Natalie
Gislason

OVERVIEW

Natalie Gislason spent a dozen years in business roles. She traveled widely, working with people on six continents. Yet, Iowa was always her home base. “Having worked with people in many different countries—and also with East Coasters, West Coasters, Southerners—the Midwest, to me, is the best place you can be,” Natalie says. “We are kind. We are reasonable. We are fair. In the Midwest, you don’t take yourself too seriously, but you do take your work seriously.”

 

For Natalie, taking work seriously always meant a law degree to augment her business career. While working full time, Natalie attended law school. “My father taught me the law permeates every area,” she says. “The plan was to recognize how the law affects business and use that in my career in business.”

 

But opportunity knocked, and Natalie heeded the call. Her practice now focuses on mergers and acquisitions, contracts, corporate finance, corporate governance, insurance, and business organizations. “A decade-plus of working with individuals at all levels of an organization and working across several cultures has prepared me to work well, now from a legal perspective, with business leaders.”

 

Meticulously diligent and organized, Natalie applies the skills she acquired during her wide-ranging business career to serve clients. She worked in international product development within global asset management. She ran a talent mobility strategy in human resources. She developed a data-loss prevention strategy in IT. She also served on the senior leadership team for a fast-growing, multimillion-dollar business. “I was chief of staff to an individual who was one of the most successful people I’ve ever met,” she says. “In two years, our team executed a greenfield investment strategy resulting in a $60 million business with growing earnings.”

 

Because she’s been in business leaders’ shoes, Natalie connects with their spoken and unspoken goals. “There’s not too much of a learning curve when they’re talking about their business because I’ve worked in that language for so long,” she says. “I understand how to communicate better with individuals in those positions. Conversations are more connected. You can get work done quicker.”

 

Getting work done quickly and efficiently is a core element of Natalie’s legal approach. “I am honest. I am direct,” she says. “My communication style is very to-the-point. I’m not going to waste your time—there’s nothing worse than wasting people’s time.”

 

Natalie helps clients get to the essence of their goals. “Sometimes, people say what they think they want but there’s a lot unsaid,” she says. She values opportunities to help people build out their businesses and achieve their dreams.

 

Although Natalie has traveled the globe, a 6½-mile radius in the Des Moines area has always been home. Grounded in that sense of place, Natalie values home, family, and faith. “My husband and my family are the most important people to me,” she says.

 

Natalie also loves hockey—a lesser known sport in Iowa. “I’m kind of obscure,” she says. “I was a soccer player. I married a hockey player. We played the sports that aren’t as well known in Iowa.”

 

Her reading habits are also a bit eclectic. Theology and health are her preferred genres. “I like to dig into the Bible, then I go and read about endocrinology,” she says.

 

For Natalie, the keystones of her approach to law started in childhood. “My parents instilled in me the difference between right and wrong,” Natalie says. “The second thing they always instilled in me was to work hard. I’ve always had that drive in me.”

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS

Drake Law Review

 

American Jurisprudence Awards

• Civil Procedure Litigation
• U.S. Supreme Court
• Trial Advocacy
• Entrepreneurial and Transaction Law Clinic

 

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