The longtime general counsel of General Electric Co (GE) confirmed this week that he has returned to legal life as a partner at Goodwin Procter. The hire comes less than a year after Mr Denniston announced that he would be retiring from his place at the helm of GE’s large in-house legal department after 11 years as the company’s general counsel.

Top-tier GC

Mr Denniston was appointed to the GC role at GE in 2004, replacing in-house industry legend Benjamin Heineman Jr. He oversaw sweeping changes to the structure and function of GE’s legal department during his tenure at the top, significantly culling the number of outside firms hired by the company and streamlining internal processes with an emphasis on efficiency and speed. For both 2013 and 2014, he was ranked as highest paid general counsel of any public company in industry publication Corporate Counsel salary leaguetable. In 2015, Mr Denniston wrapped up his final year at GE with around $6m in take home pay.

Coming full circle

Mr Denniston will be joining Goodwin Procter’s office in Boston as a senior counsel. The move is in fact a loop back for Mr Denniston to the firm where he first began his legal career. He was recruited as a summer associate at Goodwin in 1972, and later took up a permanent associate position with the firm from 1974 until 1982. After a brief stint as chief of the major frauds unit at the US Attorney General’s office in Boston, Mr Denniston returned to Goodwin as a litigation partner between 1986 and 1993. ‘It’s like going back to school after summer vacation,’ said Mr Denniston of his return to law firm life in The American Lawyer.

Sources: Wall Street Journal; American Lawyer; Legal Week