GC Influencers
Most Influential GCs - Global-wide
Eric F Grossman of Morgan Stanley
Few lawyers with a remit as broad as Eric Grossman’s would have time to moonlight as the founder of a new political party, yet the Morgan Stanley chief legal officer combines his professional duties with helping to set up and manage the Serve America Movement, a centrist party which recently contested the 2018 New York gubernatorial election. Grossman’s unconventional career has also included a stint acting as an agent to Major League Baseball star Darryl Strawberry, before settling upon a more orthodox track that saw him practice at Davis Polk before joining the bank in 2006 and rising up to his current position in 2012. He benefits from an excellent reputation in the financial services sector through his prior role serving as the bank’s head of litigation and global head of legal during the height of the financial crisis, with the esteem in which he is held by the bank’s executive team demonstrated by Grossman’s position on its operating committee. Grossman also earns the respect of a number of wider legal insiders, with one commentator noting: “Not only is he extremely intelligent and knowledgeable, but his greatest gift is his judgement. It’s spot on, sometimes he can spot an issue or come up with an approach that no-one else has seen. He knows when to fight and when to resolve, it’s an innate ability.”