Ana García Rodríguez is the new general counsel and global corporate secretary of Kutxabank, a financial institution based in the Basque autonomous region of Spain. She joins the Spanish bank's team from the Madrid office Baker McKenzie, where she was a partner in the firm. At Baker McKenzie, Garcia Rodríguez led the financial services and regulatory and insurance department for four years.

Another partner jumping in-house is Patricia Ryan, who joins HDI Global Insurance Company (HDI) as their new senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary from law firm Johnson & Bell. At Johnson & Bell, her practice focused on insurance regulatory, transactional and risk-management issues. Before that, she was executive vice president and general counsel of American Overseas Group, a Bermuda-based insurance holding company. Ms Ryan has succeeded David Neumeister who jumps back the other way. After 11 years with HDI, Mr Neumeister has returned to his former law firm Querrey & Harrow, where he had been head of the insurance law and appellate practice groups.

In Atlanta, BeltLine has appointed Aasia Mustakeem, a Smith Gambrell Real Estate Partner, as its new general counsel. In her new role, Ms Mustakeem succeeds Nina Hickson, who left the BeltLine last year to join a local firm of  attorneys. BeltLine is the organization behind Atlanta’s trendy and burgeoning multi-use trail.

Babcock & Wilcox has recruited its next general counsel from in-house. Robert McKinney has taken up the post of senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary. Mr McKinney joined the energy and environmental technology company in 2015 and has until this month worked as vice president, assistant general counsel and assistant corporate secretary. He has succeeded André Hall, who has been the company’s general counsel since July 2015. Although he has stepped down from the general counsel role, Mr Hall will serve as special adviser to McKinney during a transition period. Mr McKinney was previously vice president for human resources, deputy general counsel and assistant secretary at EnPro Industries.

Dr Roy Wang, who previously worked at Marvell Technology Group, has joined California-based artificial intelligence (AI) company Eightfold.ai as its first general counsel. He was Marvell’s associate general counsel, and previously a partner at Kirkland & Ellis. In addition to his legal experience, Dr Wang is an AI expert and has published more than a dozen peer-reviewed journal and conference papers on AI topics. Eightfold produces an AI-based ‘talent intelligence platform.’

General counsel Alex Feerst has joined Elon Musk's human brain-machine interface company. Mr Feerst, who was the general counsel of publishing platform Medium, has moved to Neuralink, a company developing tools to connect the human brain and computers founded by Tesla Inc ceo Elon Musk.

Andy McQueen of American Physician Partners, a medical management company, has been promoted from the position of chief legal officer to a business development role. Mr McQueen has been made the company’s first chief development officer, and is now responsible for the planning and execution of the company’s business development efforts including the acquisition of physician groups and partnerships with hospitals and health systems.

Another promotion is at Duke Energy, which has promoted its regional president to chief legal officer. Kodwo Ghartey-Tagoe, the South Carolina state president for Duke, takes up the post vacated by Julie Janson, the current chief legal officer, who is to become the president of the Carolinas.