Dive Brief:

• Discover Financial Services’ top lawyer, Hope Mehlman, is leaving the Riverwoods, Illinois-based company with a cash payment of up to $1 million.
• Mehlman, who is Discover’s executive vice president, chief legal officer, general counsel and corporate secretary, will depart on Nov. 29, or once an upcoming merger with Capital One is finalized, whichever date is sooner, the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Friday.
• Mehlman will join Ally Financial, a Detroit-based bank holding company, as the chief legal and corporate affairs officer, effective Dec. 2, Ally said in a news release Monday. "Mehlman will lead a newly created Legal & Corporate Affairs Office which will oversee all regulatory and legal matters," the release said.

Dive Insight:

Mehlman still has plenty of work on her plate before her departure, given Discover’s merger effort. Capital One previously said it expects the deal to close by the end of this year, or early next year.

“Discover will name an interim leader to assume her responsibilities from December 1 through the closing of the merger,” a company spokesperson said by email, declining to comment on how Mehlman’s exit may affect the merger, if at all.

Capital One customers have sued to block the company’s acquisition of Discover, which would create the nation's largest credit card company.

Additionally, the acquisition still needs regulatory approval, and consumer advocates have asked regulators to block the deal on the grounds that it would stifle competition and increase prices.

While Mehlman's contract requires her to stay through Jan. 9, Discover elected to let her leave before then and to waive her obligation to repay her sign-on bonus, which she would have owed the company for leaving before her contract expired, the filing said.

However, Discover agreed to pay Mehlman a cash lump sum of $850,000 to $1 million, as long as she isn't fired for cause before her final day with the company.

News of Mehlman’s departure comes days after another former Discover executive, Diane Offereins, filed a gender and age discrimination lawsuit against the card network company last Wednesday. Offereins alleged $7 million in stock awards was clawed back because she was deemed a “convenient scapegoat” for the company’s card misclassification issue that’s attracted the attention of regulators.

Mehlman has provided legal counsel to major corporations for about two decades, according to a news release announcing her move to Discover two years ago. She joined the credit card provider in 2022 after leaving Bank of the West, where she served as the bank's general counsel and corporate secretary.

Mehlman was paid $6.6 million in 2023, according to a March 15 SEC filing. That figure includes her base salary of $553,000, along with stock awards and a $3.4 million signing bonus.