Around the house

The legal department head at the US’s financial services policeman is to move into the private sector, Washington announced several days ago. Mark Cahn is to bail out from the Securities and Exchange Commission after nearly two years in charge of its legal affairs and four years in total in the department. An SEC statement pointed out that Mr Cahn led the team during ‘a period of unprecedented enforcement and regulatory activity’. It went on to credit him with playing a crucial role in developing the commission’s rules for a whistleblower programme, as well as helping to draft rules following implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The commission statement did not provide details on whether Mr Cahn would be moving to private practice or to an in-house corporate team.

Stephanie Tsacoumis took over the top legal slot at America’s federal consumer watchdog this week, after leaving her general counsel role at one of the country’s leading universities. Ms Tsacoumis moved from Washington’s Georgetown University – where she had been in the senior legal position for the last three years -- to take the general counsel role at the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. Before joining Georgetown, she was a corporate partner at global law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, where she acted for government agencies, not-for-profit organisations as well as public and private companies in regulatory, advisory, corporate and transactional matters.

Connecticut-based financial services software designer SS&C Technologies Holdings appointed Paul Igoe as general counsel following the retirement of Stephen Whitman. Financial technology news web site Bobsguide reports that Mr Igoe moves to the company from a general counsel post at fellow Connecticut business, Lydall, and that prior to that he was associate general counsel at test equipment business Teradyne. Mr Igoe started his career in private practice at the predecessor to what is now Boston-based Wilmer Hale.

One of America’s biggest domestic passenger airlines is waving good-bye to its general counsel as Madeleine Johnson retires, reports the magazine Business Week. She joined Dallas-based Southwest Airlines four years ago after a career as the city’s attorney and as a Texas federal prosecutor. Ms Johnson is set to be replaced by Mark Shaw, the carrier’s current associate general counsel, who joined the airline 12 years ago from the law Akin Gump.