Jay S. Laifman says he’s excited at the opportunity to head the legal department at Reading International Inc., a Commerce, Calif.-based cinema exhibition and real estate company.

Laifman, who has two other attorneys in his team, is taking on his new role with a specific goal in mind: “I hope to provide the legal support the client wants, while being the company’s guardian of legal and reputational risk without ever having to say ‘no,’” he says.