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The National Association of Realtors on Saturday quietly replaced Lesley Muchow as general counsel of the 1.5 million-member trade organization with Jon Waclawski, a longtime member of the NAR Legal Group.
The shuffle, which was announced internally two weeks ago, caps Muchow’s two-year tenure as general counsel, which largely coincided with a lead up to the organization’s historic $418 million commission lawsuit settlement in 2024.
“After 15 years of dedicated service to NAR, Lesley Muchow has decided to step down from her role as General Counsel and Vice President of Legal Affairs and Antitrust Compliance, effective March 1,” states the Feb. 19 email from NAR CEO Nykia Wright.
Muchow’s resignation follows that of Katie Johnson, who served as general counsel before her promotion to chief legal officer in March 2023. She departed NAR last year. Over much of that period, Johnson and Muchow navigated a legal settlement that brought about sweeping changes to the real estate industry, ongoing litigation and battles with the Department of Justice.
Muchow was deputy general counsel since 2017 and was a member of NAR’s legal team since 2010.
Lesley Muchow, former NAR General Counsel
NAR President Kevin Sears confirmed to Inman that Muchow had stepped down and lauded Waclawski, a longtime political operative. NAR spokespeople didn’t respond to questions about Muchow’s status.
“I am excited for Jon,” Sears told Inman. “I’ve known him for a number of years, have worked with him on our political advocacy side of the association. [He’s] very knowledgeable and I’m happy he’s taking on this new, very important role for the National Association of Realtors.”
Waclawski is a familiar face within the organization’s legal team, serving with the group since 2017, when he joined as a political law attorney with the NAR Legal Group. In 2022, he was named to serve as vice president of political advocacy.
NAR didn’t make a public announcement about Waclawski’s ascent to general counsel or Muchow’s departure. His hiring as general counsel was first reported by Bloomberg Law, which didn’t make note of Muchow’s resignation and suggested Waclawski was replacing Katie Johnson, who left the organization in October.
Jon Waclawski, NAR General Counsel
An updated bio on its website reveals that Waclawski will oversee the various private counsel NAR hires to handle its ongoing litigation, in addition to other legal tasks.
“In this role, Jon [oversees] the NAR Legal Group, providing legal risk analysis and mitigation guidance across the organization as well as to key stakeholders,” his NAR bio reads. “Jon is responsible for managing outside counsel engagements in addition to serving as NAR’s principal compliance attorney.”
Wright’s email to the board and executive committee alerting them of the impending change was sent a few days after NAR replaced one of the law firms representing it in court.
On Feb. 14, NAR filed a legal notice that it was terminating Cooley LLP, the Chicago-based law firm that represented the organization in the landmark Sitzer | Burnett case through the 2023 trial. The filing was made in a case known as Batton, which was filed by homebuyers and makes similar allegations to the Sitzer case. Cooley remains listed as counsel in Sitzer.
Ethan Glass, a Cooley partner who served as lead counsel during the Sitzer | Burnett trial, didn’t respond to a request for comment this week.
Ongoing changes at NAR
James Dwiggins, an industry leader and co-CEO of NextHome, hosted Muchow on his podcast, Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered, a month ago, alongside co-host Keith Robinson.
James Dwiggins, NextHome CEO
Muchow gave updates on the status of various legal challenges NAR faces, including several appeals of the settlement agreement NAR brokered, legal battles with the Department of Justice, and other general legal updates in the real estate realm.
Dwiggins told Inman he felt the legal shakeup was part of ongoing efforts by Wright to draw on her deep experience as a business executive to enact change at NAR.
“She is very smart, tactical, and she moves quickly,” said Dwiggins, who has been both critical and supportive of NAR. “Her background is all about turning around companies. The real estate industry has been very critical of NAR the past 24 months and asking for change. That’s exactly what they are getting with Nykia at the helm.”
Last month, NAR made the first payment as part of its $418 million settlement agreement in the Sitzer case. Because of the size of the settlement, which covered over 1 million real estate agents who are members of the organization, NAR has taken a magnifying glass to its budget to look for ways to trim costs and otherwise make changes to the organization.
The organization chose to stop printing its flagship magazine, Realtor magazine, last month as well amid ongoing cost-cutting.
Sears didn’t say that the changes within the legal team were made as part of a cost-cutting measure. But he did share a similar sentiment with Dwiggins, saying Wright was putting her executive experience to work.
“Nykia is absolutely looking at everything with a fine tooth comb and figuring out where the association needs to be improved or changed for moving forward in our new reality,” Sears said.
Wright was first named interim NAR CEO in November 2023, just days after the Sitzer | Burnett verdict. She was made permanent CEO — the first woman in NAR history to serve in the role — last August.
