The regulatory environment is very nuanced. And
the competitive environment is very intense,” says
Palmore. “You’ve always got competitors saying, ‘You
can’t say that’—or maybe we’re saying that to them.”
what Powell didn’t say during an informal meeting.
“I had come up here several times and met
the senior management team and done my due
diligence about the company,” recalls Palmore.
“During one of my visits, they made a formal offer,
and the day ended with me having dinner with Ken
at Vincent A Restaurant in Minneapolis.
“We had a wide-ranging conversation about a
number of different topics, very engaged, and when
I looked up, the meal was over,” says Palmore with
a laugh. “As I drove back to Chicago, it dawned on
me that we hadn’t talked about the offer, and we
hadn’t talked about the company. None of that
was necessary, because I knew all of that already. I
thought, ‘There’s a rapport here; I could work here.’”
AT GENERAL MILLS, WHERE HE SUPERVISES
50 attorneys, Palmore’s responsibilities are incredibly
diverse. His tasks include anything from poring over
marketing language to looking into prospective
international interests on the company’s behalf. He
recently traveled to Sao Paulo and met with grocery
retailers within two hours of his plane landing.
“There really isn’t a typical day for me,” he says.
“The environment is so interesting these days, from
an economic standpoint, a regulatory standpoint, a
geopolitical standpoint. Anything could pop up at any
time. There was a while when I was spending a great
deal of time in Washington, talking with federal agencies
about food regulations. I spend days talking about class
actions and how to resolve those sorts of issues.”
At times, part of the task for Palmore is to shake
up the status quo. One of his first moves was to
arrange alternative-fee arrangements with outside
counsel, which comprises firms in the Twin Cities
and beyond, used by General Mills most often for
litigation. It was part of a wider initiative aimed at
overall quality improvement—finding efficiencies in
previously unexplored areas—and, not surprisingly,
the reaction was mixed.
“Some were very receptive to it and some not
so much,” Palmore says. “[Our message to outside
counsel] is, ‘I’m not trying to get you to make less
money; I’m trying to get us to work together in the
best way.’ Part of that process is making sure we have
the right partnerships with our outside firms and that
our interests are aligned. Those fee arrangements are
a part of that.”
General Mills, above all else, is a branded company:
Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Green Giant and Cheerios
are just some of the company’s more recognizable
names. That means a great deal of Palmore’s energy
goes toward protecting the company’s brands and
innovations. Over the last few years, the landscape of
food industry litigation has changed and companies
have faced increasing litigation, including a number of
class action lawsuits. In late 2009, General Mills and
the Kellogg Co. were served with a putative federal
class action lawsuit in Illinois related to the labeling of
some products in General Mills' Fiber One and Kellogg's
FiberPlus lines. Palmore’s team pulled together a
collaborative and diverse team of both inside and
outside counsel to handle the litigation, and led in filing
a motion to dismiss the case for lack of subject matter-jurisdiction. The team argued that this complaint was
pre-empted by the federal Nutrition Labeling and
Education Act. The motion was granted. At press time,
the case was being appealed by the plaintiff.
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