Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co. can count on David Flattum to guide the company through the most complex legal and compliance matters domestically and abroad—crucial for the world’s largest bond-fund management firm, which has operations in a dozen countries and deals with 28 regulators around the world.
Flattum is managing director and global general counsel for Pimco, which manages about $2 trillion in client assets and runs 367 mutual and exchange-traded funds.
He oversees a team of 250 legal and compliance professionals who work on all things legal relating to Pimco’s investment businesses, including development of new funds and investor protection efforts. About half of the team members are based at the company’s Orange County office, with the rest in London, Sidney and Tokyo, among other cities.
Flattum received the General Counsel of the Year award in the Public Company category at the Business Journal’s awards dinner on Sept. 17 at the Hyatt Regency Irvine (see related stories, pages 1, 4, 8 and 9).
His post at Pimco goes back about seven years on paper. His relationship with the bond giant, however, spans some 20 years, during which he has helped guide the company through some of its major strategic moves and transactions.
“I first got to know Pimco when I was an associate at Latham & Watkins,” Flattum said, recalling his private-practice experience in the OC office of the Los Angeles-based law firm, which he joined after graduating from Yale Law School.
He specialized in mergers and acquisitions and corporate transactions while at the firm.
Flattum was part of the team representing Pimco in its 1994 spinoff from Pacific Life Insurance Co. in Newport Beach. Pimco became part of Pimco Advisors Holdings LP shortly after the separation.
Flattum again represented Pimco in 2000, when publicly traded German insurer Allianz SE acquired Pimco Advisors in 2000 for about $3.3 billion.
“And then in 2001, I got a call from Bill Thompson, who at the time was CEO of Pimco,” Flattum said. “He asked if I would consider coming over to the company.”
Flattum spent the next five years as general counsel and chief operating officer of Allianz Asset Management of America, which held the Pimco business. He became Pimco’s global general counsel in 2006.
Flattum, an OC native and trained in electrical engineering and philosophy at the University of Southern California, didn’t set out to become a corporate in-house lawyer when he entered the legal industry.
“I really enjoyed my work in private practice, but … to be associated with a company like Pimco was such a fantastic opportunity that I jumped at it,” he said.
Global
The global nature of Pimco’s work, through its funds and local operations in different countries, makes the work exciting, Flattum said.
“Being involved in matters that are really on the world stage, interacting with countries and regulators around the world, and being involved in financial affairs that are of significant global consequence are a great privilege,” he said. “It’s also fundamentally doing something that’s really important—helping provide for the world’s retirement and long-term financial goals.”
Flattum has helped Pimco develop new investment products, such as the Total Return Exchange-Traded Fund, which was launched last year. It’s grown to about $4 billion in net assets and is designed to mimic Pimco’s Total Return Bond Fund, which is managed by the firm’s founder and co-chief investment officer, Bill Gross.
Serving as legal chief of a global investment firm has its challenges, Flattum said, ranging from “trying to deal with different time zones” to staying on top of the varying and ever-changing regulations around the world.
Flattum, in addition to his legal work, has helped his team boost philanthropic and volunteer activity. Some 130 employees in Pimco’s legal department have together put in more than 620 hours in volunteer work during the past year and a half.
Flattum and his wife of 21 years have three children. He said he and his family enjoy skiing and “go all over the place” for the sport, with Jackson Hole, Wyo., being a favorite.
He also is involved at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa and Opportunity International, a microfinance-focused organization that provides financing, insurance and savings services in developing countries.
