British Land has appointed its first ever general counsel, with HSBC deputy company secretary Elaine Williams taking the legal reigns at the FTSE 100 property developer. Ms Williams was a partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer during the 2000s, before joining HSBC in 2011. The Lawyer reports that the legal brief at British Land is currently looked after by finance director Lucinda Bell, who will hand over legal responsibilties to Williams when she joins in November.

Texas based investment bank Nexbank has hired Dierk Hohman as executive vice president and general counsel. Before joining NexBank, Mr Hohman was senior vice president and associate general counsel for Nationstar Mortgage. Mr Homan has worked at GE Capital and Bank of America during a 15 year financial services career.

In Singapore, law firm RHTLaw Taylor Wessing has hired Alvin Chen to be GC of legal and compliance. 'Mr Chen has worked as a lawyer in both the public and private sectors and was the chief legal officer and director of the Representation and Law Reform Department of the Law Society of Singapore,' Asian Legal Business has reported.

Global leader in silicones and advanced materials  Momentive has appointed John Moran as senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of the company, and its indirect subsidiary Momentive Performance Materials Inc.  In connection with the appointment, Stephen Psutka will resign as interim general counsel and secretary of the company and MPM and be named vice president and deputy general counsel. Prior to joining Momentive, Mr Moran was general counsel of  GrafTech International where his primary responsibilities included corporate governance, regulatory compliance, commercial and transactional matters and oversight of the legal and corporate secretary functions. He previously held senior legal positions at Corrpro Companies and Sealy Corporation.