Edward Jones Hires Broadridge’s Gumbs as New General Counsel

Jones Financial Cos., owner of investment management giant Edward D. Jones & Co. LP, has hired Keir Gumbs as its new general counsel.

Gumbs leads the company’s legal and compliance divisions, reporting to Edward Jones managing partner and chief executive Penny Pennington, according to an Edward Jones spokeswoman. The former chief legal officer at Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc. began his new role on Nov. 10.

Gumbs didn’t respond to a request for comment.

He takes over the position from Christopher Lewis, who retired in March after about eight years as general counsel for Edward Jones. Lewis and Gumbs are both part of the Black General Counsel 2025 Initiative, a movement seeking to bolster the number of Black law department leaders.

Keir Gumbs

Photo courtesy of Broadridge Financial Solutions

Gumbs said during a 2021 panel discussion that corporate clients pushing their outside counsel to improve diversity and inclusion metrics once helped him make partner at Covington & Burling in Washington.

He spent the past two-plus years overseeing the legal, compliance, and physical securities teams at Broadridge, a Lake Success, N.Y.-based financial technology company. Gumbs also co-led regulatory and government affairs for Broadridge and was a member of its executive diversity council and environmental, social, and governance committee.

St. Louis-based Edward Jones has turned to labor and employment law firm Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart and Dowd Bennett to represent it in a putative class action lawsuit filed last year accusing the privately held company of favoring White male financial advisers over other individuals.

Edward Jones unsuccessfully sought to dismiss that case earlier this year, as well as another similar lawsuit accusing the company of discriminating against female financial advisers. Ogletree Deakins and Dowd Bennett are also handling that matter. St. Louis-based Dowd Bennett advised Edward Jones on a $58 million settlement in 2021 with a group of Black financial advisers.

Earlier this year, Edward Jones issued its annual inclusion and citizenship report, part of a five-point pledge the company made in 2020 to improve job prospects for employees of color.

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Broadridge in a statement wished Gumbs well at Edward Jones and said it would “look forward to working with him as a client.” Laura Matlin, deputy general counsel and chief compliance officer at Broadridge, is now interim general counsel. Broadridge said it’s searching for a permanent successor to Gumbs.

Gumbs was not one of the five highest-paid executives at Broadridge in fiscal 2023, per a proxy statement filed by the company in September. Gumbs owns more than $2.5 million in Broadridge stock, according to Bloomberg data.

Broadridge recruited Gumbs after he served as the No. 2 lawyer at Uber Technologies Inc. During his three years at the San Francisco-based company, Gumbs oversaw an internal transactions group and was part of a legal team that took Uber public in 2019. He also was one of several Covington lawyers that helped the ride-sharing giant overhaul its compliance and governance practices.

Covington, where Gumbs had been a partner and co-leader of the firm’s securities practice, was special counsel to Uber on its initial public offering that generated roughly $5.5 million in legal fees and expenses.

Prior to joining Covington in 2005, Gumbs spent a half-dozen years at the US Securities and Exchange Commission, including as counsel to former Commissioner Roel Campos, who has been an advocate for increasing inclusivity in corporate boardrooms. The Obama administration reportedly had Gumbs on a shortlist of candidates to replace former Republican SEC Commissioner Daniel Gallagher Jr., now the top lawyer at Robinhood Markets Inc.

At Edward Jones, Gumbs takes over a law department that for the past several months has been led by interim general counsel Lisa Bertain. Edward Jones confirmed that Bertain—hired three years ago from California’s Keesal, Young & Logan—has returned to her former deputy general counsel position.

—Additional reporting by Andrew Ramonas.