NASCAR likes to give Karen Leetzow the difficult work. Since joining the sanctioning body as its first trademark lawyer in 1999, Leetzow has worked on matters ranging from a 2002 antitrust lawsuit brought by a shareholder of Speedway Motorsports Inc. to driver Jeremy Mayfield’s positive drug test to the organization’s recent acquisition of the American Le Mans Series. She was named NASCAR’s deputy general counsel in 2008 in large part because she’s adept at learning areas of the law in which she has no formal training or experience and she’s able to provide expert legal counsel on matters big and small.

Leetzow loves solving problems, and her passion for doing so has been a major reason she made the leap from a specialized, trademark attorney to NASCAR’s top legal adviser. “Reinventing myself in that way and being what the company needs, and the company being happy with the work I did — that feels good,” Leetzow said.