Bob Lian Talks GC Terminations with Corporate Counsel
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Corporate Counsel has quoted Akin Gump labor and employment practice head Bob Lian in its article “Breaking Up With the General Counsel Is Hard to Do.” The article discusses what companies should consider when seeking to terminate its general counsel.
Lian notes that one of the issues with terminating a GC is their significant institutional knowledge, saying, “They know all the company’s secrets. They know how prior separation agreements have gone. They know a company’s leverage points, because they’ve been intimately involved in navigating them.”
Despite the reasoning behind the termination, Lian notes that corporate executives and boards should consider the “substance and perception.” He added, “There will be a number of question marks raised by those counterparties, regulators or others about why the GC was let go. That’s why sometimes an agreed separation, even in a misconduct scenario, can be helpful for messaging and communication with those various constituencies.”
