CBRE General Counsel discusses with Law360 the influence that Lev Berlin & Sousa counsel and founder Bruce Lev had on his career
Posted on May 29, 2015 10:55am PDT
Laurence H. Midler is executive vice president and general counsel at
CBRE Group Inc. Until 2014, Midler also served as the company’s chief compliance
officer, overseeing the ethics and compliance program, which he designed
and initiated upon joining the company in 2004. He is also the executive
in charge of global risk management, internal audit and corporate responsibility
efforts for the firm. Prior to joining CBRE, Midler served as general
counsel to Micro Warehouse Inc. Earlier, Midler was an associate at
Latham & Watkins LLP.
Midler is active in giving back, both through work and in his personal
time. At CBRE, Midler established a pro bono program under which the CBRE
legal department offers free legal services to Goodwill Industries of
Southern California, on whose board of directors Midler serves. He also
spends time supporting other nonprofit organizations, including Bridge
to Skate and the Jewish Grad Student Initiative.
As a participant in
Law360's Q&A series with leading in-house counsel, Laurence Midler shared his perspective on five questions, including:
Q: Outside your own company, name an attorney who has impressed you and
tell us why.
A: My first mentor was Bruce Lev, the former general counsel of Micro
Warehouse. Bruce hired me as his assistant GC in 1998 for reasons that
were a mystery to me at the time. I had no public company experience.
He taught me that the GC should be a leader in a company, for reasons
that have little to do with what they teach in law school. He showed me
that the person in the GC chair has the power to influence the organization
to do things the right way, if you are assertive about advising the team
to do what’s right as opposed to what’s strictly legal.
Bruce taught me some very important lessons, including how you need to
empower the team to own their jobs, and that means backing off of some
issues or deals where otherwise you would take the lead. Bruce also demonstrated
why it is important to create a safe environment in which your people
feel that mistakes are not fatal. Bruce once told our CEO that he had
made a big error on a document, when in fact the error was mine. That
engenders loyalty and an environment where our lawyers feel empowered
to do their best without fearing failure. Bruce also taught me the balance
between being part of the senior team and yet standing apart from it to
safeguard the interests of the shareholder when required.
Bruce was certainly the heartbeat of our company. Bruce walked in every
morning with a big optimistic smile and said something positive to everyone
he would interact with, even though he was carrying the weight of the
world on his shoulder. Within the department, Bruce would always build
up our confidence with statements like: “You are the real lawyers
around here.” I think every organization needs a Mr. Blue Sky and
when that person is the company’s lawyer it is sometimes a shock
to the system ... in a positive way. I try to model my work style around
Bruce’s example.