AIG pursuing ex-Lehman lawyer to be gen counsel-WSJ

NEW YORK Jan 11 (Reuters) - American International Group Inc (AIG.N) has asked former top Lehman lawyer Thomas Russo to join the bailed-out insurer as general counsel, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter.

AIG declined to comment, and Russo, who last year joined the New York office of law firm Patton Boggs as senior counsel, could not immediately be reached.

AIG has made a written offer to Russo, and also contacted the Obama Administration's pay czar over a proposed pay package, according to the Journal's report, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Russo was chief legal officer of Lehman Brothers Holdings for 15 years, according to Patton Boggs' website. He left the Wall Street investment bank after it filed for bankruptcy in 2008.

AIG is seeking to fill the general counsel position after Anastasia Kelly resigned effective Dec. 30, in a protest over pay curbs imposed at the firm by pay czar Kenneth Feinberg. see story, ID:[nN30229904])

Feinberg has been charged with monitoring pay levels at companies that received taxpayer funds, including the power to impose pay caps on AIG's top 100 executives.

AIG has been granted more than $180 billion in federal support since Sept. 2008, when bets that a financial products unit took on the U.S. housing market blew up, leaving it owing billions of dollars to counterparties.

(Reporting by Lilla Zuill; Editing Bernard Orr)