This jewelry industry lawyer enjoys a multifaceted career
Diamonds may not be Sara E. Yood’s actual best friend, but it’s an easy assumption to make. She serves as the president, CEO and general counsel for the Jewelers Vigilance Committee, a 108-year-old nonprofit trade association focused on legal compliance in the jewelry industry. Yood’s work includes educating members—which range from multigenerational family businesses to publicly traded multinational diamond retailers—on issues like impending tariffs, ethical sourcing and anti-money laundering regulatory compliance.
When I think about the jewelry industry, ethical issues like blood diamonds come to mind, but I never realized there are so many federal agencies involved. I can see how the Federal Trade Commission fits in with advertising, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission? How does that come into play?
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulates irradiated gemstones. Some gemstones are irradiated to enhance their color, most notably sky blue topaz—it’s usually brown first. You have to do licensing and testing before you can import those stones to make sure they’re not harmful. The Securities and Exchange Commission is another agency that you wouldn’t think would be involved, but there was a provision added to the Dodd-Frank [Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection] Act that requires every publicly traded company to report whether they were using gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten from the Democratic Republic of Congo and surrounding countries. There are only a small handful of publicly traded companies in the jewelry industry, but there are many, many more companies who supply those companies, so everyone had to start digging into their supply chains to figure out whether they had any of this and then whether they wanted to eliminate it or declare it. Things like this come up all the time, where you think, “This wasn’t what I thought I would be doing when I went to law school.”
Is there such a thing as a typical day for you?
My days constantly look different based on what members give me a call or what issue comes up. Maybe I am talking a member through a strategy on tariffs; or giving a webinar on another topic; or visiting a jewelry store, working with them on anti-money laundering strategy. It’s a constantly changing job experience, which is why I’ve stayed so long. It’s always interesting. Is there a particular issue that keeps you up at night?
Lately, it’s been tariffs. In the U.S., we are an industry that is almost entirely built by components that come from outside the country. There are no diamonds in the United States, except for in one state park in Arkansas where you can go dig for diamonds in a field, and they find approximately one a day. There are limited resources in the United States for precious metal and gemstones. There’s limited metal mining, sapphires in Montana and a handful of other mines that provide gemstones—but it’s a very small fraction of the natural resources needed to fuel the jewelry industry.
If you want to support domestic manufacturing, you have to be able to access these products that come from around the world. But the truth is, over the last 20 years, the jewelry industry has faced challenge after challenge after challenge. There was conflict diamonds, then there was the Patriot Act creating regulations for money laundering, and now we’re dealing with Russian diamonds in the supply chain and bad actors trying to use the jewelry industry for money laundering and terrorist financing. Another problem is the high cost of gold—if you’re a small jewelry company, you might not have the capital to buy the gold you need right now.
Did you go to law school with the goal of working in a fashion-related field?
No. I have an English literature degree, and my first real job out of college was at a music licensing agency. I was there for four years, working my way up in the company. They had a program where they would set you up with someone more senior to serve as a mentor,and I got paired with a lawyer and had many interesting conversations with him. One day he sat me down and said, “Sara, you are the only person who is not a lawyer who asks me intelligent questions about copyright—when are you going to apply to law school?”
Before he said that, I had thought zero percent about law school. I had struggled in undergrad and didn’t have a great GPA, so I wasn’t confident about being back in the classroom. So I took a continuing education class at [New York University] in copyright law to decide if I even liked it. I loved it! I was like, “Sign me up immediately!” I chose Fordham School of Law because of the strength of their intellectual property law program. I thought I’d go back into the music business eventually.
I entered law school in the fall of 2008, and within two weeks of starting, Lehman Brothers fell apart and the financial crisis began, and firms cut their hiring from my class year. I stayed at Fordham after graduation as a dean’s fellow, where they placed recent graduates with various academic institutes at Fordham. I began working with the Fashion Law Institute. While I was there, I attended a CLE program called “Nice Ice: Ethical Alternatives to Conflict Diamonds.” There were three speakers on the program, and one of them was the woman who used to have this job. Turns out, she was thinking about hiring a junior lawyer, and that’s how I got the interview.
And the rest is history!
Yes! I’ve been here for 13 years. There are times when it is stressful, and there are times when I am frustrated, but I love helping our members understand and comply with the laws that apply to their businesses. I love the one-on-one guidance part of the job, the public speaking part, the education part. Interfacing with the federal government allows me to flex a different muscle. The job changes all the time based on what’s going on, and I love that. I didn’t go to law school to become a generalist, but that’s what I’ve become.
The Jewelers Vigilance Committee was your first job after law school. What was a challenge you encountered when you started?
I think the first challenge I faced was learning how to tailor my guidance to each member. The conversation you have with an in-house counsel is going to be very different from the conversation you have with the person who owns a small jewelry store in Indiana with four employees. I learned that it’s important to stay away from legalese and to focus on clear, actionable steps. It took me a little while to learn how to do this. When I first started, I was ready to write the best legal brief that ever happened, and my boss at the time was like, “You have to dial this down.”
Is there a specific initiative or accomplishment that stands out to you as one you’re particularly proud of?
Yes. About 10 years ago, I got a phone call from a member that spurred a project that was pretty novel. He said, “I’ve inherited a piece of ivory, and I have no idea what I’m allowed to do with it. Can you help me?” At the time, I was the junior lawyer on staff. No one knew about this area of law, so I was assigned to take it on. I spent a lot of time researching plant and wildlife materials, how they come into the country and what laws apply. In New York, you can bequeath it, you can inherit it or donate it, but you can’t sell it.
There’s actually a federal repository in Colorado managed by U.S. Fish and Wildlife where you can send it if you don’t want to own it. They use it for educational purposes, for museum displays about animal conservation, and they will also use it to educate their agents to be able to identify the materials in the field. I ended up creating a brochure on the topic, and at the time, it was the first industry resource that talked about this area of law.
I also learned about wildlife trafficking, which happens around the globe. Wildlife trafficking routes are often the same as human trafficking routes, and both follow the same routes as gold smuggling. As a result of my expertise, I’ve been able to work with some national and international nongovernmental organizations, providing information about the jewelry industry and our commerce routes so they can track human and wildlife trafficking. It’s something I never expected to be working on in my career, but it was gratifying to get to help with that.
That’s really cool. OK, I have to ask, has this job inspired you to buy jewelry? Or to buy more jewelry?
One of the fun things about this job is that I get to go to a lot of fancy parties and galas, and JVC members will let us borrow jewelry for events. It’s a lot of fun and also a little bit terrifying.
I can imagine. I saw the movie Oceans 8, where they steal a diamond necklace at the Met Gala! Has this job made you a jewelry person?
I liked jewelry before I took this job, but I have turned into a jewelry person. It is certainly a hazard of the job. My favorite place to look at things—and to buy things—is the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, where people come from all over the globe to sell colored gemstones, giant rocks, crystals and geodes. I love colored gemstones. I love the colors and cuts and the design and artistry that goes into the pieces. I used to give myself a budget when I was going to jewelry shows, then I’d be upset if I spent more than that. I have learned that my budget is zero dollars, and I will choose to buy what I want.
Are you the jewelry hookup for your friends and family now?
Yes. I’ve taken my brother to get his engagement ring, and I’ll get a call from my dad saying: “Your mother’s birthday is coming up, can you help me find something?” The answer is always jewelry. Just buy jewelry.
Jenny B. Davis is a journalism professor at Southern Methodist University, a fashion stylist and former practicing attorney. Her most recent book is Style Wise, a guide for aspiring fashion stylists.
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