He has been under pressure in recent months over the recall of 2.6m cars with defective ignition switches which have been linked to several deaths.  His lack of knowledge about what was going on underneath him became controversial when it was revealed that he did not know about the defect until February this year, even though some more junior lawyers had been discussing it between them. Some of the GM lawyers who reported to him were fired but he survived - even though pressure came from Congress on the company to sack him. Source: Detroit Free Press