US financial services firm Ascensus has named Phillip Gillespie as its chief legal officer, replacing Joe Dansky who announced plans to depart last year.

Gillespie joins from WilmerHale, where he was a senior counsel. At Ascensus, he will oversee all legal matters, as well as take on the chief risk and compliance officer roles. He will report directly to chair and CEO David Musto.

Newton, Massachusetts-based Ascensus provides tax-advantaged savings and retirement plans and has $863bn of assets under management.

Musto said: “Against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving legal, risk and regulatory environment for tax-advantaged savings, we are very pleased to have Phil join our team.”

He added: “With our strong growth trajectory requiring focus on technology, client experience and AI, Phil’s more than 30 years of experience as a general counsel and commercial business partner, in private practice and as a regulator, make him a perfect fit for the opportunities ahead.”

Gillespie arrives after five years at WilmerHale, which he joined from State Street Global Advisors, where he spent more than 10 years as GC. He also had in-house roles at Oppenheimer Funds (as deputy GC), Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (as first vice president for legal advisory) and Invesco US (as assistant GC).

Prior to those in-house roles, Gillespie spent four years as senior counsel at the US Securities and Exchange Commission and two years in private practice at Perkins Coie.

Dansky, meantime, leaves after 13 years with the company, having become CLO in 2021. Before that he worked at Crumb Group and the BISYS Group (both as associate GC) and at the Overseas Shipholding Group (as assistant GC). He previously worked in private practice at legacy firm Fulbright & Jaworski and legacy firm Rogers & Wells, which became part of Clifford Chance in 2000.

Dansky will remain on until early May to support the leadership transition, the company said.

In other recent in-house finance-related moves, earlier in February recently rebranded financial data firm Octus hired Megan Jones as GC from market data peer FactSet, while in November US payments business Discover Financial Services hired veteran in-house lawyer Kelly Welsh as interim CLO ahead of its $35bn mega-merger with Capital One.