Wells Fargo has named general counsel C Allen Parker as the interim ceo and president, effective immediately, as Tim Sloan plans to retire in June. Wells Fargo's fake-accounts scandal broke in September 2016, and the company insisted that insider Tim Sloan, who had come up primarily through commercial banking and untainted, proved unsuccessful at fixing the problems from the John Stumpf era. Mr Sloan officially retires June 30 but is stepping down as ceo immediately, leaving Wells’ Mr Parker as interim ceo until the firm decides on a permanent replacement.

CCR Group, the state-backed French re/insurer, has announced the appointment of Vincent Gros, who joins as general counsel, board secretary legal director and head of communication. Mr Gros joins with an extensive legal background, having worked for 15 years as general secretary at Societe Generale, managing several operations in France, the US and Japan.

Carolyn Frantz, who joined Microsoft in 2016 as associate general counsel for litigation, has left the tech giant to join law firm Orrick. At Microsoft, Ms Frantz was charged with handling global tax litigation, patent licensing litigation and international consumer litigation. According to Orrick, she most recently led Microsoft’s corporate legal group, which gave her oversight of legal work involving securities, compensation and benefits, real estate, procurement, treasury, accounting and finance, internal audit and other functions. At her new firm, Ms Frantz is senior counsel in Orrick’s US Supreme Court and appellate practice, based in Seattle.

Another company losing their general counsel to private practice is  BP. Law firm Vorys has announced Jeffrey (Jeff) Heller has joined the firm as counsel in the Houston office. Prior to joining Vorys, Mr Heller served as BP’s associate general counsel for labour and employment law as well as BP’s alternative energy businesses. He was an attorney at BP (and Amoco Corp.) for 28 years. He will join the firm’s labor and employment group.

New York based financial holding company CIT Group scooped its new general counsel from TIAA Bank, a diversified financial services company providing banking, mortgages, and investing services based in Jacksonville, Florida. James Hubbard joined the $48.5 billion-asset company, reporting to chairwoman and ceo Ellen Alemany. Stuart Alderoty had been CIT’s general counsel since October 2016, after working at HSBC North America in the same position. Mr Alderoty left CIT Group in January to become general counsel of Ripple, a San Francisco fintech involved in blockchain technologies. Mr Hubbard had been at the $37 billion-asset TIAA Bank and its predecessor company, EverBank Financial, since 2015.

Ingersoll Rand has promoted its industrial segment's top lawyer to be the company-wide general counsel. Evan Turtz, who joined the major global manufacturing company's legal department in 2004, succeeds Maria Green, who plans to retire in June. Mr Turtz takes the role as senior vice president and general counsel at Ingersoll-Rand, and is responsible for strategic leadership and oversight of the company’s legal and compliance efforts globally. Ms Green has served as senior vice president and general counsel since joining Ingersoll Rand four years ago.

STWC Holdings Inc, a Colorado-based cannabis consulting company, has announced it has hired a new general counsel to replace their previous top lawyer, who left to pursue other opportunities in the cannabis industry. An experienced attorney in the cannabis space, Jean Smith Gonnell takes the title of general counsel of STWC Holdings Inc.