GOLDMAN EXODUS
Third high-profile departure this week
The exit door at Goldman Sachs is getting a workout.
The megabank’s head lawyer, Karen Seymour, is reportedly on her way out — marking the third high-profile departure this week.
The reason for her departure is unknown, but it might complicate Goldman CEO David Solomon’s work to remake the one-time trading juggernaut into a more accessible and transparent institution.
Seymour — perhaps best remembered as the federal prosecutor who sent domestic diva Martha Stewart to prison in 2004 — is exiting as Goldman’s general counsel after just three years, according to a Bloomberg report Tuesday.
News of the departure comes just days after reports emerged that the newly promoted co-head of Goldman’s asset-management group, Eric Lane, and the newly promoted head of Goldman’s consumer bank, Omer Ismail, are also on their way out.
Sources say the departures suggest a rocky phase for Solomon, a part-time DJ who took over the top job from Lloyd Blankfein in 2018. Solomon has been focusing less on Goldman’s traditional bread-and-butter trading business and more on consumer banking and deal-making.
“Reorganizations are tough, especially at a place like Goldman,” one former insider told The Post. “Solomon sold himself as a change agent when he replaced Lloyd. Well, this is what change looks like.”
Lane reportedly gave up his job co-running Goldman’s massive hedge-fund operation to work for hedgie superstar Chase Coleman’s $36 billion Tiger Global Management — a move being read on Wall Street as a signal that Goldman’s superstar-trading days are over.
Goldman’s trading desk has thinned considerably under Solomon. Even veteran trading superstar Ram Sundaram split from the bank in February. Coleman pocketed a reported $3 billion in 2020.
“Trading at Goldman isn’t what it used to be,” mused one hedge-fund manager. “Leaving for Tiger would be a no-brainer when you see what Chase made last year.”
Ismail reportedly left to take the helm of Walmart’s new fintech venture, surrendering the reins of Marcus — Solomon’s pet consumerlending project — that he had been handed in September.
“Ismail leaving is a bad signal,” said the ex-insider. “He was supposed to be the future.”
Lane and Ismail were promoted as part of a talent shakeup in September that saw purported Solomon favorite Stephanie Cohen elevated to co-head of the bank’s consumer-banking and wealthmanagement group.
That move put Cohen in the running to be Solomon’s possible successor, which some watchers say may have kicked off the exodus, starting with ex-Goldman co-head of global-investment banking Gregg Lemkau, who shocked Wall Street in November by taking his leave after 30 years.
“When Lemkau left, it opened some eyes,” said the former Goldman banker. “People realized that your spot on the ladder hasn’t changed, it’s a whole new ladder.”