Core Media Group has appointed Marisa Fermin to head up its business affairs department and act as its general counsel. Ms Fermin will report to executive chairman Dennis Miller at the New York based company. She joins from Twentieth Television, where she served as EVP of Business Affairs and Development as well as Legal/S&P Operations. Ms Fermin secured national cable rights for The Simpsons whilst at the company.  She also served as vice president of business affairs at Fox Broadcasting Company where, amongst other projects, she negotiated the American Idol launch deal.  She was also head of Fox’s litigation group and worked in private practice at law firms Rosenfeld Meyer & Susman and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

John Lewis Partnership general counsel Keith Hubber has left the company. He was appointed as general counsel and company secretary in February, 2015, joining from BG where he rose to be deputy general counsel. He replaced Margaret Casely-Hayford. He started out in the Royal Navy but left in 1990 for a career in law, joining Taylor Joynson Garrett, now Taylor Wessing.  

Maruti Suzuki India has appointed Manjaree Chowdhary at its gneral counsel. Ms Chowdhary has worked in the legal market for 20 years, both as in-house counsel and in private practice. She joins from GE Power where she was  general counsel providing support to the business in South Asia following the acquisition of Alstrom by GE and overseeing a team of 15. Prior to this she was general counsel to GE's South Asia healthcare division.  She was also vice president of legal affairs and compliaance at GE Plastics, now SABIC, for India and ANZ.

Lombard International Assurance has appointed Monica Risam as its European general counsel. She joins the wealth services planning company from Aviva UK Life where she was general counsel. Ms Risam will report into European chief executive Axel Horger. Prior to that, she  was general counsel for Aviva Group for just under three years and earlier at GE Capital, where she was general counsel for the company’s Working Capital Solutions business as well as UK general counsel. She joined the inhouse world from law firm Weil Gotshal & Manges. Bupa UK legal director Alison Gammon replaced her at Aviva UK Life.

Former Deutsche Bank global co-general counsel Christof von Dryander has re-joined Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton's Frankfurt office. He had served as global co-GC of the bank alongside Simon Dodds. Mr Von Dryander originally joined Cleary Gottlieb in 1982 and co-founded the firm’s first German office in Frankfurt in 1991, exiting for Deutsche Bank in 2012 to take up the position of general counsel for Germany and Central and Eastern Europe. Both Mr von Dryander and Simon Dodds were replaced by ex-Linklaters partner Florian Drinhausen who joined the bank in 2014.