Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury Sheryl Falk: A Data Privacy Lawyer & Mount Everest Climber Sheryl Falk at a memorial to perished Everest climbers By Natalie Posgate (Jan. 25) – It’s not very often that Sheryl Falk gets to slow Winston’s firmwide mentoring program targeted at down, turn off her phone and think in-depth about her helping young associates. She also informally mentors life. As co-leader of Winston & Strawn’s global privacy several associates at the firm. and data security task force, the Houston partner is always on the go – traveling almost every week, She was inspired to open this new chapter in her career speaking at various conferences and ending her nights while trekking in the shadow of Mount Pumori, which staying abreast of all her work emails. lies eight kilometers west of Mount Everest. Named after the daughter of George Mallory, the famed British But Falk recently had an off-the-grid opportunity when mountaineer who was a leading member of the first she traded two-and-a-half weeks of billable hours for few expeditions of Mount Everest, Pumori means her No. 1 bucket list item: making the climb to Everest “Mountain Daughter” in the Sherpa language. Base Camp. “The mountains are so tall and glorious that you’re Falk returned from the trek not only fulfilling a lifelong literally trekking in the shadow of giants,” Falk told The dream but also with a new career goal: help advance Texas Lawbook. more younger women attorneys. “As I was trekking I was just in gratitude – I’m living the Falk is now part of the faculty of the University of life of my dreams, I’ve accomplished everything I’ve Texas’s 2019 Women in Law Institute, a full-day wanted. I’m a partner at a major global firm, I get to do training program next month for female law students big and exciting cases. As I was hiking in the shadow of and judicial clerks that teaches them how to navigate the daughter mountains I realized I want to do more to successful legal careers. She will train those in help women lawyers.” attendance how to demonstrate their value when building their careers. She realized her climb to Everest Base Camp served as a metaphor for her professional career. She also serves as the Houston office coordinator for © 2019 The Texas Lawbook 1 “So much of your career you spend looking up and Energy Plaza skyscraper in downtown Houston. trying to get promoted,” she said. “The very best thing is to get in the stairwell and go [all But once at the top: “Instead of climbing up, it’s the way] up, back down, then back up and back down,” reaching down and seeing who else you can help up,” she said. she said. Lastly, she befriended Marcus Capone, a business “I’m on top of the mountain, and I want to reach down executive and former Navy SEAL Team 6 member, and help as many other people as I can to help them when the two spoke at an event together in Dallas. make it to the top, too.” Aside from the sage advice he gave her to train with From Houston to the Himalayas weight on her back, she said Capone also provided great moral support – particularly one time when the Falk, 51, had always dreamed of doing Everest, but did two were at a client dinner together. not think seriously about pursuing it “When they came until a partner in around for dessert, Winston’s Chicago [Capone] says, ‘No office, Kimball dessert for her’,” Anderson, trekked to Falk said. “I really Everest Base Camp appreciated the for the second time at encouragement.” age 62. Everest wasn’t the “He made me believe first mountain Falk I could do it,” she said. had trekked – of course, with the base She decided age 50 camp being anchored would be the age 17,600 feet above sea she would finally level, that’s never fulfill her dream and advised anyway. scheduled a trip for 2017. But a month With her husband, before her trip, Rick Retz, who Falk she had to undergo describes as a “real deal emergency surgery mountain climber,” the after the doctor found couple has summited something suspicious Mount Kilimanjaro, the on her ovary. She highest mountain in rescheduled the Sheryl and husband, Rick Retz, at the Everest Base Camp Africa (19,341’), where trip to the following they slept in a volcanic summer. crater at 18,000 feet after summiting. They’ve also climbed Mount Ranier in Washington (14,411 feet) and have hiked She was bedridden for a month after surgery before the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and 110 miles of the Tour de her doctor cleared her to start training for her trek. Mont Blanc in the Swiss and Italian Alps. She started small by doing laps around her gym with a trainer. After the Kilimanjaro summit: “The first email I sent was ‘Made it to the top. It was miserable. Never doing “As I was walking, I said each step is bringing me closer that again,’” she recalled. to Everest,” she said. She found herself thinking something similar after Though living in Houston put her “a bit at a dis- finishing the Everest climb. advantage” altitude-wise, Falk said she began walking in the Houston heat once she had recovered more from “I thought, ‘OK, that’s it. I don’t have to do that again,’” her surgery. she recalled. But after forgetting the “bruises and sore muscles,” she said she thinks Mount Fuji sounds like an “Training in the heat helps you assimilate to altitude,” attractive new conquest. she said. The Trek She also would do long hikes with her pack and intervals of running and walking. It also helped that Falk said the trek to Everest Base Camp took about 10 Winston’s office is located in the 47-floor CenterPoint days. Each day the group would hike to a new village. © 2019 The Texas Lawbook 2 She brought her husband, A highlight of the trip included Rick with her as well as her a blessing at the Tengboche younger brother, Benjamin Monastery from the Falk, a law student at Texas Incarnate Llama Rimboche, Tech University. She was the the reincarnate of a “very only woman in the six-person powerful monk.” Another group. unexpected highlight came when Falk’s group got to a Day one of the journey began primitive inn that had a real with intimidation: their Western bathroom. Sherpa guides informed them that a forty-something man “I was so happy I cried,” Falk from Hong Kong had just died said. doing the same trek. The day Falk ascended to “It was sobering because that Base Camp, her group got was what we were doing,” up at 5 a.m. to prepare. They Falk said. “It really puts all the huffed and puffed for eight prayer flags and prayer wheels hours down the mountain in context. trail, across boulder fields and along a narrow ridge. It Along the way, there’s a began to snow as the “brightly memorial to all of the people colored tents of base camp” who have died on the trek. came into view. It’s very somber; you are aware that it is a dangerous place.” “It made all the hardness, challenge and effort – and being tired and dirty – worth it,” Falk said. “It was just Aside from the fear, the expedition was of course more a magical moment.” physically grueling than Falk had ever anticipated. Halfway through she began taking Diamox to help her Falk’s husband surprised her at the top with sugar tea adjust to the altitude. cakes from the same British baker that George Mallory brought with him on his Everest trek. “Everything hurts and you have to keep going,” she said. “You push yourself to the limits, and then you She almost didn’t live to tell the tale of meeting her keep going.” lifelong dream. But the views – and opportunity to disconnect from At a particularly populated ridge during the hike out of daily life – more than made up for it. Base Camp, Falk was passing through close to the edge when the Earth beneath her collapsed. She started “We walked through this one forest that was full slipping down a cliff but instantly three pairs of hands of Rhododendron trees of white blossoms and red belonging to her husband, a Sherpa and a stranger blossoms,” she said. “On the way up, you have a lot pulled her up at the same time. of time to think about your life – not about cases, but ‘Where do I put my foot?’ ” She said she recalled feeling “shock” but the moment wasn’t as poignant as it should have been in her memory Around the halfway point, one of Falk’s fellow because her brain was only receiving 50 percent of its trekkers, a “lawyer from Miami who ran every day,” usual oxygen level due to the high altitude. got such severe altitude sickness that he arranged for a helicopter to help him complete the Base Camp “I would have been more scared if I had more oxygen journey. to the brain,” she said. “It was like being drunk and you Falk admits she thought about following suit, but “not can barely comprehend it.” for more than a minute. I wanted to earn it.” At Everest Base Camp, Falk waved a Winston & Strawn Luckily she didn’t give in, and the next day ended sign that Anderson, the colleague who inspired her to up validating her decision with beautiful, warmer embark on the journey, sent with her.