Image by NY Photographic

A recent EY global survey of 1,058 senior legal practitioners around the world demonstrates the pressures that legal functions are currently under and how these may ultimately drive a change in operating models.

On its website the company describes the findings:

“In one of the most comprehensive surveys ever undertaken into the legal function, responses revealed that legal functions are having to balance an increase in demand against a squeeze on costs, while remaining compliant with a challenging and ever-changing regulatory environment. At the same time, they are struggling to capitalize on technological advances and are having difficulty attracting and utilizing talent resources.”

Read the survey results.

Fox Corp. has expanded the role of Fox Sports general counsel Claudia Teran, giving her the new title of executive vice president and corporate general counsel.

Deadline reports that Teran will continue to serve as Fox Sports general counsel. “In her sports role, Teran has played a key part in rights negotiations over the years, including major deals for NFL Thursday Night Football, Major League Baseball and the FIFA World Cup for both men and women,” according to Deadline‘s Dade Hayes.

Teran was a corporate transactional attorney before joining Fox.

Read the Deadline article.

The general counsel of a Minnesota think tank has been suspended for comments she made about Somali-Americans in a New York Times article, reports the Twin Cities Pioneer Press.

The article with the comments from Kim Crockett, vice president and general counsel of the conservative Center of the American Experiment, examined the resistance to refugee resettlement in St. Cloud.

The following day, the Golden Valley-based organization announced that Crockett had been placed on an unpaid 30-day disciplinary suspension and said in a statement that her comments do not reflect its “views and values.”

Read the Pioneer Press article.

The relationship between Microsoft Corp. and Integreon Inc. has grown dramatically since the software giant took a chance on the nascent alternative legal service industry a decade ago, but there’s disagreement about whether such a model will take off widely enough to truly disrupt law firms, reports Bloomberg Law.

“What started in 2009 as a seven-member group of Integreon lawyers and paralegals in North Dakota handling small, English-language procurement contracts for Microsoft has expanded to a team of more than 80 based in offices across the continents who review 20,000 contracts a year in 15 languages,” writes Bloomberg’s Roy Strom.

It’s still an open question whether enough corporate clients will push the envelope far enough to dramatically alter law firms’ business outlook, adds Strom.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

The 2019 In-House Counsel Compensation Report published by BarkerGilmore reveals that in-house counsel saw their income increase by an average of 4.4 percent.

The survey compares income from 2017 to 2018.

As in past years, women in-house counsel made less than their male counterparts — collecting just 85 percent as much on average.

Male general counsel in the study made an average of $630,000, compared to $537,000 for women GCs.

Download the report.

A Forbes commentary by contributor George Bradt discusses the implications of Fluor’s recent confirmation of its general counsel as CEO of the troubled company.

Carlos Hernandez was named interim CEO in early May after the former CEO resigned following disappointing quarterly results.

“While there’s no indication of improprieties, everything communicates,” Bradt writes. “The choice of a new CEO speaks volumes about the board’s direction. More often than not, the choice of a General Counsel suggests a defensive posture. We’ll see if that’s the case here.”

“They went with the lawyer. Hernandez’ success is going to be dependent on his ability to apply his governance and compliance skills to production management,” he adds.

Read the Forbes commentary.

Tim Johnson, general counsel of Houston-based Peak Completion Technologies, was devastated when the company’s found died in a plane crash, reports the Houston Chronicle.

But things got worse when “Johnson reviewed documents showing that founder Ray Hofman had been secretly siphoning off millions and millions of company dollars to pay for his ever more extravagant lifestyle, which included buying vintage military airplanes, a $250,000 pirate ship for his backyard and a fleet of Ferraris, Bentleys and Porsches,” according to the report.

Mark Curriden of the Texas Lawbook reports on the GC’s investigation and subsequent $20 million lawsuit alleging fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and gross negligence against Hofman’s estate and the accounting firms that looked the other way.

Read the Houston Chronicle article.

Orano USA announced the appointment of Michael Woods as its new general counsel, effective April 15, 2019.

Prior to joining Orano, Woods served as general counsel for Sol Systems, a solar energy finance and development firm based in Washington, DC; was a partner in the Energy and Corporate practice groups in the Washington, DC office of Kirkland & Ellis; and worked as an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Woods is admitted to the Bars of the District of Columbia and the State of Georgia. He earned his J.D. with honors (Order of the Coif) from Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia. At the University of Florida, Woods graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration, Finance, and with a B.A. in Spanish.

Woods is based at the Orano USA corporate office in Washington, DC.

Orano USA is a technology and services provider for used nuclear fuel management, decommissioning shutdown nuclear energy facilities, federal site cleanup and closure, and the sale of uranium, conversion, and enrichment services to the U.S. commercial and federal markets. Orano Med is developing targeted alpha therapy to fight cancer.

Anita Nicholson, in-house counsel at mining company Anglo American in Singapore, was killed along with her two children in an explosion at the Shangri La hotel in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, according to The Law Society Gazette.

Her husband Ben Nicholson, also a solicitor, survived the attack, one of at least seven terrorist attacks reported in churches and luxury hotels in the capital city of Colombo.

“Anita was a wonderful, perfect wife and a brilliant, loving and inspirational mother to our two wonderful children,” Ben Nicholson said in a statement.

The Law Society reported that Anita Jane Nicholson was admitted in 2000. Her LinkedIn profile states she was a regulatory and compliance managing counsel at Anglo American and previously held roles at BP and HM Treasury. She also had been a solicitor at international law firm DLA Piper in London.

Read the Gazette article.

Facebook announced that it’s bringing in a new general counsel as it tries to rebuild its image following a year filled with scandals, according to a CNBC report.

Jennifer Newstead, legal adviser to the U.S. State Department, is joining the company as its general counsel, replacing Colin Stretch, who said last year that he would be departing.

“Newstead brings some controversy with her,” writes CNBC’s Ari Levy. “As part of the George W. Bush administration in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Newstead helped draft the Patriot Act, which granted law enforcement agencies greater surveillance power over ordinary Americans.”

Read the CNBC article.

Bowling Green State University’s top lawyer was placed on leave Friday and will begin serving a 30-day jail sentence Monday after a Wood County judge found him to be in contempt of court while representing himself during his divorce hearings, according to The Toledo Blade.

The Blade‘s Allison Dunn explains:

Sean P. FitzGerald, 58, who is employed as the university’s general counsel and vice president, was sentenced by visiting Judge Stephen Yarbrough following a series of misbehavior incidents while representing himself in the Wood County Common Pleas Court Domestic Relations Division in the divorce from his wife, Margaret A. FitzGerald.

Read the Toledo Blade article.

SeaWorld Entertainment’s former associate general counsel, who was fired last October, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal charge of insider trading that allowed him to make nearly $65,000 from a stock sale last year, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

Paul B. Powers, 60, entered his plea before a U.S. district judge in Florida. Sentencing has not yet been determined, writes the Union-Tribune‘s Lori Weisberg.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said that it had also charged Powers with insider trading based on confidential information he received that SeaWorld’s revenue would be better than anticipated for the second quarter of 2018.

Read the Union-Tribune article.

During his five years as Halliburton’s top lawyer, Robb Voyles has won two cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, successfully concluded a nine-figure tax dispute with its former KBR subsidiary and convinced the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to end its investigation of the company without a fraud finding.

Mark Curriden of the Texas Lawbook, writing for the Houston Chronicle, profiles the chief legal officer, one of the most senior and respected executives at Halliburton and widely recognized as a leader of the legal profession.

Just three weeks ago, Voyles won what may have been his sweetest victory yet — and it involves the first case that brought Voyles to the attention of Halliburton executives, Curriden writes. Chief U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn of Dallas officially dismissed the final remnants of a nearly two-decade-old securities class-action lawsuit.

Read the Houston Chronicle article.

Image by firedoglakedotcom

Wells Fargo general counsel C. Allen Parker will take over as interim president and chief executive of the company after the abrupt departure of chief executive Tim Sloan on Thursday.

Sloan had spent more than two years trying without success to convince lawmakers and regulators that the embattled bank is no longer a threat to its customers, according to Renae Merle of The Washington Post.

“Sloan spent more than two years on an countrywide apology tour after Wells Fargo acknowledged a pattern of consumer abuses — from opening millions of fraudulent accounts on behalf of its customers without their consent to mistakenly foreclosing on hundreds of clients and repossessing the cars of thousands of others. Sloan’s pleas often failed to win over frustrated lawmakers,” Merle writes.

Read the Post article.

Morae Global and SimpleLegal will present a breakfast and a panel discussion offering a practical look at digital transformation in corporate legal departments.

The complimentary event will be Wednesday, April 3, 2019, 7:30-9 a.m. CDT, Wells Fargo Plaza, 1000 Louisiana Street, Ground Floor Auditorium, Houston, TX 77002.

Digital transformation has become a rallying cry for business and technology strategists, the sponsors said in a release. Unfortunately, only 19 percent of in-house legal teams are well positioned to support enterprise digital efforts (Gartner). This presents a great opportunity for legal departments to use new technologies to reduce operating costs, increase productivity, and deliver enhanced new services to their company and adhere to regulatory and compliance obligations.

The event will cover:

• The Way We Work – Rethinking workflows and ensuring that the right people are doing the right work.
• Transformative Use of Technology – Considering how to leverage digital technologies in transforming work, collaboration and business facilitation.
• Use of Data Analytics – How businesses can identify previously unknown correlations among data to better predict outcomes, optimize delivery, mitigate risk, and tailor solutions to consumer demands and expectations.
• Change Management and Adoption – Best practices on leveraging change management to assist in the successful digital transformation of the legal department.

The panel will consist of Russ Dempsey (AGC at AIG), Ben Chrisman (AGC at Gridliance) and Ryan Murphy (Director of Legal Operations at LyondellBasell).

Register for the event.

The Rockefeller Foundation announced that Maria Santos Valentin has been named general counsel and corporate secretary for the foundation.

Valentin joined the foundation from the Soros Economic Development Fund – part of the Open Society Foundations – where she served as secretary and general counsel. In her new role, Valentin will oversee and advise the foundation on a broad range of legal matters, the foundation said in a news release.

Valentin has worked with the Open Society Institute since its inception in 1998. During her tenure, she has structured and negotiated more than 40 innovative program-related investments around the world, primarily in Central and Eastern Europe, India, Africa and the Middle East, which totaled over $200 million. The investments focused on increasing financial inclusion around the world and improving the lives of smallholder farmers, refugees and migrants. Valentin also served as deputy general counsel for the Open Society Institute, also part of the Open Society Foundations.

“Maria brings a cogent combination of global legal experience and governance knowledge,” said Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, president of The Rockefeller Foundation. “Her experience structuring impact investments to have the maximum social outcome for poor and vulnerable communities will be an invaluable asset to The Rockefeller Foundation as we continue to identify opportunities to drive large-scale human impact through solutions in data, technology and innovative finance. I’m confident that Maria will be an exceptional advisor and am thrilled to welcome her to our leadership team.”

“I am delighted to be joining The Rockefeller Foundation as General Counsel,” said Valentin. “I look forward to using my experience to help the Foundation achieve deeper impact. It is a great privilege to be a part of an institution with such a deep and long history of generating and catalyzing positive social change, and to join Dr. Shah’s senior leadership team in achieving the Foundation’s new strategic vision in the U.S. and around the world.”

Prior to her work at the Soros Economic Development Fund, Valentin spent a decade working as an international corporate securities lawyer, first for Brown & Wood, based in the United States, and then Clifford Chance, based in the United Kingdom. In that capacity, Valentin worked on emerging market capital markets transactions in Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America. She is a graduate of Fordham University and received a J.D. from Yale Law School.

“Maria has been an instrumental player in the growth and development of the Open Society Foundations,” said Patrick Gaspard, president of the Open Society Foundations. “Her expertise and experience range far and wide – from the nitty gritty of philanthropic governance issues to the cutting-edge aspects of impact investing to advance social good. We are grateful for all that she has done to advance our work at Open Society, wish her every success in her exciting new opportunity as general counsel at Rockefeller, and look forward to continued partnership in the years to come.”

Valentin will assume her new role on April 29, 2019.

Above the Law has published the results of its 2019 Outside Counsel Rankings, based on surveys of in-house counsel at top companies.

Approximately 1,000 in-house lawyers — from nearly 500 companies and more than 40 cities — responded with evaluations of their outside law firms. The survey asked two questions: 1.) “Which law firms does your company engage for legal services?” and 2.) “Please indicate the highest level legal work for which your company will engage the particular firm(s).”

Responses led to the rankings, in which 50 firms were grouped in two tiers.

See Above the Law’s rankings.

Bonduelle Fresh Americas, formerly Ready Pac Foods, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bonduelle, announced the appointment of Monica Johnson, general counsel, to its Executive Committee, the business unit’s senior leadership team.

Johnson joined the company in October 2018 and was appointed to the senior leadership team in January. She is responsible for providing professional legal advice and representation for all legal, regulatory and government matters affecting the business. As part of her role, she also provides legal advice and support to Bonduelle Americas Long Life, the company’s North American canned and frozen business unit based in Canada, the company said in a release.

“Monica’s deep legal experience with a variety of industries, as well as her government affairs background, bring great diversity to the Bonduelle Fresh Americas leadership team,” said Bonduelle Fresh Americas CEO Mary Thompson. “The general counsel role is an important one for Bonduelle Fresh Americas and she has made a positive impact on many areas of the business in her short tenure here.”

The company said Johnson brings more than 15 years of legal experience to Bonduelle in a broad range of industries, including foodservice, technology, manufacturing and supply chain/logistics. Prior to joining Bonduelle, she was assistant general counsel and assistant corporate secretary at Ventura Foods, LLC, a privately held manufacturer and distributor of branded and private-label food products, including dressings, oils, sauces, dips, shortening, margarine, butter blends, mayonnaises, and flavor bases. Before Ventura Foods, Johnson was senior counsel at Western Digital, served as corporatecounsel of BAX Global and was an associate at the law firm Theodora Oringher and Yoka & Smith.

Johnson has government affairs experience as well, having served in the administrations of three California governors. Most recently she served for eight years on the California Board of Optometry as an appointee of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, as vice chair partnering with board members to protect the public and regulate the profession of optometry.

Bloomberg Law is reporting that Comcast has hired Thomas J. Reid, chair and managing partner of Davis Polk & Wardwell, as its newest general counsel.

Reid will succeed Arthur Block, who is retiring after 30 years at Comcast and two decades as its general counsel.

Reid began his career at Davis Polk in 1987 and has served as the law firm’s lead partner with Comcast for nearly four years, representing the company through numerous high profile transactions including its acquisition of the British satellite company Sky last year, according to Bloomberg’s Stephanie Russell-Kraft.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

CNN reports that Tesla’s general counsel is leaving the company after just two months on the job — the latest in a series of executive departures at Elon Musk’s electric car company.

The company quickly announced a replacement for Dane Butswinkas, who joined Tesla in December. He will return to his legal practice at Williams & Connolly in Washington. His replacement is Jonathan Chang, who previously served as Tesla’s vice president of legal. Chang has worked at Tesla for almost eight years.

Bloomberg is reporting that Butswinkas was hired in the wake of Musk’s run-in with U.S. securities regulators. Hours before announcement of the GC’s departure, the chief executive officer was sending tweets reminiscent of those that put him and the company in legal jeopardy last year, according to the Bloomberg report.

Read the CNN article.