I don’t know.’ If you’re a leader, you should be listening a lot.” She quoted Epictetus: “We have two ears and one mouth so we can listen twice as much as we speak.”
She continued, “I was really passionate about civic engagement, and law school seemed like a natural next step. When I went to law school, and when I was there, I learned about the whole other side of the law, which is transactional work, and it really surprised me. I did not plan on that. I didn't think I would become a deal lawyer. I didn't think I would be in boardrooms, necessarily. And it was a pleasant surprise and kind of goes to what I was saying of keeping an open mind and learning about things and seeing if it intrigues you, maybe that's a sign that you know you should follow that a little more.”
Pack finds motivation in solving complex problems. “It sometimes involves gathering a lot of facts, synthesizing them, and making sense of it all. It’s almost like a puzzle. In my practice, we sometimes do things that cross tax law, corporate law, a number of frameworks of law, and you have to be able to see all the pictures, the big picture together, and all these pieces together, and then also zero in on the details. I find so much fulfillment and joy when I break through and solve something like that.”
She credits both her team and her family with making her career rewarding.
“Those two together have made my career what it is, and has made me very much enjoy doing what I do, and happy to come to work and happy to go home from work. So I feel like I'm in my happy place when I'm in both places.”
“They give me grace when I fail. I feel comfortable to try something and fail. They know that it's a learning process, even at this stage of my career. So working with people like that, and being raised in a household like that helps you iterate and become better and refine skills, whether it's like communication skills, or like actual technical skills,” said Pack.
She emphasized how important it is to work with the right people. “It's important that those people add something to your life, and certainly not take away from it. I feel like I hit the jackpot, when I landed with that first group, which is why I've stuck with this same team for eight years, for my whole legal career. It makes such a difference. . . . If I was looking for a job, I would look at who you're going to work with, who you're going to learn from. Do you like spending time with them? Do you like socializing with them? Would you want to eat lunch with them every day, and do your personalities get along? And I found that here for sure.”
Pack’s biggest advice to young people is to read and explore. “If you're interested in something like, Why are most plants green? go read about it. With the AI tools that we have now, and the wealth of knowledge and how easy it is to access it, there’s such a low barrier. Read as much as you can and just learn a lot. That's my biggest advice. Try to see what all is out there.”
Mayer Brown LLP is a global law firm with offices in the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. The firm is known for its strengths in corporate, finance, litigation, and regulatory practices, serving major corporations, financial institutions, and governments worldwide. Mayer Brown represented Angel Studios in its recent IPO.
To learn more about Mayer Brown, visit mayerbrown.com.
Lisa Kimball is a freshman at Brigham Young University and previously worked as a SheTech Media Intern.