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Michele Coleman Mayes has been named vice president and general counsel of The Allstate Corporation and senior vice president and general counsel for Allstate Insurance Company, effective November 5, 2007. She will also be a member of the Allstate senior management team.
As Allstate's chief legal officer, Mayes will be responsible for guiding Allstate's strategy to ensure sound compliance of governance practices, fostering a healthy legal, legislative and regulatory environment.
Mayes brings extensive legal, corporate and government experience to Allstate. From 1976 through 1982, Mayes served in the United States Department of Justice as Assistant United States Attorney in Detroit and Brooklyn, eventually assuming the role of Chief of the Civil Division in Detroit.
In 1982, she entered the corporate sector as managing attorney of Burroughs Corporation. Her career continued to evolve as Burroughs and Sperry Corporation merged, creating Unisys Corporation, for which she was appointed staff vice president and associate general counsel for Worldwide Litigation. In February 1992, she joined Colgate-Palmolive Company as vice president and associate general counsel U.S. In 1993, she was promoted to vice president of Human Resources and Legal for North America. She next became vice president, deputy general counsel and assistant secretary, and effective May 2001, she was promoted to vice president, legal and assistant secretary, and elected a corporate officer. In 2003, she assumed her most recent position of senior vice president and general counsel at Pitney Bowes.
Mayes has received many awards and accolades, including the Margaret Brent Award from the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession and the Trailblazer Award from the Minority Corporate Counsel Association. She has also been identified as one of America's top African-American lawyers.
She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and her JD from the University of Michigan Law School. | 