“Gritstone Oncology, Inc. (GRTS), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing the next generation of cancer immunotherapies to fight multiple cancer types, today announced the appointment of Rahsaan W. Thompson as its executive vice president and general counsel. Mr. Thompson joins Gritstone with over 20 years of experience as corporate counsel,” reports Yahoo Finance.

“Thompson was the general counsel for Opiant Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for all legal aspects of corporate strategy, intellectual property, transactions, compliance and regulatory matters. Previously, as the vice president of law for Actelion Pharmaceuticals, he led the Actelion Law Department based in San Francisco, California … Thompson was the associate general counsel at Abraxis Bioscience, before its acquisition by Celegene … Thompson also served as Corporate Counsel at McKesson Corporation.  He began his career as an assistant district attorney in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office. Mr. Thompson obtained his bachelor’s degree from Southern Methodist University and his law degree from Hofstra University. He has served on various non-profit boards and presently serves on the Board of Directors for the Oakland Museum of California Board of Directors as the finance committee chair.

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“ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held, clinical-stage oncology company focused on developing treatments that address mechanisms of therapeutic resistance, today announced that Christian V. Kuhlen, M.D., has been named General Counsel. Dr. Kuhlen will serve on the executive leadership team and lead ORIC’s legal, compliance, intellectual property, and corporate governance functions,” reported in Yahoo Finance.

“Dr. Kuhlen has extensive depth and breadth of expertise as General Counsel for biotechnology companies, where he has been responsible for legal, SEC, human resources, intellectual property, and corporate governance functions. Most recently, Dr. Kuhlen served as General Counsel and Secretary for Synthorx, where he led the legal aspects of its initial public offering and advised on the company’s subsequent acquisition by Sanofi. Prior to Synthorx, Dr. Kuhlen was General Counsel at Ignyta, where he coordinated two public financings and advised on the company’s acquisition by Roche. Before Ignyta, Dr. Kuhlen served as General Counsel of Genoptix, Inc., where he led the legal function from its initial public offering to its successful acquisition by Novartis. Prior to Genoptix, he was an attorney in private practice with Cooley LLP. Dr. Kuhlen holds a B.S. in biochemistry and cell biology and a B.A. in economics from the University of California, San Diego, and a M.D. and J.D. from the University of Southern California.”

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“The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc. announced Dennis F. Kerrigan has been appointed executive vice president and general counsel, effective immediately, following the retirement of longtime general counsel, J. Kendall Huber. In this role, Kerrigan is responsible for The Hanover’s legal, regulatory and government affairs, as well as compliance, state filings, securities, and corporate governance matters,” posted in Cision PR Newswire’s News Releases by Emily P. Trevallion and Abby M. Clark.

“Kerrigan brings decades of corporate counsel, insurance and global legal experience to the company. He joins The Hanover after more than 10 years as general counsel for Zurich North America, where he led the legal, compliance, government and industry affairs, security and regulatory affairs groups.”

“Kerrigan previously served as a partner in the global litigation department of an international law firm, representing Fortune 500 companies in a variety of matters, including trials, arbitrations, governmental investigations, regulatory proceedings and internal investigations.”

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“NeoPhotonics Corporation, a leading designer and manufacturer of advanced hybrid photonic integrated circuit based modules and subsystems for bandwidth-intensive, high speed communications networks, today announced the appointment of Barbara Rogan as the Company’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel, reporting to Tim Jenks Chairman and CEO of NeoPhotonics,” reports Michael Newsom in Yahoo Finance.

“Ms. Rogan brings twenty years of legal experience in technology in both public and private companies. Prior to joining NeoPhotonics, Ms. Rogan served as General Counsel at Velodyne Lidar, Inc. where she was responsible for Velodyne’s worldwide legal operations. Ms. Rogan has also held legal leadership roles at Cadence Design Systems, Inc. where she was Vice President and Associate General Counsel and at LogLogic, Inc. (acquired by TIBCO) where she was Vice President of Legal Affairs.”

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“Kelly Services Inc. named Janis Acosta as VP, interim general counsel of the company. Kelly’s senior VP and Chief Legal Officer Hannah Lim-Johnson has been separated from the company, Kelly reported in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission,” reports SIA Staffing Industry Analysts.

The company had named Lim-Johnson as chief legal officer in October 2017. Prior to joining Kelly, Lim Johnson served in several roles from October 2016 to April 2017 at PSEG in Newark, New Jersey.

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“New York City-based FinTech Carver Edison, has announced the appointment of Gregory Barton as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and General Counsel. Barton brings in more than 25 years of experience in legal, operational and financial to the newly created position, and will support the continued growth for the company,” reports Pavithra R in IBS Intelligence’s News.

Most recently, Barton served as Chief Legal Officer (CLO) and prior to that as Chief Operating Officer (COO), of Wisdom Tree Investments, Inc. a leading ETF sponsor.

Before joining Wisdom Tree Investments, Barton served as Executive Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs, General Counsel and Secretary of TheStreet, Inc., co-founded by Jim Cramer. He initiated his career as Associate in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the Claremont McKenna College.

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“In 2017, Mid-America Apartment Communities Executive Vice President and General Counsel Rob Del Priore was tasked with leading the post-merger integration of his company and Post Properties, Inc. The merger made Memphis-based Mid-America the largest publicly-traded apartment real estate investment trust in the US, with an ownership interest in over 100,000 apartment homes in 17 states. In addition to the various legal issues involved in the merger, Del Priore considered the integration of the two companies’ people very carefully. In order for the merger to be truly successful and the transition to go smoothly, Del Priore knew he needed buy-in from nearly everyone. To get that support and effectively integrate the two teams, he focused on three things – communication, planning and follow through,” writes Mark P. Henriques in Womble Bond Dickinson’s Articles and Briefings.

“Communication is at the top of the list,” Del Priore said. “It’s critical to encourage candid and open communication between both parties from the beginning of the merger.”

“He emphasizes the importance of developing trust – cultivating an environment for open dialogue between the management teams of the combining companies.”

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“Integra Inc., a Denver-based company that provides enterprise blockchain services to law firms and their clients, has hired Jamey Seely to serve as its new president and general counsel,” reports Brian Baxter in Bloomberg Law’s Corporate Governance.

“The addition of Seely, a former corporate partner at Thompson & Knight, had not been announced publicly. She will join Integra in April.”

“Seely has spent nearly the past three years as general counsel at Gates Industrial Corp. plc, a Denver-based transmission belt and industrial equipment manufacturer. Shortly after her late 2017 start at the company, which at the time was controlled by private equity firm The Blackstone Group LP, Seely helped with Gates’ initial public offering that raised nearly $732 million in January 2018.”

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“Regions Financial Corporation has hired Tara Plimpton as senior executive vice president and general counsel, succeeding Boots Gale,” reports Ben Maiden in Corporate Secretary’s Appointments.

“Gale is taking on a senior advisory role until his retirement later this year, according to the company. Before joining Regions in 2011, he was a founding partner of Maynard Cooper & Gale in Birmingham, Alabama.”

“Plimpton now reports directly to Regions president and CEO John Turner. Among other things, she leads the company’s legal, government affairs and corporate governance teams.”

“She previously spent 17 years with General Electric, where she was general counsel for a number of the company’s divisions. She most recently worked as vice president and general counsel for GE Global Operations, managing a team of more than 450 professionals in charge of key compliance, trade, IP labor and transactional support for GE.”

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“Former Wells Fargo & Co. general counsel C. Allen Parker Jr. took home outsized pay of more than $9.6 million last year thanks to his elevation to interim CEO,” reports Brian Baxter in Bloomberg Law’s Banking Law News.

“Parker’s compensation is all the more notable since Wells Fargo’s top in-house lawyer has rarely, if ever, been one of the highest-paid executives at the company, according to three former lawyers for the bank.”

“The bulk of Parker’s pay—approximately $8.3 million, including a $2 million grant of restricted stock—came from his service last year as Wells Fargo’s interim CEO from March through October, according to a 2019 proxy statement filed by the company March 16.”

“The proxy, which also revealed that the bank clawed back a $15 million stock award to former CEO Timothy Sloan, came less than a week after its hire of a new general counsel in Ellen Patterson, the soon-to-be former in-house legal chief at Toronto-Dominion Bank.”

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“Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) announced that Ellen Patterson will join the company as its senior executive vice president and general counsel, effective March 23, 2020. Reporting to CEO Charlie Scharf, Patterson will be responsible for all legal affairs at the company and will serve on the company’s Operating Committee,” reported in Yahoo Finance.

“Patterson joins Wells Fargo after more than seven years at TD Bank Group, where she most recently served as group head and general counsel responsible for leading the bank’s global Legal, Compliance, Anti-Money Laundering, Corporate Secretary, Global Security & Investigations, and Fraud Risk Management teams. Earlier, she served as general counsel for TD Bank’s U.S. banking operations. For the past two years, she has chaired TD Bank’s global Women in Leadership program, supporting programs and practices to advance the careers of a diverse group of female employees.”

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“The privately held, Herndon, Va.-based company, founded in 2015, announced Wednesday its addition of executive vice president and general counsel Dennis Burnett. Unlike other satellite operators that use pictures to geolocate, Hawkeye monitors commercial signals and radio frequencies to triangulate and track things for its clients,” reports Brian Baxter in Bloomberg Law’s Tech & Telecom Law News.

“If there’s a distress signal coming from a ship, we can locate that on the surface of the earth from space,” said Burnett, crediting Hawkeye’s three “sophisticated, desk-sized” satellites. “They’re one-tenth the cost of a big satellite, so that’s what’s attractive about them.”

“Burnett, who has 40 years of space law experience and has long been affiliated with the International Institute of Space Law, started his in-house legal career in the late 1970s at Communications Satellite Corp. He comes to Hawkeye after the company raised $70 million in an August 2019 fundraising round led by aerospace giant Airbus SE. Hawkeye’s former in-house legal chief, J. Alison Alfers, left in September after more than two years at the company to become general counsel at Cherwell Software LLC in Colorado.”

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“Higher education is facing a tsunami of litigation. In addition to the standard docket of lawsuits claiming that a university discriminated against applicants who were denied admission or that a faculty member was unfairly turned down for tenure, a wave of high-profile cases have resulted in universities offering large settlements or having multi-millon dollar verdicts returned against them,” reports Michael T. Nietzel in Forbes’ Education.

Thirty small “colleges reported they had hired someone to be General Counsel or to fill that role, but with a different title. In most cases, the position focused exclusively on legal representation, but in some institutions, the job was combined with additional responsibilities like Executive Director for Risk Management and Legal Affairs or Chief Policy Officer/General Counsel.”

“Smaller institutions may worry about the added costs of hiring a general counsel, but Coyle and Neal argue that going in-house ultimately results in substantial savings in contracted legal work. Because college general counsels often are able to resolve issues themselves, many proactively, they can be more conservative in their use of external counsel and the amount an institution spends on them.”

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“Nasdaq-listed Anika Therapeutics has hired David Colleran to fill the newly created position of executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at the company,” reports Ben Maiden in Corporate Secretary’s Appointments.

“Before joining Bedford, Massachusetts-based Anika, Colleran worked as senior vice president, general counsel, corporate secretary and chief compliance officer at medical device and drug delivery firm Insulet Corporation.”

“Before that, he was vice president and general counsel at Covidien, a manufacturer of medical devices and supplies that was acquired by Medtronic, and corporate counsel at Ocean Spray Cranberries. Colleran started his career at law firm Choate Hall & Stewart.”

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“NOVA Chemicals Corporation … announced Byron Romain will join the company as Vice President and General Counsel. In this role, he will be responsible for leading all operations of legal including in-house attorneys, external legal affairs, intellectual property rights, corporate and commercial matters, compliance and governance. Byron succeeds Bill Mitchell, who recently retired,” reports Jennifer Nanz in Yahoo Finance.

“Byron joins NOVA Chemicals from White & Case where he was a partner focused on the upstream and midstream sectors. He has extensive global industry experience in both private practice and as in-house counsel with companies including Marathon Oil and Mubadala Development Company.”

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“Two of the largest U.S. real estate companies have announced new top lawyers,” reports Brian Baxter in Bloomberg Law’s Corporate Law News.

“CoStar Group Inc., a real estate data and information provider, said Wednesday it was promoting deputy general counsel Jaye Campbell to general counsel and corporate secretary. CoStar deputy general counsel and assistant corporate secretary Jeannette Koonce is being promoted to chief compliance officer.”

“The two appointments mark the start of a new legal and compliance regime at CoStar, where the law department has been led since 2005 by general counsel Jonathan Coleman. A CoStar spokeswoman told Bloomberg Law that Coleman is leaving the company and would not be retiring but ‘looking toward new adventures which are yet to be determined.'”

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“Syracuse, New York-based Carrols Restaurant Group has appointed Markus Hartmann as vice president and general counsel, effective February 18. He succeeds Bill Myers, who will serve in a transitionary role for an unspecified period of time. Myers is retiring, according to a spokesperson,” reports Ben Maiden in CorporateSecretary’s Appointments.

“Hartmann was most recently vice president for technical compliance at Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America. During his time with the company, he was in charge of creating the technical compliance function in North America for Daimler’s passenger car and vans division.”

“He had previously been the North American general counsel for Sandoz, a division of Novartis, and had served as European and North American general counsel for UK-listed Reckitt Benckiser while living and working in the Netherlands.”

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“Oncopeptides AB (Nasdaq Stockholm: ONCO) announced … that Karolina Vilval has been appointed as General Counsel of Oncopeptides. Karolina has 15 years of experience from different positions at Swedish Orphan Biovitrum. Prior to joining Oncopeptides, she served as Associate Legal Director at Gilead Sciences Sweden AB for business area Oncology, HIV and Inflammation. She will be a member Oncopeptides’ Management Team,” reports Jakob Lindberg and Rein Piir in Cision PR Newswire’s News.

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“Bristol, Connecticut-based Barnes Group is promoting James Pelletier to become senior vice president, general counsel and secretary, effective April 1,” reports Ben Maiden in Corporate Secretary’s Appointments.

“In his new role, Pelletier will be the chief legal adviser to the company’s senior leadership team, chair and board of directors. He will also oversee and supervise all legal matters affecting the company, including general corporate matters, M&A, corporate governance and SEC compliance.”

“Pelletier joined Barnes Group in 2015 and is at present deputy general counsel for Barnes Group and segment general counsel for Barnes Aerospace. Before working at the company, he held a variety of positions at Pratt & Whitney and GE Aviation. Earlier in his career he worked in the office of the general counsel at the US Department of Commerce as an attorney adviser within the Bureau of Industry and Security, having previously been an associate with law firm Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe.”

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“Theme park operator Six Flags Entertainment Corporation has hired Laura Doerre as executive vice president and general counsel, effective March 9.” She succeeds retiring Lance Balk reports Ben Maiden in Corporate Secretary’ Appointments.

“According to an SEC filing, Doerre is joining the Grand Prairie, Texas-based company from door and window manufacturer JELD-WEN, where she has been executive vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer since September 2016.”

“Before joining JELD-WEN, Doerre worked at Nabors Industries from 1996 to August 2016, serving as vice president and general counsel from 2008 to August 2016. Prior to Nabors, she practiced commercial litigation with law firm Mayor Day Caldwell & Keeton.”

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