“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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“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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“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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“Sovos Brands announced that Isobel Jones has joined the company as Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel. Ms. Jones brings extensive experience advising public and private companies and boards across a range of industries, most recently as the first in-house General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Sun Basket, an e-commerce startup.” was announced on Cision PR Newswire.

“Prior to Sun Basket, Ms. Jones was General Counsel at a number of food and beverage companies including Diamond Foods, Annie’s Homegrown, and Peet’s Coffee and Tea. She also served as Associate General Counsel of Del Monte Foods Company, where she specialized in securities compliance, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, and debt offerings.”

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Chad Mizelle J.D.’13 has been appointed to serve as acting General Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, just seven years after graduating from Cornell Law School, reports Meghana Srivastava in The Cornell Daily Sun.

“Mizelle graduated magna cum laude from Cornell Law School in 2013, where he was active in the Cornell Law Review, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also served as the Mock Trial team’s head coach during the 2012-13 season.”

“Within the past year, Mizelle has worn many legal hats within homeland security, serving as Deputy General Counsel, Chief of Staff and now acting General Counsel.”

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“Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. (“Carrols” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: TAST) announced that it has appointed Markus Hartmann as the Company’s Vice President and General Counsel effective February 18, 2020.” reports BusinessWire.

“Mr. Hartmann is a business-oriented legal leader with experience in both public and private companies. He has practiced law in both domestic and international settings. Markus is a driven executive with experience as both a commercial and legal leader, with a distinguished career spanning more than three decades.”

“Mr. Hartmann most recently was the Vice President for Technical Compliance at Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, Inc. (a Daimler Company) (XETR: DDAIF). During his tenure, he was responsible for establishing the technical compliance function in North America for Daimler’s passenger car and vans division. Mr. Hartmann previously served as the North American General Counsel for Sandoz, Inc. (a division of Novartis) (NYSE: NVS), as well as the European and North American General Counsel for Reckitt Benckiser (LSE:RB) while living and working as an expatriate in the Netherlands.”

Read the press release.

“Most lawyers have a general understanding of the “no-contact rule”  — with a few exceptions, you can’t communicate directly on the subject of the representation with someone you know is represented by counsel.  But where does in-house counsel fit in?  Is in-house counsel “fair game” for ex parte contact by opposing counsel?” asks Karen Rubin in Thompson Hine’s Communication.

“Last month, the Virginia Supreme Court approved Legal Ethics Opinion 1890, and answered “Yes,” in an opinion that also covered some other issues of concern to in-house counsel.”

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“A Houston-area attorney was arrested Tuesday after deputies accused him of bringing a loaded handgun into the Travis County Courthouse, court documents say.” reports Heather Osbourne of the Statesman.

“Lee Parker McMillian, 67, entered the courthouse at around 3 p.m. Tuesday and placed his bag on the conveyor belt to be screened by the X-ray scanner, according to an arrest affidavit filed by Travis County sheriff’s deputies.”

“A deputy operating the scanner said he saw the loaded handgun in the bag as it passed through the machine, the affidavit said. McMillian confirmed the bag belonged to him, deputies said.”

Read the Statesman’s article.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that an African American man serving a life term for a 1989 murder is entitle to a new trial says a federal appeals court. Ezzard Charles Ellis learned, “after his lawyer’s death, that the attorney was a racist who regularly expressed contempt for minority clients.”

“After San Bernardino attorney S. Donald Ames died in 1999, his daughter and others described incidents in which he used racial slurs to refer to nonwhites, particularly African Americans. ”

The “state attorney general’s office, which represented the prosecution in Ellis’ appeal, had agreed that the conviction should be reversed.”

Read the San Francisco Chronicle’s article.