Corporate Counsel

12/07/2023

Volvo to Switch Gears in Legal with New General Counsel

Helen Hu is taking the legal reins of the automaker, succeeding Maria Hemberg, whom Hu calls her mentor.

12/07/2023

Senior Apple Attorney Who Traded on Inside Information Avoids Prison

Gene Levoff's attorney said he appreciated that New Jersey federal Judge William Martini tempered justice with mercy in imposing this sentence of probation.

12/07/2023

Seven Key Metrics to Evaluate Spend on Outside Counsel

Gartner experts have prepared seven example metrics that legal leaders can use to inform their external provider management and align it with their organization’s overall strategy. The following examples provide a framework for assessing needs and working with vendors and/or internal teams to buil...

12/07/2023

Gallup Taps Legal Department Alum to Fill General Counsel Vacancy

William Kruse is taking the legal reins of the polling and advisory firm as it harnesses the power of data analytics to help its clients solve their most vexing problems.

12/07/2023

Ex-JPMorgan Assistant GC Accused of NYC Affordable Housing Fraud Spree

Affordable housing is a scarce resource in this city, and it is intended for eligible New Yorkers in need, New York City Department of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber said.

12/07/2023

State AGs May Spoil the Party for Renegade Social Media Influencers

It was the FTC that garnered headlines earlier this year by updating its guidance for social media endorsements. But states are getting in on the enforcement action, emboldened by consumer protection laws on their books.

12/06/2023

Fast-Rising Music Label Promotes 'Game-Changer' to GC

Blake Brown-Grakal is taking the legal reins of 10K Projects, a startup that has won praise for discovering and promoting talent.

12/06/2023

Before joining Harvard, Lopez spent eight years in the New York office of O’Melveny & Myers, where she focused on commercial litigation as well as pro bono work. She started at Harvard as a staff attorney and become deputy general counsel in 2011.

Diane Lopez has helped guide the university through a broad range of matters, from its ties to convicted s*x offender Jeffrey Epstein to its...

12/06/2023

'Regulatory Tsunami' Eroding Legal Departments' Risk Preparedness

A survey released Wednesday found that chief legal officers and general counsel feel less prepared to handle all nine risk categories studied than they did a year earlier.

12/06/2023

When OpenAI released its chatbot ChatGPT on Nov. 30, 2022, legal technology, and even the legal industry as a whole, would never be the same—even if it didn’t realize it at the time. https://ow.ly/LB2h50QfNRK

12/06/2023

AHA credits Hatton with helping the group fend off a series of legal onslaughts against the Affordable Care Act, and for successfully challenging the Department of Health and Human Services’ 2018 decision to slash outpatient Medicare drug reimbursements to “340B” hospitals that serve low-income communities. That fight culminated in a unanimous Supreme Court decision in 2022 that restored $10.5 billion in cuts.

Melinda Hatton built a terrific track record during her 16 years as general counsel, AHA CEO Rick Pollack said.

12/06/2023

Vice Media has promoted Jason Guberman to general counsel. Guberman, who has been with Vice since 2018, is a former director of business affairs for ABC News and earlier gained in-house experience at British broadcaster ITV and the American media company Viacom.

Jason Guberman is sliding into the GC's seat as the company, now with slimmed-down ambitions, fights for profitability.

12/06/2023

Macy's Taps Retail Star to Helm Legal Department

The retail giant's incoming CEO, Tony Spring, said incoming legal chief Tracy Preston has a track record of aligning legal and risk mitigation approaches with business objectives and brand missions.

12/05/2023

Big Law's Flood Into Boomtown Nashville Tests Client Loyalties

Some clients are super loyal to their firms that they work with, sometimes blindingly so, said Joan MacLeod Heminway, a University of Tennessee law professor.

12/05/2023

'Diversity Champion' Recognized That Employer Needed a New Way of Hiring

Suzanne Rich Folsom's efforts to improve diversity at Philip Morris International amid a dramatic shift in strategy earned her Corporate Counsel's 2023 Champion of Diversity Award.

12/05/2023

After Bruising Year, Vice Media Picks Insider for GC Role

Jason Guberman is sliding into the GC's seat as the company, now with slimmed-down ambitions, fights for profitability.

12/05/2023

"If you are a general counsel, your next opening may present an opportunity to fist pound the table for department-wide salary evaluation. Should you choose to go down that politically difficult path, you can use intel from recruiters and compensation surveys to make the case."

The recent drama involving OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Microsoft caught my attention not only for the entertaining corporate governance drama…it also...

12/05/2023

Veteran GC of American Hospital Association Announces Retirement

AHA CEO Rick Pollack gushed that outgoing general counsel Melinda Mindy Hatton has a terrific track record and built a first-class legal team.

12/05/2023

Deitzah Raby was hired by AppliedVR just ahead of the launch of the product, which is called RelieVRx. Patients go through treatment for eight weeks, following guided therapy provided through virtual reality headsets.

She said one of her first big missions at the company was getting executive buy-in for her plans.

“It can be scary for a startup to have someone come in and put in place processes where they’re not used to having processes,” Raby said. “But AppliedVR was very much ready for that.”

I've built my career on being a solutions-oriented, practical business partner, said Deitzah Raby, general counsel of AppliedVR from July 2022 to...

12/04/2023

Harvard's Top Lawyer To Retire After Three Decades With University

Diane Lopez has helped guide the university through a broad range of matters, from its ties to convicted s*x offender Jeffrey Epstein to its ultimately unsuccessful fight to preserve affirmative action in college admissions.

12/04/2023

2024 to Upend the Salary Applecart

The recent drama involving OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Microsoft caught my attention not only for the entertaining corporate governance drama…it also got me thinking about compensation.

12/04/2023

Solo-GC-of-Year Helped Provider of VR-Based Pain Therapy Overcome Novel Challenges

I've built my career on being a solutions-oriented, practical business partner, said Deitzah Raby, general counsel of AppliedVR from July 2022 to September 2023. These were big wins, and it was exciting to be part of that.

12/04/2023

Tabitha Bailey's job disappeared with the completion of Avantax's $1.2 billion sale to Cetera Holdings.

Tabitha Bailey's run as legal chief proved short-lived, but she'll receive more than two years' worth of salary as she contemplates her next career...

12/04/2023

Michael Tang, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of Agilent, will succeed the retiring Sara Yang Bosco as CLO of St. Louis-based Emerson Electric Co.

I have been watching Emerson's incredible transformation in recent years, and I am energized to join the company at such a pivotal moment, said...

12/02/2023

Meta filed its lawsuit as the FTC is pursuing administrative claims that the company violated an order to stop misrepresenting its privacy practices. The agency has proposed that Meta be prohibited from profiting from young users’ data.

The lawsuit by Facebook's parent comes amid the Federal Trade Commission's administrative proceedings against the company.

12/02/2023

In-house observers say it’s highly unusual for a general counsel candidate to back out of a job acceptance, especially at a company as prominent as AIG, which ranks 76th in the Fortune 500 and has 50,000 employees.

Patricia Walsh had said in September that she was giving up the CLO post at a star startup to take the legal reins of the insurance giant. She and...

12/01/2023

Why It's Exciting to Be a Defense Attorney During Polarizing Times

In this week’s episode of Legal Speak, Orrick's Meghan Kelly and Bill Oxley discuss the most surprising findings from their national jury research project.

12/01/2023

FTC Struggles to Make Lasting Changes in Antitrust, Former Agency Chairs Say

The agency has signaled its “desire to make a sharp change” through rulemaking but has yet to make lasting alterations through Congress or the courts, said former acting FTC Chair Maureen Ohlhausen.

12/01/2023

3 Ways In-House Counsel Are Exploring Business Use Cases for Generative AI

At Axiom's webinar AI & Data Privacy: Emerging Trends for In-House Counsel, panelists discussed the on-the-ground use cases of generative AI for legal departments—and how they should be leveraged with the future of the technology in mind.

12/01/2023

Candidate Who Agreed to Become AIG Legal Chief Backs Out

Patricia Walsh had said in September that she was giving up the CLO post at a star startup to take the legal reins of the insurance giant. She and the company did not explain her about-face. The sudden change of plans by Walsh or AIG here is a real head-scratcher, said legal department consultant Ja...

12/01/2023

Retirement of Emerson Legal Chief Opens Door for Agilent GC

I have been watching Emerson's incredible transformation in recent years, and I am energized to join the company at such a pivotal moment, said Michael Tang, Emerson's incoming CLO.

12/01/2023

Legal Departments Embrace 'Digital Transformation'—but How Should They Define It?

We're not just digitizing, said Ironclad's Mary O'Carroll, a former director of legal ops at Google. We're actually trying to rethink how we work, and how the future of providing legal services should work.

11/30/2023

Michael Colosi joined Weight Watchers, now known as WW International, nine years ago following a 14-year run as general counsel of the fashion house Kenneth Cole.

Michael Colosi is departing the company as it dramatically retools itself, in part by purchasing a telehealth service that can prescribe Ozempic.

11/30/2023

Don Hunt has been with The Hartford since 2007. He succeeds David Robinson, who has been with the company since 2006 and has been legal chief eight years.

Don Hunt is taking the legal reins of the 213-year-old company.

11/30/2023

The survey representing companies from more than 15 industry segments found that 46% of companies planned to meet demand by increasing the workload on existing legal resources. The same percentage planned to increase the use of technology to drive efficiencies.

Despite the widely anticipated increase in demand for legal services, only 22% of in-house teams plan to increase their use of outside counsel to...

11/30/2023

“What the Mansfield Rule is meant to do is cause people to stop and think broadly about who is qualified, and to consider as diverse a group of humans as possible who are qualified to be promoted, or lead a committee, or present in front of the board.”

“Mansfield was built with the lens of inclusivity. There are no quotas or set-asides, and it's not exclusionary. There’s nothing that makes...

11/30/2023

Meta Sues FTC, Calling the Agency's In-House Trials Unconstitutional

The lawsuit by Facebook's parent comes amid the Federal Trade Commission's administrative proceedings against the company.

11/30/2023

According to Gartner, general counsel already are having a positive impact on board quality through director onboarding, education and evaluation, while giving comparatively less attention to sourcing and recruiting.

The study found that the single biggest factor in improving board effectiveness is increasing director quality and social dynamics, leading to a 53% rise in board effectiveness.

A new Gartner survey found general counsel tend to focus on director onboarding and education rather than on recruitment, even though many rank...

11/30/2023

Avantax CLO Gets $1.9 Million Golden Parachute After Cetera Merger

Tabitha Bailey's run as legal chief proved short-lived, but she'll receive more than two years of salary as she contemplates her next career move.

11/30/2023

2023: A Legal AI Odyssey

On the one-year anniversary of the public release of ChatGPT, we take a look back on a year of innovation and retrace the path generative AI blazed through the legal industry in 2023.