The John Lewis Partnership has appointed a new partnership secretary to replace the role of general counsel and company secretary. Michael Herlihy will join the retail giant as partnership secretary on 16 April. He joins from Smiths Group where he was general counsel for 10 years. Mr Herlihy was previously general counsel and executive vice president, mergers & acquisitions, at Imperial Chemical Industries  overseeing well over one hundred acquisitions and disposals (both public and private market) with a total value in excess of £13 billion. He also led the successful resolution of a number of major lawsuits in both the UK and US; was nominated for the group’s crisis management committee and took executive team responsibility within the ICI Executive team for the development of the group’s ethics and sustainability policies.Prior to his appointment as general counsel in 1996, he held a number of other senior legal and financial roles. Before joining ICI in 1979 he worked in a number of other legal and financial roles in industry and the public sector.

Odeon Cinemas Group has appointed Chris Thomas as its new head of legal. Mr Thomas joins from Weetabix where he was general counsel and company secretary for three years. Prior to that, he was head lawyer at global IT consulting company Ciber Inc and before that, director of legal for Western Europe and Asia at Iron Mountain. He also worked as legal counsel at Compass Group UK & Ireland and was a lawyer at Wragge & Co and Eversheds.  

Dr Michael Josef Lappe has been appointed as general counsel at Deutsche Börse AG from 1 March. He is currently working as a lawyer in the consulting and transaction business and as senior counsel with international legal consulting firms. Until 2012, he was corporate and M&A partner with a focus on the financial services industry among others for more than 20 years and long-time senior partner at the international law firm Linklaters, which included stints in London, Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich. There, he was a leading corporate and M&A expert with a focus on the financial services industry. Dr Lappe will be replacing Dr Roger Müller who is leaving Deutsche Börse Group by mutual agreement at the end of February 2018. A statement said that Dr Müller was leaving to fulfil his wish to change direction to new technologies and services. Dr Müller has held the position of general counsel since April 2003. Prior to this, he held various positions at several major banks and a renowned law firm.

Banc of California has announced the retirement of John Grosvenor as general counsel on 15 April 2018 and the appointment of Angelee Harris as his successor. Mr Grosvenor will continue to be employed as general counsel emeritus after that date to serve as special counsel to the board of directors in connection with certain legacy matters and to assist in the transition of his responsibilities. Ms Harris has served as executive vice president and deputy general counsel of Banc of California since 2013. Before joining Banc of California, Ms Harris was a corporate and securities lawyer in private practice with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips from 1999 until 2005, served as executive vice president and general counsel of Placer Sierra Bancshares and Placer Sierra Bank from 2005 until 2007, and returned to private practice with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips from 2007 until joining Banc of California.  Additionally, the Company announced the promotion of Rachel Fisher to succeed Mr Grosvenor as corporate secretary.  Ms Fisher, who will report to Ms Harris, has most recently served as the company's vice president of corporate affairs, responsible for overseeing the company's corporate secretarial function since 2014. Ms Fisher, who has been employed by the company since 2002 in a variety of roles of increasing responsibilities within the areas of operations and compliance, joined the company's legal department in 2012.

Ophthalmic pharmaceutical company Aerie Pharmaceuticals has appointed John LaRocca as general counsel. Mr LaRocca was previously executive vice president and general counsel at Eagle Pharmaceuticals. He will report to Vicente Anido, Aerie’s chairman and chief executive officer.