Sandor Samuels has, quite possibly, the least enviable in-house legal job right now in corporate America. As general counsel and litigation chief of embattled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp., he’s facing huge lawsuits on all fronts. Everyone from disgruntled investors and shareholders to mortgage customers and government regulators is taking Countrywide to court in a wave of suits that will probably be the litigation story for the next couple of years.
At least Samuels, one of 20 Fortune250 GCs who also serve as litigation chiefs, won’t have to face it alone. In January, Bank of America Corp. made a $4 billion buyout offer for Countrywide, which could be a much-needed lifeline for the country’s largest home lender. How the acquisition will affect Samuels’ in-house litigation team was unclear at press time; he and other Countrywide executives declined to comment for this story.
