The trials and tribulations of Bank of America provide much fodder for us here at On The Case. The record settlements! The attacking of said record settlements! Crazy who's-suing-who-for-what? scenarios!
And then yesterday evening, news broke that wasn't even lawsuit related. In fact, it went straight to the top -- a broad reorganization of the company resulted in the consumer bank chief, Joe Price, and wealth management head, Sallie Krawcheck, packing up their desks.
Those changes come on the heels of an August internal memo from CEO Brian Moynihan that said the bank would soon be cutting 3,500 jobs. (As forecasts of how many jobs would actually be lost grew into the tens of thousands, Marketplace's Heidi Moore wryly noted on Twitter that perhaps it would be a layoff for each lawsuit.)
All of this made us wonder what these changes might mean for BofA's inhouse legal department. The department already has a relatively new head -- Gary Lynch was named to the newly-created position of global chief of legal, compliance, and regulatory relations in April, with general counsel Ed O'Keefe reporting to Lynch.
We posed the question of whether layoffs had been made or would be made in the legal department to the company. They got right back to us! Their statement, provided by company spokesperson Lawrence Grayson, in full:
"The Legal Department regularly assesses and periodically realigns its expenses and staffing levels to ensure it is providing the most effective and efficient legal support for the company's businesses. The company is eliminating approximately 3,500 positions across most of the lines of business this quarter, in addition to about 2,500 reductions made so far this year. However, new jobs are also created in parts of the company that are growing and the Legal Department will continue to revisit its organizational structure to ensure strategic alignment."
So there you have it! Wait, what?
(Reporting by Erin Geiger Smith)
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