Michael Gordon, a seasoned financial services lawyer, has made a career move from Ballard Spahr and WilmerHale to serve as the new general counsel for Arabella Advisors. Arabella Advisors is a well-known consulting firm that aids in the funding and supervision of nonprofits.
Before joining Arabella Advisors on May 6, replacing former general counsel Saurabh Gupta, Gordon held prestigious positions at several major law firms. Among his previous workplaces are Ballard Spahr and WilmerHale, and he has served as a senior counselor at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Gupta, who Gordon succeeds, last month took on the general counsel role at the World Resources Institute, a charity that deals with climate change and other issues.
Arabella Advisors is one of the entities known as “dark money” groups that, via intermediaries, contributed at least $63 million during the 2020 election cycle to super PACs supporting Democrats or opposing Republicans, according to a New York Times report in 2021. These groups get their nickname from the lack of disclosure requirements for unlimited and anonymous donations to political nonprofits.
In his new role, Gordon will support Arabella’s mission to help clients across the philanthropic sector in combating society’s most pressing issues. Gordon will also work towards ensuring that Arabella’s legal and compliance teams remain robust and responsive to the evolving needs of their community and clients.
Gordon’s previous role was as of counsel at Ballard Spahr in Washington, where he joined as a partner two years ago, following a stint as co-chair of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings’ financial technology practice. Prior to his legal career, he was an aide to former Senator John Glenn, an Ohio Democrat. His legal career began as a litigation associate at WilmerHale. He rejoined the firm as a partner in 2015, following tenures in the Obama administration and the Treasury Department.
Before embarking on his new adventure with Arabella, Gordon was the general counsel and chief compliance officer for BlueWave MA LLC, a solar and renewable energy company. Interestingly, like Arabella, BlueWave is a certified B corporation, a label for companies that meet certain social impact and environmental standards.
Gordon’s extensive legal and compliance expertise, coupled with his deep understanding of the Arabella ethos, makes him ideally suited for the role according to Himesh Bhise, who was appointed president and CEO of Arabella in November.
For more insights about Gordon’s appointment, please visit the original article here.