Edward O’Keefe, the new general counsel at Bank of America Corporation, has inherited what must be one of the biggest legal messes any general counsel could step into. And experts say it doesn’t help that O’Keefe oversees 525 lawyers while he reports not to the chief executive or the board of directors, but to the bank’s chief administrative officer.

As one former law department insider put it: “That’s like telling your general counsel to report to the head of human resources.”