Max Laun served as vice president, general counsel and chief ethics and compliance officer for Arconic Inc., before retiring in 2020. Arconic is the company that resulted from the November 2016 separation of Alcoa Inc., the Fortune 150 integrated aluminum company, into Arconic and Alcoa Corporation. From 2012 until 2016, he served as VP and general counsel for Alcoa, following 25 years of various roles of increasing responsibility in Alcoa’s Legal Department.
Professor Laun received his undergraduate degree cum laude from Rice University, where he majored in History and Russian, then spent two years in Romania as a Fulbright Scholar. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where he served as an editor of the Law Review.
His major area of legal practice was international mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures. Over the course of his Alcoa career, he led transactions on six continents, including major greenfield investments by the company in Saudi Arabia and Iceland, state privatizations in Hungary, Italy, Spain, Russia, China, and Venezuela, and other private transactions in 15+ countries across Europe, Latin America, and Asia.
Professor Laun currently serves on several public service non-profit boards of directors, including the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network, Inc. (PLAN), the National Legal Aid and Defenders Association (NLADA), on the Pennsylvania PA Continuing Legal Education Board, and on the Advisory Council to Pitt Law’s Center for International Legal Education (CILE).