Ford GC on Hiring Laterals: Only If We Have To

This January, Ford Motor Company named Bradley Gayton as its general counsel. In his new role, Gayton stepped into the shoes of David Leitch, who’d been general counsel at the company for a decade, but last fall jumped to Bank of America.

If you’d never heard of Gayton, you could be forgiven: He’s never held a legal job outside of Ford. In law school, he clerked at the company, and not long after earning his law degree from SUNY Buffalo in 1991, he found a job at the automaker.

Gayton’s longevity at Ford is not unique among the lawyers there. According to a Ford representative, half of the members of ...