Three observations about the law department of Mellon Financial Corp.

GC Mid-Atlantic, May 2007 at 22 profiles Michael E. Bleier, the bank’s former general counsel who retired in 2007 after a 25-year career with Mellon. The magazine notes that Bleier’s predecessor, Martin McGuinn, became Mellon’s CEO (See my posts of Jan. 27, 2006 about general counsel whose CEO was the former general counsel – which is true of Home Depot and Pfizer at this time; March 1, 2007 regarding WellPoint; March 4, 2007 on Coachmen; March 24, 2007 on Brunswick; Feb. 19, 2006 #1 with more examples of GC promotions; March 13, 2006 #2; and Oct. 25, 2006 with references cited; and also those posts of Sept. 4, 2005 #2, May 14, 2005, and Aug. 2, 2006 about CEO and GC tenures.).

The article also notes that Bleier worked with four different CEOs during his tenure at Mellon (See my post of May 14, 2005 about the critical period for a GC when the CEO leaves.).

The third point was that during his 14 years as general counsel, with a department at its zenith of more than 70 lawyers, Bleier “hired as attorneys three employees who had started as secretaries and later went to law school” (See my post of Jan. 25, 2007 about UPS and its field managers who became UPS in-house lawyers.).