Four renowned nonprofit organizations; the New York Public Library, Selfhelp Community Services Inc., the WK Kellogg Foundation, and George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, have recently introduced their new legal leaders.
The New York Public Library, an institution with over a century of history and strong ties to the U.S. legal sphere, has announced the retirement of its longstanding general counsel and corporate secretary, Michele Coleman Mayes. Mayes has been in the role for more than a decade. Filling her shoes is Bridget Smith, formerly senior counsel at the Ford Foundation, and now appointed as Mayes’ successor.
Changes in command have also been seen in Selfhelp Community Services Inc., a New York-based nonprofit considered as the largest and oldest program serving Holocaust survivors in North America. Here, the organization has promoted its former deputy general counsel, Astrid Andre, to the top legal position.
Similarly, the WK Kellogg Foundation, which had recently stated the hire of Ballard Spahr litigation partner Kahlil Williams as its new general counsel and corporate secretary. Also, George Soros’ philanthropic arm, Open Society Foundations, which has just shut down several offices, has appointed Deborah Fine, its existing deputy general counsel and legal director for strategic philanthropy, as its acting general counsel.
Noteworthy nonprofits like these serve as appealing opportunities for lawyers, largely owing to their high-profile status, and the chance it presents to support causes of deep personal significance, as discussed previously.
In similar news, former general counsel Mulchela Coleman Mayes who served at Allstate Corp. and Pitney Bowes Inc., has spent about a dozen years heading the law department of the New York Public Library, the 4th largest of its kind globally.
In her tenure, Mayes has enhanced her reputation as a legal industry thinker. She dedicated three years as the chair of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession and also discoursed on the issues facing Black women lawyers, amongst her engagements with the Minority Corporate Counsel Association.
To read the original article in greater detail click here.