Roderick A. Palmore
Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Chief Compliance and Risk Management Officer of General Mills, Inc.
Roderick A. Palmore is Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Chief Compliance and Risk Management Officer of General Mills, Inc.
Palmore joined General Mills in February 2008 from Sara Lee Corporation, where he was Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary.
Palmore previously was a partner with Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal in Chicago, which he joined in 1993. He was a partner with Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon from 1986 to 1993, having joined that firm as an associate in 1982. His prior experience includes work as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois.
Palmore is a director of the Chicago Board Options Exchange. He also is the Chair of the Association of General Counsel.
In 2004, Palmore authored A Call to Action, Diversity in the Legal Profession, urging general counsel to drive diversity by demanding results in the law firms with which they work as well as in their departments. More than 120 prominent general counsel made the commitment. The initiative has now developed into the Leadership Counsel on Legal Diversity (LCLD), a collaboration between general counsel and managing partners, which was formed in May 2009. Mr. Palmore is the chair of the LCLD board of directors.
Palmore received the Corporate Exemplar Award from the National Legal Aid & Defender Association in 2007, the Spirit of Excellence Award from the American Bar Association Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in 2006, the Scales of Justice Award from the Equal Justice Works foundation in 2005 and the Excellence in Corporate Practice award from the Association of Corporate Counsel in 2003. He also has been recognized by the National Law Journal, Inside Counsel magazine and Corporate Board Member magazine as one of the most influential general counsels in America.
Palmore attended Yale University, where he received a bachelor of arts degree in economics. Palmore received a juris doctorate degree from the University of Chicago Law School.