Chicago, Oct. 21, 2021 — Spencer Stuart, a leading global executive search and leadership advisory firm, is pleased to announce that Lucy Lopez is joining the firm as General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer. Lopez will succeed Dave Rasmussen, who is retiring as Spencer Stuart’s General Counsel after 24 years at the firm.
Lopez, who is based in New York, joins Spencer Stuart after more than two decades with McKinsey & Company, most recently serving as Deputy General Counsel and Head of Legal, Americas. In this role, she helped partners and clients in the region drive strategic priorities while managing legal and reputational risks and advised the Global Managing Partner and board of directors on governance-related issues. Lopez has recruited, led and mentored large teams of legal professionals, including lawyers who handle the public, digital and analytics and healthcare sectors. She is committed to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion, having served as chair of the legal department’s DE&I committee and as a member of firm’s global DE&I leadership team, driving talent recruitment, development, retention and other internal and external initiatives. Prior to joining McKinsey, Lucy was a corporate lawyer at Debevoise & Plimpton, where she advised clients on cross-border transactions, including acquisitions, joint ventures and project financing across Latin America.
“Over his long career with Spencer Stuart, Dave Rasmussen has built an incredibly strong legal and tax team that has been critical to our success as a Firm. We wish him the very best in his well-earned retirement,” said Ben Williams, chief executive officer of Spencer Stuart. “We are delighted to welcome Lucy Lopez to Spencer Stuart. Her extensive legal background within professional services, deep experience in serving clients effectively and helping evolving businesses grow, as well as her demonstrated commitment to supporting and developing others, makes her an ideal choice for this role.”
“I am thrilled to start a new chapter as General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer of Spencer Stuart. The firm is focused on discovering and developing outstanding leaders, which is more important than ever, and I am looking forward to joining Spencer Stuart to help deliver meaningful impact to teams and organizations,” said Lopez.
About Lucy Lopez
Lucy Lopez has nearly 30 years of business and legal experience, including more than 20 years at McKinsey & Company, most recently as Deputy General Counsel and Head of Legal, Americas. She joined McKinsey as an Associate General Counsel, subsequently taking on increasing levels of leadership at the firm. Prior to McKinsey, Lopez spent six years as a corporate lawyer in the international and Latin America practice groups at Debevoise & Plimpton. In 2018, Lopez was recognized as a LatinoJustice Trailblazer, an award honoring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and given to Latina lawyers whose work inspires the pursuit of professional, political and social achievements. She has also been honored with the City of New York Mayoral Service Recognition Award for outstanding efforts to improve New York City’s communities in need, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Dominican Bar Association and a citation from the borough of Brooklyn for being an exemplary leader with significant local and global impact. Lopez serves on the Board of Trustees of Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York, the nation’s oldest youth mentoring nonprofit, and was its Board President until early 2021. She received her bachelor’s degree from Fordham University and her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.
About Spencer Stuart
At Spencer Stuart, we know that leadership has never mattered more. We are trusted by organizations around the world to help them make the senior-level leadership decisions that have a lasting impact on their enterprises, on their stakeholders and the world around them. Through our executive search, board and leadership advisory services, we help build and enhance high-performing teams for select clients ranging from major multinationals to emerging companies to non-profit institutions.
Privately held since 1956, we focus on delivering knowledge, insight and results through the collaborative efforts of a team of experts — now spanning more than 70 offices, over 30 countries and more than 50 practice specialties. Boards and leaders consistently turn to Spencer Stuart to help address their evolving leadership needs in areas such as senior-level executive search, board recruitment, board effectiveness, succession planning, in-depth senior management assessment, employee engagement and many other facets of culture and organizational effectiveness, particularly in the context of the changing stakeholder expectations of business today. For more information on Spencer Stuart, please www.spencerstuart.com.