Harley Davidson Names Paul Jones General Counsel – Corporate Counsel

Paul Jones

Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson, Inc., revved up its corporate V-Twin this month, fuel-injecting Regal Beloit Corporation‘s Paul Jones into its company pistons. Jones, recently named Harley vice president, general counsel, and secretary, will report directly to CEO Keith Wandell, who hopefully will be able to hear him over the roar of all those company engines.

Wandell cited Jones’ “strong leadership capabilities” in the company press release, though if he’s like most top lawyers, the new GC presumably has scant experience running biker gangs of any notoriety.

Jones replaces Gail Lione, who served as Harley’s chief legal officer since joining the company in 1997. Lione will remain with the company as president of the Harley-Davidson Foundation, a position she has held since 2006.

The newest defender of Harley’s legal rights is no stranger to mechanics. He worked to complete numerous acquisitions during his stint at Regal, a Beloit, Wis.-based manufacturer of motion control and power generation products.

Before joining Regal in 2006, Jones was a partner at Foley & Lardner‘s transactional and securities practice, where he provided counsel to Harley-Davidson from the firm’s Milwaukee office. He earned an undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. Apart from that period in D.C., it’s been the Badger State all the way.

Jones’ move comes just when Harley-Davidson’s financial services business appears to be roaring back, though actual two-wheeler sales keep riding the brakes. The company’s second-quarter revenues, released in mid-July, increased 2.8 percent compared with last year — sending shares into a wheelie — but motorcycle shipments for the first six months of 2010 dropped more than 15 percent from 2009.

No word yet on whether or not Jones intends on protecting the legendary roar of its jagged “potato-potato” engine (though Harley-Davidson hasn’t registered that as a trademark in any event.)

And no word if Jones will be involved in Harley-Davidson’s impending labor negotiations; the company has threatened to move production operations out of Wisconsin if an agreement isn’t reached by mid-September. But regardless of the outcome, the company says, its Milwaukee museum is staying parked right where it is.

Charlie Mead can be contacted at cmead[at]alm.com.

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