It’s funny the things you notice when you come to a new country for the first time. For Cathy (Copeland) Gryczan, it was laundry hung outside windows in southern France when she arrived as a U of I student for a study abroad program in the early 1980s.
“That struck me as something that was like a poor neighborhood,” Gryczan recalls. “And I thought to myself, ‘Gee, what kind of neighborhood am I in?’”
It turned out there was nothing wrong with the neighborhood. She’d learn that the laundry was just one of many cultural differences—this one brought on by a combination of environmental awareness and tight apartment quarters, Gryczan says—she encountered during what turned out to be a momentous time in Aix-en-Provence.
These days, Gryczan (AB ’82, individual plan of study) is considered one of the top corporate lawyers in Chicago as a partner at Faegre Baker Daniels. The mother of three was named an Illinois Leading Lawyer from 2007 to 2009 and 2012 and an Illinois Super Lawyer in 2006 and 2009.
She calls herself an “M and A and everyday” lawyer, meaning that she assists clients in everything from mergers and acquisitions to smaller items such as resolving disputes over terms of a building lease. One of her chief duties is helping clients navigate business laws overseas (or helping foreign businesses navigate business laws in the United States), which can be rooted in very different principles.
It’s in this capacity, Gryczan says, that her studies at U of I and her semester-long study abroad to France during her sophomore year at U of I come into play. It started when she elected an individual plan of study during her freshman year, to complement a passion for the French language with the practicality of business courses.
That required drafting her own plan of study, taking summer courses to fill the gaps, and asking department heads to sign off on her plan.
“It caused me to have to think through what it was that I wanted to study,” she recalls. “And I had to negotiate—you might call it early negotiation experience—just having to navigate all that.”
She considered studying abroad essential, and her time living with a host French family and studying amongst French students turned out to be pivotal in her career.
Gryczan learned how complicated it can be when two cultures come together—hung laundry was just the tip of the iceberg. She learned how being a non-native speaker affects perceptions, and how seemingly similar concepts can have different meanings depending on where you are.
“I’ve had the opportunity to work with clients and counsel in different jurisdictions and countries. And even when you’re dealing with, say, British colleagues or British lawyers, you can be using English words but they don’t always have the same meaning,” she says. “So you learn to ask questions and probe their understanding of a topic or words to make sure you are on common ground.”
In her field, she adds, written words are vital, but, as she’d learn to appreciate in France during her study abroad, not as important as the relationships that support them.
