William Perlstein will join BNY Mellon as its senior deputy general counsel. Reporting to Kevin McCarthy, BNY Mellon senior executive vice president and general counsel, Mr Perlstein will lead the Legal Department practice groups focused on government affairs, public policy and regulatory affairs, and the corporate services legal functions supporting M&A, IT, real estate, procurement and sourcing support, and cyber security. Mr Perlstein is a senior partner and former co-managing partner of WilmerHale, having spent nearly 40 years of his career there. 

A law professor and former senior national security official in the George W Bush administration looks set to be the next general counsel for the National Security Agency. Matthew Waxman, who campaigned for US detainees to be treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention when he was in charge of detainee policy, has been mooted for the job. Mr Wallman has been a professor at Columbia Law School since 2007.The chief legal adviser to the NSA director is a member of  the agency’s senior leadership team and is in charge of more than 100 lawyers giving legal advice on surveillance operations.

US collection and licensing group ASCAP has appointed Clara Kim as its new executive vice president and general counsel. The move comes after the appointment of previous general counsel Elizabeth Matthews as CEO of ASCAP earlier this year. Prior to ASCAP, Ms Kim served as EVP, business and legal affairs for National Geographic Channels US and International, where she was responsible for domestic and international businesses. Before that, she spent two years as general bounsel and co-founder of Multi-Verse Media, a producer of original television and digital programming content. She will be based in New York.

Wireless solutions provider Novatel Wireless announced the appointment of Lance Bridges to the position of senior vice president and general counsel, Mr Bridges will lead the global legal function across the company and its subsidiaries. Mr. Bridges brings over 25 years of experience in general business and corporate law matters, with a particular emphasis on mergers and acquisitions and financing transactions. He joins Novatel Wireless from Entropic Communications, a leading provider of semiconductor solutions for the connected home, where he served as senior vice president and general counsel from 2007 to 2015, overseeing the company's M&A activities, international legal affairs and strategic intellectual property organizations. Prior to joining Entropic, Mr  Bridges was a partner at Cooley LLP, serving as outside general counsel to venture backed private companies and publicly traded companies across multiple industries.

Consumer healthcare technology company Theranos has appointed Heather King as its general counsel. Ms King was a partner at the Washington DC office of Boies, Schiller & Flexner where she worked on a variety of litigation and public policy matters including corporate defense work and federal government response. She helped lead the successful litigation and public policy strategy and execution for The Bank of New York Mellon in its defense of a $22.5 billion claim filed by the Russian government in Russian court. She also assisted and advised clients including DuPont, Pioneer, the New York Yankees, CBS, C.V. Starr & Co., Goldman Sachs, Northwest Airlines, and Detroit International Bridge Company about issues related to litigation, the legislative process, federal government agencies and Congress, international treaties and antitrust. Before joining Boies, Schiller & Flexner, King served as Special Assistant and Policy Advisor to US senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and helped lead Senator Clinton’s campaigns.