The Major League Baseball Players Association recently announced two promotions within the legal department. Now leading the legal department as general counsel of the association, often referred to as one of strongest unions in the United States, is veteran labor lawyer Ian Penny.

Penny joined the MLBPA in 2010 as a senior labor attorney and has been involved with everything from enforcement of player rights to collective bargaining negotiations in 2011 and 2016, according to the June 30 announcement of his new role. As senior labor counsel, Penny took home over $600,000 in total compensation last year, Corporate Counsel's sibling publication The American Lawyer reported.

Before joining the MLBPA, Penny spent 10 years at the National Hockey League Players Association, which included two years as general counsel, a role he assumed after then-executive director and general counsel Ted Saskin was fired for hacking email accounts of players and union employees.