Johnson Controls has named John Donofrio as executive vice president and general counsel. Mr Donofrio, who will also serve as a corporate officer, succeeds Judy Reinsdorf, who served in the general counsel role since September 2016, following the merger of Johnson Controls and Tyco. Mr Donofrio joins from Mars, where he served as vice president, secretary and general counsel. Prior to Mars, Donofrio held the general counsel and secretary role at the Shaw Group and Visteon.  Earlier, he was a partner and trial lawyer at Kirkland & Ellis and went in-house to become Honeywell's vice president intellectual property and deputy general counsel.  He later became vice president and general counsel of Honeywell's Aerospace division. He serves on the board of directors of FARO Technologies, where he is chairman of the nominating and governance committee.

Johnson Controls departing general counsel Judy Reinsdorf is leaving to be with her family in New Jersey, the company said. She served in the combined general counsel role since the merger with Tyco - she had been  executive vice president and general counsel of Tyco from 2007 to 2016 before the merger. The company said she would support Mr Donofrio through the transition period. 'We appreciate all of Judy's contributions to Johnson Controls and under her leadership, she built a strong, integrated law department, and fulfilled the commitment she made to me and the board of directors to see the company through the first year of transition following the merger,' said George Oliver, chairman and CEO.  I am grateful for Judy's support over the past year and for her dedication and steady hand as general counsel of Tyco for nine years during a period of strategic transformation of the company.' 

Cairn Oil & Gas has appointed Nitin Banerjee as general counsel of its vertical Vedanta. Mr Banerjee will be a member of Cairn Business Executive Committee (EXCO), the group legal council and play a key role in driving the overall legal vision and charter for the legal function across the Group. Mr Banerjee joins Cairn from Vodafone India, where he was senior vice president, legal transactions. Prior to his stint at Vodafone, Mr Banerjee worked with BG Group (now part of Royal Dutch Shell) both in India and the UK. In his last role at BG (Shell), he headed the legal and governance function for BG’s Indian operations. Mr Banerjee has previously been a partner at JSA’s energy practice and worked at Trilegal and PwC.

Biotechnology company Scynexis announced the appointment of Scott Sukenick as general counsel.  Mr Sukenick will be responsible for leading the company's corporate strategic and tactical legal initiatives, including intellectual property and compliance, reporting to president and CEO Marco Taglietti.  Mr Sukenick most recently worked at Cooley where he focused on life sciences litigation and strategic intellectual property management. Prior to that, he worked at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, where he primarily represented pharmaceutical and medical device companies in patent litigation. He started his career at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, where his practice focused on complex commercial litigation and intellectual property transactional matters. Mr Sukenick is a registered patent attorney. 

Combined Insurance has appointed Sadaf Siddiqui as senior vice president and general counsel. She joins from Chubb Canada, which she joined in 2012, supporting Chubb's legal operations throughout Canada, as well as Combined in Canada. At Combined Insurance Ms Siddiqui will provide regulatory and legal counsel to the company.