Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. named a new general counsel Tuesday.

Jennifer Zachary, currently still a partner in Covington & Burling's food, drug, and device practice group, will step in as the top lawyer for the Kenilworth, New Jersey-headquartered company on April 16.

Zachary succeeds Michael Holston, who is taking the helm of General Electric's legal department next month.

“We are delighted to welcome Jennifer as our new general counsel,” Merck Chairman and CEO Kenneth Frazier said in Tuesday's announcement. “Her extensive experience across the biopharmaceutical industry makes her an exceptional addition to our team.”

In her new role, Zachary will be responsible for leading Merck's global legal, security and aviation,  environmental, health and safety organizations, according to the announcement. She also will serve on Merck's executive committee, it added.

The legal department, as of 2015, included about 200 in-house lawyers, according to an interview with Holston. Seventy of those attorneys work outside the United States, according to an October 2017 profile of the department published after it was named in-house legal team of the year at the annual TrustLaw Awards ceremony, which recognizes outstanding pro bono work.

One of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, Merck earned more than $40 billion in revenue last year, up 1 percent from 2016.

“I'm honored and excited to have the opportunity to join Merck's Executive Committee,” Zachary said in the hiring announcement. “I have long admired Merck for its steadfast commitment to its core values and I look forward to contributing to the company's long-term success.”

Zachary declined to comment for this report, and a Merck representative declined to comment beyond the news release.

Although Merck is Zachary's first in-house gig, she has extensive government experience. After a one-year judicial clerkship at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, she served as a federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., according to her LinkedIn profile.

Zachary was associate chief counsel for enforcement in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Chief Counsel from 2005 to 2011.

During her time at the agency, Zachary was involved in high-profile litigation involving an FDA regulation that bans the interstate shipment of raw milk under the Public Health Service Act.  

Zachary joined Covington as an associate in early 2011 and made partner in the fall of 2013, according to LinkedIn. During her time there, she has served as counsel of record for Ben Venue Laboratories Inc. (a subsidiary of Boehringer Ingelheim that ceased production in 2013), McNeil Consumer Healthcare (a Johnson & Johnson company) and several individual defendants on FDA consent decrees concerning alleged marketing and other violations, according to her online firm bio on Wednesday.

She also represented Gilead Sciences in federal Freedom of Information Act litigation in California and Connecticut to prevent release of proprietary information concerning its HIV-prevention and hepatitis C drug products.

“Although we are losing a tremendous lawyer and wonderful colleague, we are extremely proud that Jennifer will assume this leadership role with one of the firm's most important clients,” Timothy Hester, Covington's chairman, said in an statement. “We appreciate her many contributions to our firm and to our clients, and we know she will do great things at Merck.”

Another Covington partner, Tammy Albarran, was named deputy general counsel at Uber Technologies Inc. on Tuesday, replacing Angela Padilla.