“Daytona Beach, Florida-based TopBuild Corp has hired Luis Machado as general counsel and corporate secretary,” reports Ben Maiden in Corporate Secretary’s Appointments.

“Before joining TopBuild, Machado was vice president, general counsel and secretary at CTS Corporation, which designs and manufactures sensors, actuators and electronic components. He has also held senior corporate legal positions at L Brands, the Wrigley Company and Diversey. Machado started his legal career at law firm Altheimer & Gray in Chicago.”

“Donald Walther joined TopBuild as general counsel and corporate secretary in May 2019. He joined API Technologies Corp as general counsel in June of this year.”

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“On a day that the Washington Football Team hired a new President of the organization, the man that was thought to be a perfect fit for that role when Bruce Allen was removed, has a new executive leadership position,” reports Chris Russell in SI’s Washington Football News.

“Eric Schaffer served the Washington organization for 17 years in a variety of roles but most recently as the Senior Vice President of Football Operations and General Counsel.”

“Athletes First, a top sports representation firm, officially announced Monday the hiring of Schaffer as a member of its senior leadership team.”

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“BankUnited announced the hiring of Kevin A. Malcolm as senior executive vice president and general counsel, effective September 14, 2020. An accomplished corporate law executive, Malcolm will be responsible for overseeing BankUnited’s legal and compliance functions. He will fill the position currently held by Michael Alford, who is leaving the financial industry to pursue his ordination as a priest in the Episcopal Church,” was reported in Business Wire.

“Malcolm comes to BankUnited from VeriFone, where he served as vice president, head of legal for Europe, Middle East and Africa after previously serving as primary legal counsel for the company’s global taxi systems business in the role of vice president, strategic business development and legal. Previously, he was general counsel and vice president business and legal affairs for Curb Mobility, a payments, mobility and digital media technology company based in New York City with operations throughout North America and the United Kingdom.”

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“Camp Hill, Pennsylvania-based Rite Aid has appointed Paul Gilbert as general counsel and corporate secretary,” reports Ben Maiden in Corporate Secretary’s Appointments.

“Gilbert joined the NYSE-listed company in an interim position on May 21 to help with its virtual AGM and other governance matters. Rite Aid, like hundreds of other US companies, switched from holding its AGM in person this year due to health and safety considerations arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.”

“Gilbert has also offered guidance on various business initiatives as Rite Aid pursues a strategy aimed at positioning the company as the leading mid-market pharmacy benefit management provider. As general counsel, he will be part of Rite Aid’s executive leadership team and senior leadership team and will lead the organization’s legal efforts.”

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“Director Christopher Wray has named Jason A. Jones as the general counsel of the FBI. Mr. Jones most recently worked in the private sector at the law firm of King & Spalding,” announces the FBI in their Press Releases.

“Mr. Jones was a federal prosecutor for nearly 10 years. He was a supervisory assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, serving as chief of the Violent Crimes and Terrorism Section. He prosecuted scores of individuals for racketeering, murder, international terrorism, terrorism financing, money laundering, and other violations.”

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“Chubb announced … that Gina Rebollar has been named Deputy General Counsel, Global Corporate Affairs. Ms. Rebollar will lead the company’s global corporate affairs team with responsibility for legal matters related to global corporate, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, asset management and intellectual property. She will work closely with Chubb Limited’s Board of Directors and advise the company’s Corporate Development, Treasury, Human Resources and Global Communications functions as well as other members of senior management on various matters,” reports Chubb in their News Releases.

“Ms. Rebollar rejoins Chubb from Clever Leaves, where she served as general counsel for the past year. From 2011 to 2019, Ms. Rebollar served as Senior Vice President and Managing Counsel, Global Corporate Affairs at Chubb. Ms. Rebollar is based in New York and reports to Joe Wayland, Executive Vice President, Chubb Group and General Counsel. The appointment is effective immediately.”

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The Big Five Personality Factors are a well-researched and effective framework to examine normal personality functioning. The core Big Five factors are:

• Introversion (high to low)
• Openness to New Experiences (high to low)
• Agreeableness (high to low low)
• Neuroticism-Creativity (high to low)
• Conscientiousness (high to low)

In this article, we will focus on how hiring authorities can use the Big Five Personality Factors as a framework for hiring.

Openness to New Ideas

Of course, Conscientiousness as THE most important personality factor to consider when making hiring decisions in law.

It is rare to find an experienced GC who cannot come up with at least one horror story involving hiring a candidate with excellent academic credentials, great job interview skills, and low conscientiousness.

Why does this happen?

Employers assume that the U.S. education system weeds out students who are low on conscientiousness.

That assumption may not be valid. You can be highly intelligent from an IQ perspective yet low on conscientiousness. There are pressures on professors to pass students and pressures on administrators to reduce student drop-out rate.

In this article we want to focus on what we consider to be the second most important Big Five personality trait when GCs hire legal staff: Openness to New Ideas.

Use LinkedIn Before the Candidate Meeting.

Before meeting a candidate for the first time, is it possible to speak with people you know who might know the person? LinkedIn is an excellent resource for identifying such people.

Below is a suggested question:

“On a scale of 0 (never) to 10 (always), give me a number that reflects how open this person is to new ideas?”

Once a number is given, ask the person to explain why that number was assigned.
Before meeting the candidate, do a Google search to find out if the candidate writes blogs. Do the topics focus on expansion, growth, and new ideas? That suggests high openness to new ideas.

Perhaps the blogs focus on reduction of risk/uncertainty. That might suggest low openness to new ideas.

Structuring the Employment Interview

The following interview questions will help confirm a candidate’s openness to new ideas:

“Tell me a story about a time when you questioned the commonly accepted wisdom at your company or team?”

Since we are dealing with personality factors, it is acceptable if the person does not use a business example. Stories about sports or family are fine.

Candidates high on openness to new ideas will resonate when your interview resonates with words like “growth,” “innovation,” “new,” and “exciting.”

Suppose You Want Low Openness to New Ideas

A general company culture may be one of growth and transformation, yet you may still seek to hire legal professionals who are relatively closed to new ideas.

These are people who resonate with words like “consistency,” “reliability,” and “predictability:”

Compliance Officer within a hedge fund
Completion of SEC regulatory filings.
Patent applications.

Below is a question you might ask during the employment interview:

“Tell me a story about a situation that began in chaos, but you helped it become orderly.”

They will resonate to words like “stabilize,” “control,” “predict,” “measure,” “consistency.”

If your candidate is relatively closed to new ideas and you are relatively open to new ideas, there is going to be a conflict. Focus more on the requirements of the job. Make personality compatibility a secondary consideration.

Another option for GCs who score high on openness to new ideas: surround your legal team with people who also are open to new ideas. Outsource the more compliance-oriented issues to attorneys who love to wade into the administrative details.

GCs should consider the “Brand” that the GC has with the CEO. If the CEO considers the GC “Dr. No” and considers the legal department as the place where “good idea go to die,” then it might be prudent for the GC to surround herself with attorneys high on openness to new ideas.

Summary and Conclusions

The Big Five Personality Factor framework as a well-researched framework to look at personality factors of high functioning “normal” adults.

General Counsels make a mistake in placing too much emphasis on hiring people with certain academic credentials or years of relevant industry experience. This emphasis often comes at the expense of not paying enough attention on personality/culture fit.
In ninety days most lawyers will learn enough about your industry to do the job at a fully competent level.

Skills can be learned.

It is far more effective to hire the right personality type at the front end than to hire the wrong personality type and spend time/money trying to change it.

References

S.G. Matz, M. Kosinski, G. Nave and D. J. Stillwell. 2017 “Psychological targeting as an effective approach to digital mass persuasion.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, http://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/early/2017/11/07/1710966114.full.pdf

Stybel, L. and Peabody, M. 2018. “Attention Job Candidates and Recruiters: your most important question.” https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/platform-success/201805/attentio…

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Stybel Peabody provides companies with “leadership and career success” for valued senior level talent. Core services include retained search, leadership development coaching, and executive-level outplacement.

The readers of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly voted Stybel Peabody Associates “The Best Outplacement Firm” of 2020.

lstybel@stybelpeabody.com

“Cass Information Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CASS), the leading provider of transportation, energy, telecom and waste invoice payment and information services, has recruited Matt Schuckman to fill the newly created position of general counsel. Schuckman, 46, will also serve Cass as corporate secretary,” reported in Cass Information Systems, Inc.’s Press Releases.

“Schuckman joins Cass after a 20-year career as a commercial and transactional attorney with the St. Louis office of Armstrong Teasdale, LLP. As a partner in the commercial services group, Schuckman advised clients – including Cass – on mergers and acquisitions; complex contracts; corporate governance issues; and business law.”

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“Bison Trails has hired BlockTower Capital’s former legal and compliance director to be its first general counsel,” reports Nathan DiCamillo in BitCoin’s Business.

“Elizabeth Ralston will be in charge of all legal, risk, compliance and policy matters at the blockchain infrastructure startup. Prior to her time at BlockTower Capital, Ralston was a vice president at investment bank Goldman Sachs. While at BlockTower, Ralston negotiated agreements with custodians, exchanges, over-the-counter desks, software providers and other service providers. She also handled venture investments in early-stage companies.”

“Ralston will tackle some of the same issues at Bison Trails, with a focus on tax implications for crypto investors participating in proof-of-stake networks.”

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“The U.S. Soccer Federation Friday announced the hiring of Karen Leetzow as its new Chief Legal Officer,” reports Front Row Soccer.

“Noting as a result-oriented industry executive, Leetzow, spent 20 years at NASCAR where she most recently served as its senior vice president and general counsel. She will begin her new position in Chicago in early August and is the first executive hire by U.S. Soccer secretary general and CEO Will Wilson.”

“Leetzow succeeds Lydia Wahlke, who was suspended in March and quit her position May 21 amid an outcry over a court filing that asserted players on the U.S. women’s national team were less skilled than male players. She agreed to act as an ad hoc consultant for the organization until Sept. 15, according to the federation.”

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“Weatherford International has recruited Scott Weatherholt as executive vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer (CCO),” reports Ben Maiden in Corporate Secretary’s Appointments.

“Weatherholt was previously senior vice president and general counsel at Arena Energy and its affiliates, a role in which he had a focus on offshore Gulf of Mexico shelf exploration and production activities. Before that, he was an executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Midstates Petroleum, where his work included legal oversight of a merger with Amplify Energy and a large debt-for-debt recapitalization.”

“Earlier in his career, Weatherholt spent a decade at Samson Resources, where he was assistant general counsel of operations with responsibility for operational legal, land and regulatory issues for the Permian Basin, Eagleford, Mid-continent, Haynesville/Cotton Valley, Powder River, Green River and Bakken business units.”

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“While a great number of people believe that in-house lawyers earn less than their Biglaw counterparts, top in-house attorneys — the general counsel of America’s largest companies — often earn sums that exceed Biglaw partner pay,” writes Staci Zarestsky in Above the Law’s In-House Counsel.

The article takes a look at “Corporate Counsel’s latest survey of the nation’s best-paid general counsel, a ranking that pulls together all the money that GCs make in total cash compensation, which is a combination of base salary, cash bonus, and nonequity incentives.”

Read the article to see how general counsels’ compensation has changed since last year’s survey.

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“Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU) announced today that Tim Harris, executive vice president and general counsel, has decided to retire after a long and successful career. Ann Kappler, senior vice president, deputy general counsel and head of external affairs, will assume the role of executive vice president and general counsel, effective Sept. 1, 2020,” reports Laura Burke in Prudential’s Press Releases.

“Ann Kappler joined Prudential in 2009 as a chief legal officer, assuming positions with increasing responsibility. Prior to joining Prudential, Kappler held a variety of roles including general counsel, Fannie Mae; partner at WilmerHale; partner at Jenner & Block; and law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Blackmun. She also serves as chair of the Board of National Health Law Program, member of the Pro Bono Partnership Board and Dartmouth’s Rockefeller Center for Public Policy Board of Visitors. Kappler holds an AB, Dartmouth College, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.”

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“Poseida Therapeutics, which launched its IPO on Nasdaq earlier this month, has hired Harry Leonhardt as general counsel and chief compliance officer (CCO),” reports Ben Maiden in Corporate Secretary’s Appointments.

“Leonhardt was most recently senior vice president, general counsel, CCO, corporate secretary and a member of the executive committee at Halozyme Therapeutics. Before working at Halozyme, he was senior vice president for legal and compliance, corporate secretary and a member of the executive committee at Amylin Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb in 2012.”

“Earlier in his career, Leonhardt served as general counsel for a number of San Diego, California-based biotech companies, and as chief litigation counsel and later as general counsel for the European region at Allergan Pharmaceuticals. Before that he was an intellectual property litigator in Los Angeles.”

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“Barclays has announced the appointment of Stephen Shapiro as Group General Counsel, in addition to his current role as Group Company Secretary,” reported in Barclay’s Press Releases.

“Mr Shapiro will succeed Bob Hoyt, who is stepping down following nearly seven years in role, on 1 August 2020.”

“He will join the Group Executive Committee and report directly to Group CEO Jes Staley, in his capacity as General Counsel, and to Group Chairman Nigel Higgins in his role as Company Secretary.”

“Mr Shapiro joined Barclays in 2017, from the FTSE10 company SABMiller plc, where he was Group Company Secretary and Deputy General Counsel, having previously held the role of Global Head of Legal at the firm.”

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“Bradley M. Gayton has been named senior vice president and general counsel for the Coca-Cola Co., effective Sept. 1. He succeeds Bernhard Goepelt, who retired from the role in February,” reports Rebekah Schouten in Food Business News.

“Mr. Gayton joins Coca-Cola after nearly 30 years at Ford Motor Co., where he most recently was group vice president, chief administrative officer and general counsel since 2016. He was responsible for sustainability, environment and safety engineering; corporate services; global shared service center operations; security; and Ford Land, which manages company facilities and real estate.”

“Mr. Gayton joined Ford in 1991 as an attorney and advanced through roles of greater responsibility, including director of global trade taxation and customs; assistant tax officer and director of tax operations; assistant general counsel and assistant corporate secretary; assistant general counsel and corporate secretary; and group vice president, general counsel.”

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“USAA has named Bob Johnson its Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel, reporting to CEO Wayne Peacock,” reports USAA Media Relations in WFMZ-TV’s news.

“Johnson joins USAA from commercial bank Truist Financial Corporation, where he was General Counsel, Corporate, Commercial and Legal Shared Services. He succeeds Deneen Donnley, who announced her retirement from USAA in September 2019.”

“Johnson brings more than 23 years of legal and financial services expertise to the association, including substantial experience working with federal banking regulators in supervisory and government relations capacities.”

“Earlier in his career, Johnson was General Counsel at BB&T for nearly ten years, with oversight of the legal, government affairs, human resources, and corporate social responsibility teams. He also was part of an executive team that oversaw a substantial build-out of BB&T’s risk and compliance organizations, and was the corporate secretary for the BB&T Board.”

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“Kimberly Chainey will join NYSE-listed AptarGroup as executive vice president and global general counsel, effective July 27,” reports Ben Maiden in Corporate Secretary’s Appointments.

“She was most recently vice president and general counsel with Panasonic Avionics Corporation. According to Aptar, Chainey has more than 15 years of international and domestic experience advising C-suite executives and boards of directors of Global 100 and Fortune 500 companies, venture companies and government entities.”

“She has held progressively senior roles with law firms and companies including Morgan Lewis, The Hershey Company and Avis.”

“In her new role, Chainey will be responsible for Aptar’s global legal affairs and will become a member of the company’s executive committee.”

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“Kenilworth, New Jersey-based Merck has picked Deborah Telman to be the general counsel of Organon & Co, its intended spin-off of the company’s women’s health, legacy brands and bio-similars businesses,” reported by Ben Maiden in Corporate Secretary’s Appointment.

“The company describes the appointment of a general counsel as an ‘important milestone’ in preparations for Organon & Co to operate independently. The spin-off transaction is scheduled for completion in the first half of 2021.”

“In her new role, Telman will be senior legal adviser to the board, CEO and senior management, with responsibility for the company’s global legal, compliance and environmental health and safety matters. She will join Organon from Sorrento Therapeutics where she has been senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary, heading up the legal, compliance, human resource and quality functions.”

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“Nashville, Tennessee-based Envision Healthcare, one of the nation’s largest medical groups, has named two new members of its senior leadership team,” reports Becker’s Hospital Review.

“Wessel “Wes” Booysen will serve as executive vice president and CFO, effective July 13. Ilene Moore will serve as senior vice president and general counsel, effective Aug. 1.”

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