Culvahouse’s Power Would Be Cut in Third Term as O'Melveny Chair
The policy committee at O’Melveny & Myers is recommending that A.B. Culvahouse be elected to a third term as chairman—but that some of his powers be shared with the committee.
The recommendation was chronicled in a memo obtained by the Daily Journal (sub. req.). The firm needs “new structures to reflect its evolution and to ensure broad involvement and input into key decisions,” according to the memo.
The changes would eliminate the Office of the Chair, a group that manages day-to-day operations and is composed of Culvahouse and the other firm partners, the Daily Journal story says. Instead the chair and policy committee members would work with lawyers and staff to help them carry out their duties.
Two new committees would also be formed under the plan. An executive committee made up of three policy committee members would work with Culvahouse. A strategy committee would advise the policy committee.
The law firm’s partners still must vote to confirm Culvahouse. He was selected by the committee after a five-way race in which none of the partners received a majority of an informal partnership vote. The partnership typically ratifies the policy committee’s recommendations.
Culvahouse was White House counsel to Ronald Reagan and more recently helped John McCain vet his possible vice presidential candidates. Legal Times reports that Culvahouse also vetted Reagan’s judicial picks, including failed U.S. Supreme Court nominees Robert Bork and Douglas Ginsburg.
Updated at 8:30 a.m. to include Legal Times story on Culvahouse.
