Gregory Palm
Gregory Kenneth Palm | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 25, 1948 Binghamton, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Attorney, corporate executive |
| Known for | Executive vice president and general counsel at Goldman Sachs |
Gregory Kenneth Palm (born September 25, 1948) is an American attorney and corporate executive. He held the positions of executive vice president and general counsel at Goldman Sachs until his retirement in 2019, after which he transitioned to a senior advisory role. According to a 2019 estimate by Bloomberg, his net worth exceeded $500 million, primarily stemming from his ownership of shares, distributions, and dividends related to Goldman Sachs, ranking him among the highest-earning corporate lawyers in the United States.
Early life and education
Born in Binghamton, New York on September 25, 1948, Palm is the son of an electrician. He completed his secondary education at Chenango Valley High School before pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), graduating summa cum laude in 1970. His academic achievements were supported by a scholarship, along with fellowships from the National Science Foundation and Woodrow Wilson.
Palm earned both an MBA and a JD from Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School, respectively, graduating magna cum laude in 1974. During his time at Harvard Law, he contributed as a member of the Harvard Law Review. He gained admission to practice law in New York in 1977 and was admitted to the District of Columbia bar the following year.
Career
From 1974 to 1975, Palm worked as a law clerk for Judge Henry Friendly at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where he and co-clerk James Smoot set a record for longest working hours. Subsequently, he clerked for Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. at the U.S. Supreme Court, who later recommended him to join the prestigious law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. Palm advanced to partner at Sullivan & Cromwell before departing in 1992 to become general counsel for Goldman Sachs' legal operations in London.
Palm became a member of Goldman Sachs' management committee in 1999. In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, he received $38.3 million from the firm to acquire equity stakes and played an instrumental role in brokering its $550 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2010. By 2019, Palm owned more than one million shares of Goldman Sachs stock, surpassing any other individual shareholder. That year, CEO David M. Solomon announced Palm’s retirement from his legal leadership role. In 2021, Karen Seymour was appointed as his successor as general counsel.
Palm holds life membership in the American Law Institute.