He took on the sheriff of Wall Street, Eliot Spitzer. He jousted with an angry Congress. He contained scandals that, at times, reached into the bank’s innermost sanctums.
For two decades, Greg Palm has waged one battle after another for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Now, at 70, he’s ready to step aside as its top lawyer.
In fact, he was due to leave last year but his departure got pushed back, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Investigations of Goldman Sachs’s work tied to Malaysian investment fund 1MDB have been heating up. Still, Palm is expected to depart in the coming weeks, with his co-general counsel firmly in control of the 1MDB negotiations, the people said.
For now, the exit of Lloyd Blankfein last month has handed the long-time legal chief a mantle held by few: Nobody at the firm today owns more of its stock than Palm, with a kitty of a million shares. Odds are no employee will ever accumulate so many again. He belonged to the partnership before the bank’s initial public offering in 1999 -- a cohort that’s disappearing as a generational shift sweeps across the bank.
“Not sure we ever solved a problem completely, but we always had a collegial relationship,” said Spitzer, who rose to governor of New York after cracking down on Wall Street banks as the state’s attorney general. “An entity as big as Goldman is going to have issues that crop up. Greg will deservedly go out with plaudits.”
A company spokesman declined to comment on Palm’s behalf.
Reaping Rewards
For his role at the forefront of Goldman Sachs’s toughest battles, Palm has been rewarded generously by his employer. He’s pulled in about $500 million, including about $180 million worth of Goldman shares, as well as dividends, distributions from firm-managed funds and proceeds from stock sales, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That ranks him among America’s wealthiest corporate lawyers and the richest people working within any global investment bank, underlining his persistent importance to Goldman over 26 years.
“A lot of people doing what he has done would have burned out a long time ago,” said Stephen Cutler, who spent nine years as JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s general counsel. “It’s a testament to Greg that he’s been there for as long as he has in that critical role.”
The lithe lawyer’s finances were looking less rosy around the time of the 2008 credit crisis. Palm, facing an unexpected cash squeeze, was essentially bailed out by the firm, which bought up some of his illiquid stakes in its investment funds for $38 million. The move helped Palm avoid cutting his stockholding in the bank, which could have spooked investors.
He’s seen through several changes at the helm, working especially closely with Hank Paulson, the former chief executive who left to become U.S. Treasury secretary, as well as with Blankfein, who rose to the top at a time when U.S. regulators were turning up the heat on Wall Street firms.