Bank Chief Legal Officer

Guardian: In Guardian mode, you need to manage the legal and regulatory affairs of the business, managing complexity while minimizing risk. This is the fundamental responsibility of the role of the General Counsel and the in-house legal team. While it is useful to reflect on your role in this context, the delineation of tasks in the daily life of CLOs is not always so clearly segmented. Often, the main priorities of an OCOL involve two or more faces. Here are the five most frequently cited priorities that legal leaders identify for themselves: Today`s Chief Legal Officer (CLL) is multidimensional and no longer just an exceptional legal tactician. A CLO is also a strategic thinker and leader who operates at the highest and most impactful level of the company. To succeed in the role of General Counsel, an OCL must divide its time among “four faces” – strategist, catalyst, custodian and operator. In the same way, the priority of “legal talent management” can appear as a simple priority of the operator. However, if the company has recently acquired talent through a merger, or if there is a significant strategic shift for the company or a move to a more technology-driven legal department, talent management could be a strategic priority. It can even be a catalyst priority – for example, if the talent management plan is designed to help influence the global risk profile. All four sides exist simultaneously, and the ability of the CLO to navigate each other should be fluid. If the company is involved in a legal dispute, the general counsel can directly represent the company, lead the legal team that does so, or choose the lawyer to do so.

If there is not already a strong leader for legal operations, the search for such a leader should be a top priority. In fact, when we checked a year after an OCOL took over a legal department, the biggest regret was that we didn`t make talent decisions sooner – putting the right people in the right role, realigning the team, or separating people who are difficult or have skills that don`t match the needs of the department. Priorities often have components that touch more than one face. For example, the priority “align legal priorities and resources with corporate strategy” may include elements of the strategist`s role, understanding (and potentially influencing) corporate strategy, and its relationship to legal strategy. It can also affect the role of the operator and implement processes and procedures for the legal team to help them align. “During his 15 years at Comerica, Von has been instrumental in providing valuable advice and guidance on key legal issues,” said Mr. Farmer. “His strong legal acumen, many years of experience and proven leadership will continue to be an important asset to our organization. » How do CLOs manage their time to be able to invest energy in the categories of strategists and catalysts? By focusing on creating a strong legal operations function and/or creating leverage in your legal department to manage the guardianship and operator functions. While it may initially be necessary for new CLOs to spend 60-65% of their time as custodians and operators (to repair or restructure what they have inherited), it is important that new CLOs avoid devoting the majority of their time to these long-term responsibilities, as this could signal to the rest of management that OCOL is not becoming strategic, executive level. M.

Hoyt most recently worked at Barclays plc, where he served as Group General Counsel between 2013 and 2020, overseeing global collaboration with regulators and policymakers, as well as all of the bank`s legal matters, including advising on retail and wholesale activities, managing an extensive litigation and enforcement portfolio, and advising on several group restructurings and government initiatives related to COVID-19. Klane takes on the role of general counsel to Malcolm Griggs, Citizens` chief risk officer, who oversaw the legal department. Mr. Griggs will continue to serve as Chief Risk Officer and member of the Bank`s Executive Committee. When a large publicly traded company hires a new CLO, it can make headlines, just like hiring a new COO or CFO. An OCOL usually has a long career in law. The positions that an OCOL can hold before becoming a leader include the Chief Legal Officer, the Senior General Counsel and the Permanent Partner.