BNY Mellon Lands Top WilmerHale Partner

William J. Perlstein, the former managing partner of WilmerHale and an instrumental figure in the firm’s history, has departed to join BNY Mellon as senior deputy general counsel.

In his new position, Perlstein will lead the legal department in a number of areas including government affairs, public policy, corporate services and cyber security.

He had spent four decades at Wilmer Hale, and helped build the organization as it exists today: Elected managing partner of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in 1998, he led it to its transformative 2004 merger with Hale and Dorr. Then, he served as co-managing partner of the merged firm until 2012, after which he returned to his bankruptcy practice for several years representing GMAC and other major financial institutions.

[caption id="attachment_3062" align="alignleft” width="256"][Image “William J. Perlstein” (src=https://bol.bna.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/perlstein.jpg)]William J. Perlstein[/caption]

Joining BNY Mellon adds one more stage to his career, said Perlstein.

“This was an opportunity to really get to understand a financial institution,” said Perlstein, adding, “It’s a massive backbone of the financial system. For me, I’m an operations guy – I love understanding how things work. I’ve described it as truly drinking from the firehose.”

Since mid-June, he has been at BNY Mellon reporting to J. Kevin McCarthy, senior executive vice president and general counsel, and also a former WilmerHale alumni.

Perlstein described his new role as a balance of management and practice, with responsibility for dealing with regulators and oversight of the IT infrastructure. It is split between New York and Washington, D.C.

BNY Mellon has $28.5 trillion assets under its custody and administration, $1.7 trillion under management and processes more than $1 trillion in transactions daily. On a daily basis, it works with U.S. regulators and foreign regulators, Perlstein said.

William F. Lee, his former co-managing partner, said that Perlstein is irreplaceable. “He was a leader at the firm, he was a mentor to younger lawyers, and a terrific bankruptcy lawyer.”

Despite leaving a law firm to join a corporate law department, Perlstein said the move was not grounded in any pessimism about the business conditions for law firms. He predicted that the role of outside counsel would continue to grow more specialized while routine matters will flow to lawyers working in house.

Part of the appeal in joining BNY Mellon was the ability to work intensively with a single client, Perlstein said. That and his office view, which looks out to the graveyard in lower Manhattan where Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Treasury Secretary, is buried.

Hamilton helped found BNY Mellon in 1874 and his image is on the $10 dollar bill although U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced plans this month to change it. “We want to keep him on there,” said Perlstein.