Around the house

GE has appointed  Alex Dimitrief to replace its high-profile general counsel Brackett Denniston who served for 12 years as general counsel. Mr Dimitrief, who has spent the last three years as general counsel of GE Capital overseeing a vast sell-down of assets focuses on its industrial business, will take up the general counsel role on 1 November. He joined GE Capital from Chicago law firm Kirkland & Ellis as as vice president for litigation and has acted as general counsel for GE Energy and GE Capital. He will now lead a 5,000 strong team of employees across legal, ethics, technology and compliance.

General Motors has made two apppointments in its legal team. Ann Cathcart Chaplin joins the company from law firm Fish & Richardson where she currently oversees the litigation group of 245 lawyers in 12 offices. At GM, she will become deputy general counsel for litigation. Jeffrey Taylor joins GM as its deputy general counsel for Federal Oversight.  Both Ms Cathcart Chaplin and  Mr Taylor will report to Craig Glidden, executive vice president and general counsel for General Motors.  Mr Taylor will work with the federal monitor appointed by the US Attorney’s Office as part of GM’s Deferred Prosecution Agreement to address policies and procedures related to recalls. Mr Taylor is currently the vice president and general counsel of Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems.  He has also served as an assistant US attorney, senior advisor to Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Alberto  Gonzales for fifteen years.

The Crown Estate is restructuring its business in a move which will see its general counsel and director of business operations, Vivienne King, leave the group. The role of general counsel and business operations is being split into two different areas. Ms King will depart in December and the Crown Estate will appoint a legal chief and company secretary, a new role where King’s successor will report directly to the chief executive. 

McGraw Hill Financial Inc  general counsel Lucy Fato has left the company after just over a year at the top. It has named David Goldenberg as acting general counsel. Ms Fato joined McGraw Hill having served at Davis Polk & Wardwell  and Marsh & McLennan. Whilst at McGraw Hill, Ms Fato was involved in negotiating a $77 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the attorneys general of New York and Massachusetts. S&P also agreed to pay $1.5 billion to resolve litigation alleging it knowingly issued rosy grades of risky mortgage bonds before the financial crisis of 2008.

Ford Motor ’s general counsel is retiring at the end of the year. David Leitch, who has been Ford’s general counsel since 2005,  will be replaced by Bradley Gayton who is also corporate secretary and assistant general counsel.