Luciana "Lucy" Fato (born 1966) is an American corporate attorney. Since May 2024 she has been Executive Vice President & General Counsel for Seaport Entertainment Group. Prior to joining Seaport Entertainment Group, she was vice chair and general counsel at American International Group (AIG). She held senior roles at

Marsh & McLennan Companies Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., doing business as Marsh McLennan, is a global professional services firm, headquartered in New York City with businesses in insurance brokerage, risk management, reinsurance services, talent management, inves ...

, and

McGraw Hill Financial S&P Global Inc. (prior to 2016, McGraw Hill Financial, Inc., and prior to 2013, The McGraw–Hill Companies, Inc.) is an American publicly traded corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City. Its primary areas of business are financia ...

(now

S&P Global S&P Global Inc. (prior to 2016, McGraw Hill Financial, Inc., and prior to 2013, The McGraw–Hill Companies, Inc.) is an American publicly traded corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City. Its primary areas of business are financia ...

Early life and education

Fato was born in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

in 1966. She attended

The Ellis School The Ellis School is an independent, all-girls, college-preparatory school located in the Shadyside section in the east end of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The school serves girls aged 3 to grade 12. History 20th century When Pittsburgh's P ...

in Pittsburgh, graduating in 1984. She received a BA in business and economics from the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

in 1988, and a JD from the

University of Pittsburgh School of Law The University of Pittsburgh School of Law (Pitt Law) is the law school of the University of Pittsburgh, a public research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1895 and became a charter member of the Association of American ...

in 1991.

Career

Davis Polk & Wardwell

Fato began her legal career in 1991 at the law firm

Davis Polk & Wardwell Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, commonly known as Davis Polk, is an American multinational corporation, multinational law firm headquartered in New York City with offices in Washington, D.C., Menlo Park, California, Menlo Park, London, Madrid, Brussel ...

in New York City. In 2000 she was elected a corporate partner in the

capital markets A capital market is a financial market in which long-term debt (over a year) or equity-backed securities are bought and sold, in contrast to a money market where short-term debt is bought and sold. Capital markets channel the wealth of savers t ...

department of the firm. She advised multinational companies on a range of corporate matters, and gained an increasing reputation as a problem solver capable of resolving high-profile government lawsuits.

Marsh & McLennan Companies

In September 2005, Fato was hired by

(MMC) as Deputy

General Counsel A general counsel, also known as chief counsel or chief legal officer (CLO), is the chief in-house lawyer for a company or a governmental department. In a company, the person holding the position typically reports directly to the CEO, and their ...

and Corporate Secretary. She was heavily involved in the sale of two former Marsh & McLennan businesses:

Putnam Investments Putnam Investments is an investment management firm founded in 1937 by George Putnam, who established one of the first balanced mutual funds, The George Putnam Fund of Boston. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, it has offices in London, To ...

in 2007, and the

Kroll Kroll or Kröll is a German, Anglo-Saxon, and Scottish surname. Notable people with the surname include: Academia * Josef Kroll (1889–1980), German classical philologist and university rector * Judith F. Kroll, American college professor in ...

corporate-intelligence unit in 2010. In addition, she helped reshape MMC's global legal department, overhauled the company's governance practices, and reduced legal operations expenses by more than 50%.

McGraw Hill Financial

In August 2014, Fato became executive vice president and general counsel of

, whose brands included

Standard & Poor's S&P Global Ratings (previously Standard & Poor's and informally known as S&P) is an American credit rating agency (CRA) and a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks, bonds, and commodities. S&P is co ...

(S&P). At the time, S&P was dealing with several high-profile government lawsuits concerning its ratings of

mortgage-backed securities A mortgage-backed security (MBS) is a type of asset-backed security (an "Financial instrument, instrument") which is secured by a mortgage loan, mortgage or collection of mortgages. The mortgages are aggregated and sold to a group of individuals ( ...

prior to the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

. Fato immediately employed her skills in relationship-building and conciliation to resolve the lawsuits; on the morning of her first day as general counsel she phoned several government lawyers. Within six months she negotiated favorable global settlements with the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and 22 state attorneys general. She left McGraw Hill Financial in October 2015.

Nardello

In October 2016, Fato joined the global private investigative firm Nardello & Co, headquartered in New York, where she served in multiple roles, including managing director, head of the Americas, and global general counsel. During her time at Nardello she was credited with growing the firm's network and global culture of teamwork. When she left the firm in October 2017 she remained on Nardello's newly formed advisory board, to help guide it in its next phase of growth.

AIG

In October 2017, Fato became executive vice president and general counsel of

AIG American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. As of 2023, AIG employed 25,200 people. The company operates through three core ...

, succeeding Peter Solmssen. She was appointed by the new CEO of AIG,

Brian Duperreault Brian Charles Duperreault (born May 8, 1947) is a Bermuda-born American executive in the insurance industry. He stepped down as executive chairman of American International Group in December 2021. Duperreault's entire career has been in the ins ...

, who had been the CEO of Marsh & McLennan Companies during her tenure there. She was also AIG's interim head of human resources from October 2018 through July 2019 and again in 2022. From September 2023 through March 2024 she was vice chair at AIG. At AIG, her duties as general counsel included overseeing global legal, compliance, and regulatory matters. She was also part of the company's executive leadership team and participated in all strategic and policy decisions regarding AIG's operations. In addition to overseeing legal, compliance, and regulatory matters for AIG, in 2021, she was tasked with responsibility for its government and public affairs, as well as communications.

Seaport Entertainment Group

After her departure from AIG, Fato joined Seaport Entertainment Group as general counsel and corporate secretary.

Board memberships

In 2018 and 2021 Fato was appointed for a three-year term to the New York State Insurance Advisory Board. She is also on the board of directors of the Life Insurance Council of New York. She is on the advisory board of Nardello & Co., and was a cybersecurity group member of the

Aspen Institute The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1949 as the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., but also has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, its original home. Its stated miss ...

. She is on the boards of directors of the

Coalition for the Homeless Coalition for the Homeless is a not-for-profit advocacy group focused on homelessness in New York. The coalition has engaged in landmark litigation to protect the rights of homeless people, including the right to shelter and the right to vote, ...

and previously served on the board of directors of Advocates for Children of New York. Fato served on the board of trustees of the

Randall's Island Randalls Island (sometimes called Randall's Island) and Wards Island are conjoined islands, collectively called Randalls and Wards Island, in New York City.

Park Alliance and was a member of its executive committee. During her time at AIG, Fato was a member of the board of directors of Corebridge Financial. She stepped down from her role on the board in April 2024. Since 2020, Fato has been a board member of the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation. She has served on the board of the Harvard Law School Center for the Legal Profession since 2023.

Awards and honors

In 2009, Fato was inducted into the YWCA-NYC Academy of Women Leaders. She was named one of ''

Ethisphere Magazine The Ethisphere Institute is a for-profit company that, for a fee, defines and measures corporate ethical standards, recognizes companies that do well in those stated metrics, and promotes best practices in corporate ethics. The company is locat ...

s "Attorneys Who Matter" in 2015 and 2017. In 2017, the New York County Lawyers Association honored her as one of its Outstanding Women in the Legal Profession. In 2018 and 2019 she was named by the

National Association of Corporate Directors The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) is an independent, not-for-profit, section 501(c)(3) founded in 1977 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. NACD's membership includes more than 1,750 corporate boards as well as several ...

' ''NACD Directorship'' magazine as one of the Directorship 100, which recognizes the most influential people in corporate boardrooms. In 2019 she was named one of ''

Crain's New York Crain Communications Inc. is an American publishing conglomerate based in Detroit, Michigan, United States, with 13 foreign subsidiaries. History Gustavus Dedman "G.D." Crain Jr. ( Gustavus Demetrious Crain Jr.; 1885–1973), previously the ci ...

s Notable Women in Law, and she was one of three recipients of

Legal Momentum Legal Momentum, founded in 1970, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and the nation's first and longest-serving legal advocacy group for women in the United States. Betty Friedan and Muriel Fox were its co-founders and Muriel Fox is an ongoing leader of th ...

's 19th annual Aiming High awards.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fato, Lucy Living people 1966 births Corporate lawyers Lawyers from Pittsburgh Lawyers from New York City 21st-century American lawyers Davis Polk & Wardwell lawyers The Ellis School alumni University of Pittsburgh alumni University of Pittsburgh School of Law alumni 21st-century American women lawyers