Robert Ambrogi Blog
See this update: UnitedLex CEO’s Sudden Departure Appears to Be Due to Personal Allegations Unrelated to Work.
Hope it wasn’t something he said on my podcast.
A week after appearing on my LawNext podcast to discuss his one-year anniversary as chief executive officer at UnitedLex, James Schellhase is out of that job, replaced by the company’s general counsel Renee Meisel.
Schellhase’s appointment as CEO in September 2023 was particularly significant for the company in that he was only its second CEO ever since its founding in 2006, succeeding cofounder Dan Reed, who became chairman of the board.
But today, UnitedLex issued a statement saying that Meisel has replaced Schellhase “with immediate effect.”
The company gave no explanation for the sudden change in leadership. As of this morning, the LinkedIn profile of Schellhase is no longer available.
The statement said that Meisel “expressed her commitment to the company’s mission and vision,” and that her appointment “underscores a corporate mandate to leverage diverse skill sets at the highest levels of leadership to align with and meet the needs of its growing client base.”
“I am honored to step into this role and lead UnitedLex during this important time,” she said. “Our team’s expertise, innovative spirit, and dedication to our clients have always been among our greatest strengths. Living by our core values and moving forward as one team are key to achieving our growth objectives.”
As general counsel at UnitedLex, Meisel had led the company’s global legal functions, including commercial transactions, dispute resolution, compliance and privacy, and risk management.
Previously she was founder of PracticLaw, a consulting and law firm that designed and delivered in-house legal operations solutions. She has held COO and CLO roles at Breakwater and Purpose Legal and spent nearly a decade at Dell Technologies, where she served as in-house counsel and built and managed its e-discovery and cybersecurity programs.