Q&A

From $30M to $1B: How LogMeIn GC Michael Donahue Guided His Legal Team Through Big Company Growth

Caroline Spiezio | June 18, 2018

Donahue has seen his company through an IPO and a major merger. He told Corporate Counsel how he's balanced it all and helped LogMeIn scale in a big way.

News

Who Is David Taylor? Meet the Theranos GC Who Just Became the Troubled Company's CEO

Caroline Spiezio | June 18, 2018

Taylor will have his work cut out for him, replacing former CEO Elizabeth Holmes at a company that has been stuck in a downward spiral of legal troubles and bad headlines.

News

Inspired by His Own Deal Career, a Veteran GC Writes Book on Contracts, Negotiations

Caroline Spiezio | June 14, 2018

The book draws from mistakes that Paul Swegle, a 10-time GC, has seen made in the contract drafting and negotiation process.

Q&A

From CLO to the President's Seat: Nokia's Maria Varsellona Is Living the In-House Dream

Caroline Spiezio | June 11, 2018

"I think that there are still some lawyers who believe that it's not your role to make decisions, or rather they believe you let the business decide. You give alternatives and explain risks, but you do not take responsibility for decisions. I have a totally different view," said Varsellona, who recently took on the role of president at Nokia Technologies.

Slideshow: Corporate Counsel’s 2018 Best Legal Departments

Heather Nevitt | June 06, 2018

Corporate Counsel’s editorial department is pleased to announce the honorees of our 2018 Best Legal Departments awards.

News

7-Eleven, Seyfarth Shaw Collaborate to Streamline Real Estate Portfolio

Dan Clark | June 01, 2018

With its real-estate portfolio expanding, senior counsel Kristen Cook realized that there needed to be a change, which led to a collaboration with Seyfarth Shaw that allowed for uniformity in how real estate for the convenience store chain is handled across the country.

News

Former Square GC Dana Wagner Named CLO of Impossible Foods

Caroline Spiezio | May 31, 2018

Wagner has taken on the chief legal officer position at the Redwood City, California-based company that uses plants to create food that tastes like meat and dairy products.

News

Lithium Business Adds First General Counsel

Dan Clark | May 31, 2018

The GC position for FMC Lithium is a new role that is part of the company's executive team.

News

Rising Vacation Management Company Hires First CLO

Dan Clark | May 30, 2018

A vacation rental management company based in Oregon announced the hiring of an experienced IPO attorney as its first chief legal officer on Wednesday.

News

Heather Russell Heads Back In-House as CLO of TransUnion

Caroline Spiezio | May 30, 2018

Russell, the former chief legal officer at Fifth Third Bank, is set to join the credit reporting agency as CLO on June 4 after a stint in private practice. She was ousted from Fifth Third in 2016 due to a romantic relationship the bank claimed was a conflict of interest.

Q&A

iCapital GC Jon Feigelson on His Move From Big Finance to Fintech

Caroline Spiezio | May 30, 2018

Feigelson, the GC of iCapital, says he's faced challenges unique to smaller, growing legal departments and taken on responsibilities in human resources since joining the company in October 2017.

News

European Billionaire's Investment Group Hires New GC

Dan Clark | May 29, 2018

Waypoint Capital Group, the business associated with the investments of the billionaire Bertarelli family, announced on May 22 that Ron Cami would take over as general counsel.

News

Bellicum Pharmaceuticals Announces New GC

Dan Clark | May 29, 2018

The Houston-based pharmaceutical company announced that Shane Ward will become the company’s general counsel and corporate secretary.

Video

GC Connie Chen Explains What’s Cooking in OpenTable’s Law Department

Caroline Spiezio | Jason Doiy | May 24, 2018

Corporate Counsel recently sat down with Chen to talk about her role at the San Francisco-based company and her career advice—plus her favorite foods.

News

LinkedIn Finds Its New General Counsel in Blake Lawit

Caroline Spiezio | May 24, 2018

Lawit, who has been working for the professional networking platform for eight years, has an impressive new title to add to his own LinkedIn profile.

News

Money Isn’t Everything for In-House Counsel, Report Says

Dan Clark | May 23, 2018

Only 26 percent of attorneys surveyed by Evers Legal believed that compensation was the most rewarding aspect of their work.

News

Workday GC Jim Shaughnessy Shares Focuses on Data Privacy, GDPR

Caroline Spiezio | May 23, 2018

Shaughnessy, who joined the cloud computing company in 2011, believes that it's possible for in-house counsel baffled by data privacy and GDPR to "get up to speed very quickly."

News

JetBlue GC Retires, Flies Off Into the Sunset With $1.2M

Stephanie Forshee | May 22, 2018

James Hnat revealed last week that he will leave JetBlue. But he won't depart the New York-based airline empty-handed.

News

AmEx's GC Laureen Seeger Opens Up About Diversity, Mentoring, and Pay Equity

Stephanie Forshee | May 22, 2018

In an interview with Corporate Counsel, the high-powered GC shared why diversity and inclusion are so important to her and what she and AmEx are doing to level the playing field.

News

Digital Wealth Management Firm Personal Capital Names First GC

Stephanie Forshee | May 21, 2018

"My experience helping technology companies grow and stay ahead of the increasingly complex legal and compliance matters as they scale will allow me to add value right from the start," said new general counsel Allison Amadia.

News

After 38 Years at Dow, GC Charles Kalil Announces Retirement

Caroline Spiezio | May 18, 2018

Associate General Counsel Amy Wilson will step in as general counsel-elect after Kalil's exit later this year.

News

Kate Logan Takes the Mic as Warner Music's New International General Counsel

Caroline Spiezio | May 18, 2018

Logan will be in charge of WMG's legal affairs around the world, including in North Africa and the Middle East, where the company recently added a new division.

News

Hispanic Bar Association Leaders Discuss Initiative to Increase Latino GC Numbers

Caroline Spiezio | May 17, 2018

"It’s time to create our own pipeline, set our own goals, and execute," said Angelita Hernandez, an in-house lawyer at Target who helped start the initiative.

Wabash National Names Melanie Margolin as New General Counsel

Dan Clark | May 17, 2018

"Wabash National’s leadership also includes the legal function as a proactive partner in the business, which is a great fit for my skills and work style," Margolin said.

Q&A

HUB International GC John Albright Says Legal Has 'Only Begun to Scratch the Surface' With AI

Dan Clark | May 16, 2018

Albright gave his take on how legal departments should go about purchasing AI and whether or not it's going to replace human lawyers.

News

Kickstarter Picks Former Tumblr Legal Boss as New GC

Stephanie Forshee | May 14, 2018

Mitchell replaces Michal Rosenn in the post of top lawyer at Kickstarter, the company that runs one of the most popular global crowdfunding platforms.

Jockey GC Talks Trump, Tariffs and Trade War Threats

Stephanie Forshee | May 10, 2018

"To put this in perspective, the current climate presents a significant threat and it is one of the bigger threats to the supply chain I’ve seen in my career," said Jockey's Mark Jaeger.

News

Hughes Hubbard Partner Named Top Lawyer at US Chamber of Commerce

Dan Clark | May 10, 2018

John Wood, who will start as the Chamber's legal boss in early June, has also been a U.S. attorney and worked as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

News

After 4 Months at City National Bank, Jared Wolff Becomes General Counsel

Caroline Spiezio | May 09, 2018

It hasn't taken very long for Wolff to take a step up at City National.

Ushering Legal Operations Into the Future: A Q&A With Reese Arrowsmith of Campbell Soup

Dan Clark | May 09, 2018

Arrowsmith, who also chairs the ACC's operations group, believes that sharing knowledge and stories of legal ops successes and failures will move the field forward.

News

Canadian Cannabis Company Aphria Announces New CLO

Caroline Spiezio | May 03, 2018

"What attracts me to this role the fact that the industry is so new, and the work [I'll] be doing is new, innovative and cutting edge," said Christelle Gedeon, the new CLO.

News

Former MetLife General Counsel to Be Top Lawyer at Freddie Mac

Dan Clark | April 30, 2018

Veteran in-house counsel Ricardo Anzaldua is next in line to take over the company's legal department.

News

How DHL's GC Mark Smolik Became More Than Just a Lawyer, But a Business Partner, Too

Caroline Spiezio | April 27, 2018

Many general counsel aspire to play bigger roles in the business. Here's how one GC pulled it off.

News

Top In-House Lawyers from Cisco, NetApp and HPE Say Legal Ops Rise Has Been Game Changer

Caroline Spiezio | April 26, 2018

At the final panel discussion at the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium's 2018 institute, in-house leaders got thoughtful about ops and how it's affected their lives.

News

In-House Leaders at Starbucks, Northwestern Mutual Share Diversity & Inclusion Tips

Caroline Spiezio | April 24, 2018

Lisa Kremer Brown of Starbucks, Lisa Brzycki of Northwestern Mutual and other legal department decision-makers shared their best diversity strategies at the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium's annual institute.

News

Margo Smith Leaves Apttus After 10 Months for Snowflake Computing

Stephanie Forshee | April 24, 2018

Smith replaces Barbara Walkowski in the CLO role at the cloud-based data warehousing company.

News

When it Comes to Diversity, Female GCs Want More Than Mere 'Tokenism' From Outside Firms

Caroline Spiezio | April 23, 2018

At the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium's annual institute in Las Vegas, top female in-house lawyers explained what they want from outside firms. To impress these powerful attorneys, it's clear law firms will need to practice what they preach on diversity.

News

What Peabody Energy’s GC Expects From Outside Counsel

Stephanie Forshee | April 20, 2018

Peabody’s chief legal officer Verona Dorch and one of her outside firm partners, Joe Glynias of Husch Blackwell, told Corporate Counsel how the firm made it on to the energy company's latest panel, and how they've used the opportunity to work together in new and interesting ways.

News

Former ClearSlide GC Olga Mack Joins Quantstamp as VP of Strategy

Caroline Spiezio | April 18, 2018

Mack, who was formerly in-house at ClearSlide and Zoosk, was going to take some time off, but then found a job that she couldn't turn down.

News

Microsoft, Cisco and 32 Other Companies Sign 'Cybersecurity Tech Accord' to Build Global Trust

Caroline Spiezio | April 17, 2018

"By putting ourselves out there in this way, it will result in civil society and other organizations looking for other ways to hold the industry to account, in an age where talk is cheap," Cisco GC Mark Chandler told Corporate Counsel on Tuesday.

News

U.S. Steel Finds Its New General Counsel in Duane Holloway

Stephanie Forshee | April 17, 2018

Holloway most recently led the legal department at Ascena Retail Group.

LA Dodgers GC Says Technology Has Created Major League Changes for Baseball's Lawyers

Caroline Spiezio | April 13, 2018

The veteran legal leader spoke on Friday at Berkeley Law about "America's Pastime" and how in-house lawyers' roles in the sport have evolved over the decades.

BitGo’s New CLO Compares Cryptocurrency to Hedge Funds

Stephanie Forshee | April 09, 2018

In a Q&A with Corporate Counsel, Shahla Ali of BitGo said that the regulatory situation for cryptocurrency reminds her of what hedge funds faced a decade or two ago.

News

Former Viacom GC Mike Fricklas Heads to Advance Publications

Stephanie Forshee | April 09, 2018

Fricklas, who left Viacom last year, will lead legal and governmental affairs for Advance, a New York-based company that “operates and invests in a broad range of media.”

Video

Salesforce GC Amy Weaver Advocates for More Than Just Her Company

Caroline Spiezio | April 06, 2018

Weaver is a top company voice on both legal matters and matters of social justice. She recently spoke with Corporate Counsel about her work.

News

Investigations Firm Nardello Hires Chief Legal Officer

Stephanie Forshee | April 05, 2018

Califano has a background in investigations, including in his most recent job as senior vice president and managing counsel at American Express.

News

Transportation Blockchain Platform DAV Hires New General Counsel

Stephanie Forshee | April 05, 2018

Tung Chan's varied in-house career has taken her from insurance, to an airline, to blockchain firms.

Q&A

Uber's Road to Recovery

Stephanie Forshee | April 02, 2018

Tony West, Uber's recently appointed CLO, told Corporate Counsel how he hopes to help get the troubled company back on track.

News

Doug Luftman Lands New GC Gig at Fintech Nomis Solutions

Stephanie Forshee | March 27, 2018

Luftman will serve as the first in-house lawyer at Nomis, which was founded in 2004 and has around 100 employees.

Profile

Facebook’s Paul Grewal No Stranger to Data Privacy Fights

Ross Todd | March 20, 2018

Paul Grewal, the Facebook in-house lawyer who has had the unenviable task of being the company's public voice addressing the Cambridge Analytica scandal, has a history of engaging with thorny privacy issues going back to his days on the federal bench in San Jose.