Legal Commentary

The May 2010 edition of the ABA Journal has as its cover story a feature on the nine lawyers who happen to be CEOs of Fortune 50 companies.  The article, I think, wants to argue that there's something systemic about this in the growth of regulation of businesses beyond the traditional home of lawyer-CEOs - financial, insurance, and pharmaceutical industries.  That answer seems too simple to me, and I'm inclined to think it's more the result of the evolution of the lawyer's in-house role as I've observed it over the thirty plus years that I've been a lawyer.  The respect afforded to the general counsel and to the in-house legal staff has grown steadily; I can remember the general disdain outside big firm lawyers had for their in-house counterparts (this was back in the Analog Age). 

Now top notch lawyers tend to be intimately involved with the business and the legal affairs of the company.  Indeed, I coached the lawyers I supervised was not to be passive about the business side of any management discussion but, whenever in a meeting, mentally to anticipate and predict the business decision.  The article quotes David Steiner, the CEO of Waste Management:  "I don't think these boards of directors are turning to lawyers because they are lawyers but because these lawyers also happen to be very good business people."  I think that's a lot closer to the truth.

A list of the lawyer CEOs in the Fortune 50 below the break.

Bank of America, Brian Moynihan (Notre Dame)

Kroger, David Dillon (SMU)

Home Depot, Frank Blake (Columbia)

State Farm, Edward Rust, Jr. (SMU)

WellPoint, Angela Braly (SMU)

MetLife, C. Robert Hendrikson (Emory)

Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein (Harvard)

Pfizer, Jeffrey Kindler (Harvard)

Sears Holdings, W. Bruce Johnson (Duke)

[Source:  ABA Journal, May 2010, p. 35]