Around the house

President Barack Obama has nominated heads of legal for the Departments of Homeland Security (DoHS) and Energy (DoE) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). According to Corporate Counsel, Stevan Bunnell has been nominated as GC for the DoHS, after spending 17 years at the Department of Justice (DoJ) and serving as managing partner of O’Melveny & Myers’ Washington DC office. Most recently, he was Criminal Division chief at the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia for the DoJ.  Steven Croley is Obama’s pick for DoE general counsel, previously his deputy assistant and deputy counsel at the White House. Mr Croley has also been senior counsel and served on the White House Domestic Policy Council and is on leave as an associate dean at the University of Michigan Law School. The GC nomination for the NLRB went to Richard Griffin Jr after Obama’s original nomination of Lafe Solomon was withdrawn after inciting Republican opposition over a complaint against The Boeing Company whilst he was the three-year acting GC for the NLRB.  Mr Griffin has been a member of the NLRB since January 2012, and previously at the International Union of Operating Engineers from 1983 to 2012.

After 20 years at Penguin Books where she has been HR and legal director since 2006, Helena Peacock has been appointed as UK group legal director for the new book publishing company merger – Penguin Random House. Ms Peacock will lead the legal and contracts team in the UK, Asia-Pacific, India and South Africa which consists of 13 legal staff and 24 focused on contracts. Winning the libel trial brought against Penguin in 2000 by historian David Irving is one of the highlights of Ms Peacock’s time in Penguin.

Erie Indemnity Company, based in Erie, Pennsylvania, has appointed Erie native the Honourable Sean J. McLaughlin as executive vice president, secretary and general counsel for the Erie Insurance Group, effective from August 26th. Mr McLaughlin succeeds retired James Tanous. Previously, he was chief district judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, first appointed in 1994 by President Bill Clinton. Before joining the bench he specialised in civil litigation at Knox McLaughlin Gornall & Sennett.

Seattle-based online real estate database Zillow has promoted its own general counsel to the role of the company’s first Chief Operating Officer, HousingWire reports. Kathleen Philips joined Zillow in 2010 and was a key player in the company’s initial public offer in 2011. In addition to leading the new San Francisco office, she is also responsible for Zillow’s M&A activities, which have seen six acquisitions in fewer than two years.

Jonathan Endman has been appointed general counsel of Account Control Technology, Inc. (ACT), a US debt recovery, debt management and collections solutions company. Mr Endman has over ten years of litigation and arbitration experience and will serve as ACT’s attorney at law and leader of the Compliance Department. Previously, Mr Endman worked in a number of law firms in the Los Angeles area.

Steve McKenna has been named general counsel for Cambium Networks, the US wireless broadband and backhaul network solutions provider. Previously, he served as vice president and general counsel at internationally operating telecoms company Telmar Network Technology, and has also been a commercial litigator in a law firm, founder and CEO of a successful technology company and partner at an intellectual property firm.

Former Yahoo! general counsel, executive vice president and secretary Michael Callahan has been busy since he recently joined Auction.com – the world’s largest real estate market place – as the company’s executive vice president, general counsel and secretary. According to Who’s Who Legal Mr Callahan has already appointed vice presidents and deputy general counsels Mindy Heppberger and Eugene Lao to the Auction.com legal team, who both held the same positions previously at Yahoo!