Change Has Come Quickly In Fairfax

Doug Hamlin was elected CEO and EVP of the NRA only yesterday but has hit the road running. Today, he announced that the positions of secretary and general counsel would be separated. As a result, John Frazer is no longer the General Counsel of the NRA. However, he will remain in the position of Secretary for which the Board elected him yesterday.

The new General Counsel is Michael Blaz. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame Law School in 1989. Blaz did his undergraduate work at Auburn University where he was a member of Phi Eta Sigma honor society. According to Martindale-Hubbell, Blaz is licensed to practice law in Virginia (1989) and the District of Columbia (1991).

Here is Hamlin’s announcement of the separation of the two positions and the appointment of Blaz as General Counsel.

Blaz had been the Assistant General Counsel before his promotion to General Counsel. I would also point out that Blaz has significantly more legal experience than Frazer who was only admitted to the bar in 2014.

The optics of a general counsel being found guilty of breach of fiduciary duties made it untenable to keep Frazer in that position. Hamlin has demonstrated he is working quickly to clean up the mess he was left at the NRA.