As general counsel, Nadine Lacombe is the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory’s chief legal counsel. She brought more than 25 years of experience as an attorney to the lab when she arrived in 2023, working across legal disciplines and representing a range of private- and public-sector clients.

This includes a depth of experience gained on the staffs of several government agencies, including the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) of northeastern Illinois, the Illinois Department of Central Management Services and the Illinois Department of Transportation. At the RTA, she worked with fellow transit agencies — the CTA, Metra and PACE systems — on a variety of system-wide legal matters.

Nadine has made difficult choices throughout her career. One such example unfolded while she was working at a business that refused to feature an openly gay colleague’s U.S. Supreme Court legal work on behalf of an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization. When submitted for posting on a company site that featured accomplishments, the work was deemed ​“unsuitable.”

Nadine interceded, but management wouldn’t budge, even though the company had approved her colleague’s work. After that episode, Nadine declined a new role that would have intentionally downplayed the diversity aspects of her work. She eventually landed with another firm, saying of the experience, ​“I feel better about myself as a lawyer and a person, in hindsight, for doing what was consistent with my values.”

Nadine became the first Black woman to be the RTA’s general counsel, a position she held for more than 10 years. Then, she was encouraged to apply for an opening at Argonne. She said it was ​“a no-brainer moment,” given that she had focused on the sciences as an undergraduate, earning a Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and then her Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan.

“I was always fascinated by the biological sciences, and more recently, by AI and other legal issues stemming from technological advances,” she says. ​“My parents instilled a profound love of mathematics and science, so practicing law at Argonne really is a perfect fit.”

Since joining Argonne, Nadine has also developed a deep respect for her clients’ research and for the legal team. ​“They’re supportive colleagues and highly skilled professionals who care about the lab’s mission,” she said.

Among others, she considers her parents and grandparents her heroes. She has a strong appreciation for their resilience as immigrants from Haiti to the U.S. and France, where Nadine was born.

“I know firsthand how challenging it is to learn and work across cultures and languages,” Nadine says, noting that many at the lab share that history.

During Black History Month, Nadine plans a special dinner with friends, featuring foods of her heritage and those of others, aiming to honor her parents and grandparents.

She has a complicated relationship with Black History Month, a dynamic she described in a 2018 blog post, noting that, ​“Our contributions to this country and to the world are far too vast to be relegated to a single month… but Black History Month still matters.”