AIG offers general counsel role to former Lehman Brothers legal chief

Insurance giant AIG has asked the former top lawyer at Lehman Brothers to be its new general counsel, reports Corporate Counsel.

Thomas Russo was chief legal officer at Lehman for more than 15 years until the company's collapse in 2008.

During his last year at Lehman, Russo's total take-home pay - including salary, bonuses, and stock sales -  was more than $10m (£6.2m), while three years earlier, he took home just over $21m (£13m).

In spring last year he took up a new role as senior counsel at the New York office of US law firm Patton Boggs.

The Wall Street Journal reports that AIG has given Russo a written offer and is discussing his compensation with the office of US Government pay czar Kenneth Feinberg. It is not known if Russo has accepted the offer. A spokesperson for AIG declined to comment.

Prior to joining Lehman in 1993, Russo worked at Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft. He was also a former deputy general counsel at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a regulatory agency of the US Government.

If he accepts the offer, Russo will succeed AIG's former GC Anastasia Kelly, who resigned on 30 December after her salary was cut in the wake of new curbs on pay at companies receiving federal bailout money.

Kelly received a severance package of about $3.9m (£2.4m), while the US Government has handed out a total of around $182bn (£113bn) to AIG.

Corporate Counsel is a US sister title of Legal Week.

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