Day in the Life: Danielle Wolfe of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety-Highway Loss Data Institute

Name: Danielle Wolfe 

Title: General Counsel 

Company: IIHS-HLDI 

Location: Ruckersville, Virginia (USA) 

5:30 am:  

OK, sometimes 5:45 am, but I crawl out of bed and climb into the shower. I get myself together and then feed the two dogs and two cats. 

6:30 am:  

Try to convince my husband and young child, both of whom are in school, that it’s time to get up. I run back and forth between the kitchen (packing lunches and prepping the child’s breakfast), the bathroom (let’s get those teeth brushed!), and the bedrooms (let’s get those clothes on!). I pick up pet food bowls, wrestle cats into the basement, let dogs out and back inside. Somewhere in there, I’m checking my email to see if anything arrived that will change my workday plans. 

7:15 am:  

If it’s my in-office day, and the rest of the household has cooperated, LOL, I’m pulling out of the driveway to head to the office, about an hour away. Recently, I’ve been listening to the “Little House 50^th Anniversary Podcast.” 

8:15 am:  

I arrive at the office, usually carrying too many bags – laptop bag, gym bag with lunch inside, purse. I plug in and boot up – now I’m dating myself – my computer and start reading any Teams messages and emails. I’ll prepare a breakfast sandwich and unless something has arrived that requires immediate attention, I usually start with reading all those incredibly informative ACC-related digests and skim Lexology. 

9:30 am:  

Respond to emails. Start drafting or reviewing the latest contract request. It could be an NDA, a Research Agreement, or a License Agreement for someone who wants to use my organizations’ incredibly professional and really cool videos or graphics. 

10:00 am:  

Time for a regularly scheduled staff meeting, a quarterly meeting on cybersecurity matters, or a request that just came regarding a personnel matter or a new project that will involve ... you guessed it ... a contract. Then, I resume drafting or reviewing. 

11:30 am:  

Time to head to the office gym. I like to use the 30-minute BODi videos for strength and cardiovascular exercise. 

12:15 pm:  

Review the messages that inevitably arrived during the workout. Then, I clean off in the shower and head back to my office. I start eating my lunch ... I know, I know ... don’t eat while at the computer, but I needed that workout! 

1:00 pm:  

Respond to emails, new requests for a contract, or other legal inquiries. 

2:00 pm:  

I resume work on longer term projects, such as drafting or revising policies, researching legal operations procedures that we should adopt, collecting materials we will need to provide outside counsel to initiate a trademark registration, or work on developing the SharePoint List we can integrate with Power Automate to track due dates and send reminders. 

3:15 pm:  

If it wasn’t a staff meeting day, and if I haven’t already, Teams call the brilliant and highly capable Senior Legislative Policy Analyst to discuss highway safety legislation being considered or enacted that would interest our research staff. Call the brilliant and highly capable new Staff Attorney to check on projects and provide some tips that I’ve acquired in my 11 years of in-house work for IIHS-HLDI. Like me, the new Staff Attorney has transitioned from government to private, in-house counsel ... Wrap up any work I can or at least reach a good stopping point. 

4:30 pm:  

Pack up my stuff and start the drive home, listening to music, talk radio, or the podcast. 

5:45 pm:  

I’ve parked my car. Because I’m too connected to my electronic device, before I go inside, I check to see if any work messages or emails arrived during the drive. I walk into my house and find my husband at the computer (or quite possibly in the kitchen working on a scrumptious dinner), my dogs pacing around waiting for their dinner, and my child hanging from the chandelier. OK, so that last point is a bit of an exaggeration, but unless the child is watching a movie, there’s usually a fair amount of running around the house. I unpack my various bags and confirm that any homework sheets have been completed. 

6:30 pm:  

Everyone – but the cats – eat! 

7:00 pm:  

Clean up the dishes and the house. Because I’m an extrovert – we process by talking things through – I mull over in my head – or more likely talk to myself – about my day to think through some legal questions. 

7:45 pm:  

Get the child ready for bed. Maybe read a book or watch an animated movie until the child falls asleep. 

8:30 pm:  

Quick call to Mom while feeding the cats. I follow that with watching the latest episode of “Tracker” with my husband. Or if he’s busy, I read a book or a devotional. 

9:30 pm:  

Get ready for bed so I can get at least 7.5 hours of sleep if I have to drive the next day. Safety first!