The Top Ten In-House Counsel Moves of 2018 (So Far)
The hiring market for in-house attorneys has been pretty robust this year, with major companies including Starbucks, Merck and Adobe making big changes in their legal department leadership.
March 30, 2018 at 12:22 PM
4 minute read
Though it's only been around three months since New Year's Day, there's already been plenty of movement in the job market for in-house attorneys. From coast to coast and overseas, lawyers at major companies are coming and going at a pretty steady pace. Here's a look (in no particular order) at 10 of the biggest in-house moves of 2018 so far.
Xavier Dedullen, Ericsson. Can you hear him now? The new chief legal officer at Stockholm-based telecom Ericsson will be Xavier Dedullen. Dedullen, a former high-ranking lawyer at Verizon Communications Inc., replaces another notable lawyer, Nina Macpherson, who will be retiring after heading up legal affairs at Ericsson since 2011.
Antonious Porch, SoundCloud. Now making some noise at New York-based SoundCloud is Antonious Porch. The new GC of the world's largest music and audio platform has also hit the high notes with leadership roles in the legal departments at Shazam and Nickelodeon Group.
Rachel Gonzalez, Starbucks. Starbucks Corp has served up a Venti-sized legal hire in Rachel Gonzalez, who was named GC in March. She is heading over to Starbucks from airline tech company Sabre Corp. Lucy Lee Helm, who led the legal department at the Seattle-based company for five years, has become chief partner officer at Starbucks, a new role.
Tammy Albarran, Uber. She may not quite be Uber Technologies Inc.'s top lawyer, but it's hard to deny that the San Francisco-based company's hire of Covington & Burling partner Tammy Albarran as its deputy GC is an important pick for a company that is looking to engineer a turnaround. Albarran, who helped write the famous “Holder Report” on Uber, replaces Angela Padilla in the deputy GC role.
Jennifer Zachary, Merck. One of the many big corporate legal hires in 2018 was Jennifer Zachary as general counsel at Merck & Co. Zachary, who replaces Michael Holston at the Kenilworth, New Jersey-based company, will officially start work in April. She will join from Covington & Burling where she has been a partner in the food, drug and device practice group. Before Covington, she served as a high-ranking enforcer in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Michael Holston, General Electric. Likely making many other in-house counsel jealous with his leap from one Fortune 100 company to another is Michael Holston, who was named general counsel at General Electric in February after heading the legal department at Merck & Co. Holston replaces Alex Dimitrief, who will become president and CEO of Boston-based GE's Global Growth Organization.
Gloria Santona, McDonald's. After nearly four decades in the McDonald's Corp. law department, chief legal officer Gloria Santona is leaving the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company for a position at Baker McKenzie. It's not yet known yet who will step in to replace her, but the new CLO will certainly have big shoes to fill.
Michael Callahan, LinkedIn. Another notable legal department exit was announced back in February, as Sunnyvale, California-based LinkedIn Corp. shared that its general counsel, Michael Callahan, will be leaving to take the executive director position at Stanford's Rock Center for Corporate Governance. No replacement has yet been announced, but we're watching the professional social networking platform to see who's next.
Daniel Troy, GlaxoSmithKline. In another big pharma move, Daniel Troy announced in January that he'll be leaving British company GlaxoSmithKline. Troy has been with the company for nearly a decade, seeing it through numerous regulatory and legal challenges. Before joining GSK, Troy was with Sidley Austin. It's not clear where he'll land or who will replace him, though GSK has announced that the position will be filled in London, where the company is based, rather than in the U.S.
Michael Dillon, Adobe Systems. One of the first big GC personnel announcements of 2018 was from Michael Dillon of Adobe Systems Inc., who announced back in January that he's retiring. But don't make the mistake of thinking you'll find Dillon, who has headed the legal department for six years, just sitting around once his work there is done. He told Corporate Counsel that his so-called retirement will include publishing a book, biking and learning how to weld. The company has not yet announced Dillon's successor.
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