Discover names interim legal chief

Discover Financial Services has hired Kelly Welsh as interim chief legal officer (CLO), general counsel and head of corporate and public affairs.

Welsh will succeed Hope Mehlman, who is leaving Discover at the end of November to become CLO and corporate affairs officer with Ally Financial.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Welsh has most recently been managing director at Crab Tree Advisory. Earlier in his career he was general counsel with the US Department of Commerce, having previously spent 14 years with Northern Trust Corporation as executive vice president and general counsel.

Before that, Welsh was executive vice president and general counsel for Ameritech Corporation from 1996 to 1999 and vice president and associate general counsel with the company from 1993 to 1996. Between 1989 and 1993 he was corporation counsel for the City of Chicago. Earlier in his career he was a partner at the law firm Mayer Brown.

Mehlman will lead a newly created legal and corporate affairs office at Ally that will oversee all regulatory and legal matters for the firm. She will have responsibility for the company’s legal, compliance, government relations, environmental sustainability and community reinvestment teams.

Mehlman joined Discover in January 2023, having previously been executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Bank of the West, a subsidiary of French bank BNP Paribas. She has also been corporate secretary of BNP Paribas USA. She joined Bank of the West in September 2020 from Regions Financial Corporation, where she was executive vice president, corporate secretary, chief governance officer and deputy general counsel.

Capital One Financial Corporation is scheduled to acquire Discover in the next few months, pending regulatory approval.

Michael Shepherd, interim CEO and president of Discover, says in a statement: ‘Kelly brings an outstanding record of service, expertise and achievement and will be a key member of Discover’s executive management team as we move closer to our merger with Capital One.

‘I am grateful to Hope for her leadership over the last two years. She has made significant contributions at a crucial time, helping steer the company through several significant achievements.’