Butzel Long adds attorney specializing in transactional negotiations

Catherine M. Karol joins firm as Counsel after a 38-year career on General Motors legal staff

DETROIT, Mich. – Attorney Catherine M. Karol has joined Butzel Long as Counsel practicing in the firm’s Detroit office. She concentrates her practice in transactional negotiations, regulatory compliance, mergers and acquisitions, and divestitures.

Karol recently retired from a 38-year career on the General Motors (GM) Legal Staff, where she advised all levels of management on a wide range of global legal and business issues. Working with internal leadership, peers, subordinates, outside counsel, and other advisers, Karol developed and implemented strategies for issue resolution and business planning with automotive suppliers, regulators, other OEMs and adversaries.

While at GM, she was part of a seasoned executive team that negotiated complex multi-million dollar global transactions and relationships. She was responsible for structuring, negotiating, drafting and reviewing agreements with other OEMs, Tier One parts and services suppliers, and major financial institutions world-wide. Additionally, while serving as GM’s Chief Privacy Officer, she led a global multi-disciplinary team (including IT, OnStar, Marketing, and HR) in developing and implementing GM’s global privacy policy.

Working with its divisional and corporate marketing groups, Karol had primary legal responsibility (including through General Motors bankruptcy proceedings) for GM’s advertising, promotional, and media-buying agency agreements/ relationships, celebrity endorsement agreements, and its SAG/AFTRA relationship. She also had extensive experience negotiating with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA), the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG), the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), and the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

Karol is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame Law School and the College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, NY.