Ex-Cop Brings ‘Blue-Collar Work Ethic’ to Vista Spinoff GC Role

Vista Outdoor Inc., which bought Remington’s ammunition business and intellectual property out of bankruptcy, has named former police officer Jeffrey Ehrich to be general counsel and corporate secretary for a spinoff later this year of its sporting products business.

The new standalone company, which will soon be renamed, will control a portfolio of seven ammunition brands: Alliant Powder, CCI, Estate Cartridge, Federal Premium, HEVI-Shot, Remington, and Speer, said a Vista spokesman. The Anoka, Minn.-based Vista no longer owns any firearms makers, having sold off Savage Arms for $170 million in 2019. Vista will also be renamed and retain control of the company’s outdoor products lines, such as Bushnell Golf and hydration pack and bottle brand CamelBak.

Jeff Ehrich

Courtesy of Jeff Ehrich

Ehrich said he’s often reflected on how his law enforcement career helped prepared him for his new role as a corporate law department leader. He brings to the job a “service-minded, blue-collar work ethic” that means he’s “not afraid to roll up my sleeves and dig into thorny issues,” he said.

During his five-year stint as a police officer in Lakeville, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, Ehrich said he viewed enforcing the law as just one aspect of his job. The broader mission was being able to solve a variety of problems, which in-house counsel are often asked to do on a day-to-day basis, he said.

Being a cop taught Ehrich “how to be calm under pressure and bring perspective to my current problems where money is at stake, not lives,” he said. Ehrich also takes pride in a career trajectory that landed him in the C-suite at a company that he believes helps keep his former colleagues in law enforcement safe.

Ehrich said he’s “honored to now reach the pinnacle of my career with a world-leading ammunition manufacturer whose ethos is to support and build products that protect our brave law enforcement officers and service members.”

While serving as a police officer in Lakeville, Ehrich attended Mitchell Hamline School of Law in nearby St. Paul. He landed a clerkship with the Minnesota Supreme Court prior to moving to Big Law, where Ehrich handled commercial, insurance coverage, product liability, and tort litigation at a predecessor to the fast-growing Midwest law firm Stinson.

In 2011, Ehrich moved in-house at Vista predecessor Alliant Techsystems Inc. He held a variety of roles at Vista over the years, most recently as deputy general counsel, where he was promoted on an interim basis in February to succeed the company’s ex-legal chief Dylan Ramsey. Vista disclosed in a proxy statement that Ramsey received about $1.2 million in total compensation for fiscal 2023.