Around the house

HSBC is appointing two GC to head the litigation and regulatory enforcement team. They will both report up to the chief legal officer, Stuart Levey. The former Cleary Gottlieb partner Shawn Chen, a specialist in white collar defence and litigation is one of the new heads. The other is Guy Nielson, who has been with the bank for five years and who has served as its head of litigation for global banking and markets. Source: Wall St Journal

Shell has appointed a new legal director to take over from Peter Rees QC, the barrister who resigned in January.  Donny Ching took over with immediate effect this week. In theory there was a very short handover period between the two men but it appears that Mr Rees has not been working in the company in the last few weeks. Donny Ching has been promoted from the post of GC for the project and technology group. A Malaysian barrister, Mr Ching joined Shell in 1989, a year after qualifying. He has followed an international career, also working for the multi-national in Singapore, China and London. Source: Legal Week

Suzanne Rich Folsom has become the United Steel Corporation's new GC and senior vice president for government affairs.  Based at Pittsburgh in the companies' HQ, she started on 3 February. She was previously GC and chief compliance officer at the security solution provider ACADEMI, and she started off as a lawyer at Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft. Source: Who's Who Legal

The new GC at SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Charles Meng, started at the California-based company this week. After a 20-year period of experience in legal affairs and compliance, which spans multinational business and academia, he also takes on the role of vice president of compliance. Mr Meng was previously at the Novartis Group, Beijing. He was general legal counsel in the pharmaceuticals division there as well as being the chief compliance officer. Strengthening the Chinese expertise of the management team has been a priority for SciClone for the last few quarters. Source: Marketwatch

Another energy sector specialist GC has moved employer. On 1 February Edward Abels took over as GC and corporate secretary at PetroQuest Energy, an independent oil and gas explorer and developer. Previously he was GC at Texas Crude Energy. Before that he held roles in Statoil Gulf of Mexico, the Union Oil Company of California and KN Energy. Source: Compliance Week