The end of the year brought high-level departures for Tesla Inc., Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. and The Coca-Cola Co. as general counsel retired or were hired elsewhere.

Jonathan Chang, who became the third general counsel to leave Tesla within a year, began a new gig at an artificial intelligence startup. Allan Rauch, who had been at retailer Bed Bath and Beyond for 25 years, received the ax in a new CEO's board revamp. Bernhard Goepelt, a legal department mainstay at Coca-Cola since 1992, announced his retirement. Carla Christofferson, the chief legal officer of AECOM, left the infrastructure company. Gottlieb Keller will retire in March after serving as general counsel at pharmaceutical giant Roche for more than a decade.

Halliburton Co., Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. and InterDigital Inc. saw the opposite with naming new legal leaders ahead of 2020.

This marks the end of 2019 where several general counsel were tapped to be CEOs in what used to be a rare move with the top C-suite position typically going to nonlegal business executives.

As the year comes to a close, so does the frequency of top lawyer announcements, as the list below is smaller than in previous months.

AUTOMOTIVE

Jeff Wawrzyniak has joined Brake Parts Inc. as chief legal officer, according to the brake system components manufacturer.

Prior to joining McHenry, Illinois-based Brake Parts, Wawrzyniak served as chief legal, compliance and human resources officer and corporate secretary for Cardone Industries Inc. He also filled the roles of senior corporate counsel and compliance officer for Cooper Tire and Rubber Company; deputy general counsel and chief compliance officer for Affinia Group Inc.; and senior counsel and assistant compliance officer for Dana Corp. 

For law firms, his previous experience includes Seyfarth Shaw and William Montgomery & John in Chicago. He also worked a stint at the Cook County State's Attorney's office. 

Wawrzyniak earned a law degree from the University of Toledo College of Law and an MBA from Duke University.

FINANCE

OneMain Holdings Inc., the New York-based lending-exclusive financial company, announced Adam Rosman will become executive vice president and general counsel Jan. 2. The company's announcement also said Rosman will replace John Anderson, who will retire with stepping down at the beginning of 2020 and moving to a senior advisory role through mid-2020.

Rosman joins OneMain from Fiserv Inc., where he served as executive vice president, general counsel, previously for First Data before the company's merger. He also served as executive vice president and group general counsel for global insurer Willis Group Holdings. Earlier positions included assistant U.S. attorney and deputy staff secretary to President Bill Clinton.

He is a graduate of Stanford Law School, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The Beneficient Company Group L.P., which offers investors liquidity options for their alternative asset portfolios, said in a press release it hired James Silk as executive vice president and chief legal officer.

Silk joins Dallas-based Ben from Willkie Farr & Gallagher, where he was a partner in the asset management group in Washington, D.C. He has counseled many of the industry's public and private asset management firms including Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Ares Capital, KKR, Brookfield, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.

"I am thrilled to be joining Ben at such an exciting time for the company," said Silk. "Through my work with the company to date, it is clear Ben is building a unique and vital new market that will create liquidity in alternative assets for individual and small-to-mid-sized institutional investors like never before. I am looking forward to working with Brad and the Ben team as we continue to innovate in the alternative asset space."

He earned his law degree from St. John's University School of Law.

Principal Financial Group in Des Moines, Iowa announced Christopher Littlefield, former president and CEO of Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Holdings, will join the company as its new general counsel Jan. 13. After 38 years with Principal, current executive vice president, general counsel and secretary Karen Shaff had announced her plan to retire on July 1, 2020, according to the company's statement.

Shaff will serve as an adviser to Littlefield and hold the titles of executive vice president, chief legal officer and secretary until March 1, 2020, when Littlefield will assume the corporate secretary responsibilities along with oversight of government relations, community relations and the Principal Foundation.

He earned his law degree from the University of Iowa. 

Shaff joined Principal in 1982 as an attorney in the law department. She became general counsel in 1999 and the first female executive vice president of the company in 2004. In 2014, she became secretary to the Principal Board of Directors.

Benjamin McCulloch has been named as general counsel at XA Investments LLC in Chicago. He joined XAI in August as managing director and assistant general counsel. 

"I am excited to take on additional responsibility at an entrepreneurial firm like XAI where there is great momentum and energy," McCulloch said in the announcement. "I am very pleased to be an integral part of a team that is focused on helping individual investors access institutional-caliber alternative investments."

Prior to joining XAI Investments, McCulloch was an attorney in the investment management practice group at Drinker Biddle & Reath. Before the law firm, McCulloch was an in-house lawyer at First Trust Portfolios LP. He also served as the chief compliance officer of the complex's Canadian affiliate mutual funds.

McCulloch received his law degree from the University of Miami and his MBA from Dominican University.

FOUNDATION

Grace Farms Foundation appointed Alina Marquez Reynolds as the general counsel and Justice Initiative senior adviser.

Reynolds served as the U.S. Attorney's Office Violence Against Women Act coordinator and point of contact for Connecticut for 24 years. She is also a member of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence Fatality Review Task Force. Reynolds also served as a Department of Justice diversity ambassador. Previously, she was an assistant district attorney at the King's County District Attorney's Office in Brooklyn, New York.

"I am happy and excited to have joined such a dynamic and unique place that aligns with my experience and expertise in law enforcement and helping survivors of intimate partner violence," said Reynolds in the press release. "I look forward to working beside my colleagues to continue to enhance the Foundation's mission of doing good and being a catalyst for change."

Reynolds received her juris doctor from Boston College Law School.

GOVERNMENT

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board named Kenneth Lench general counsel. He will replace current acting general counsel John Cook in February, the nonprofit corporation said in a press release.

Lench is currently a partner in Kirkland & Ellis' government, regulatory, and internal investigations practice group. Prior to joining Kirkland in 2013, Lench served for more than 23 years in several positions at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. There, he last held the position of chief of the Structured and New Products Unit of the Division of Enforcement. Within the SEC's Enforcement Division, he has been an assistant director, assistant chief counsel, branch chief and senior counsel.  

"It is an honor to join the PCAOB and lead the Office of the General Counsel," said Lench in a media release. "The PCAOB plays an important role in advancing audit quality, and I look forward to working with the Board and dedicated staff to execute the organization's statutory mandate."

Lench earned his law degree from Boston University School of Law.

HEALTH

Phathom Pharmaceuticals Inc., a late clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing novel treatments for gastrointestinal diseases, named Larry Miller as general counsel and Joseph Hand as chief administrative officer in a statement.

Miller joins the Buffalo Grove, Illinois-based Phathom from Cyclerion Therapeutics, where he served as general counsel and secretary. Prior to Cyclerion, he served as senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of Blue Buffalo, mentioning the $8 billion acquisition by General Mills as a highlight. Miller has also served as chief counsel for Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, chief counsel for the Pfizer Established Products Business Unit, and general counsel of Enzon Pharmaceuticals. 

Miller holds a juris doctor from Columbia University School of Law.

Hand joins Phathom from Celgene Corp., where he most recently served as executive vice president of global human resources and corporate services. Prior to Celgene, he was a litigation attorney at Jones Day. 

Hand holds a juris doctor from New York University School of Law.

Martin Wilson will start as general counsel at Ichnos Sciences Inc. in Paramus, New Jersey.

Wilson joins Ichnos Sciences from Teligent Inc., where he served as general counsel for two years. He held more in-house positions at Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., Par Pharmaceutical and Schering-Plough Corp. 

"I'm looking forward to starting at Ichnos Sciences and contributing to the company's efforts to write a new chapter in healthcare," Wilson said in a press release. "As a member of the executive team, I plan to use my experience and knowledge to help Ichnos' efforts to bring new hope to patients."

He received his law degree from Villanova University School of Law.

CenCal Health, the publicly sponsored health plan for Medi-Cal in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties in California, named Karen Kim general legal counsel. 

According to CenCal Health's statement, Kim comes to CenCal Health from the Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Valencia, California, where she was the compliance officer and director of risk management. Prior to the hospital, Kim was with L.A. Care Health Plan in Los Angeles. 

Kim holds a juris doctor from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles and a Master of Public Hhealth degree in health policy from UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

INSURANCE

Bestow, the digital life insurance company which uses artificial intelligence and its platform to instantly underwrite, named Chris Laia general counsel. 

Prior to Bestow, according to the media release, Laia mainly served as the deputy general counsel and chief ethics and compliance officer for USAA, a family of companies that provides financial products to current and former members of the U.S. military and their families.

Laia has a juris doctor from Willamette University School of Law and a master of laws degree from Tulane University Law School, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

MANUFACTURING

Thermwood Corp. in Dale, Indiana, promoted Jennifer Watt to chief legal officer, secretary and vice president. She previously served as vice president and general counsel.

Prior to Thermwood, Watt was an associate with the Indianapolis law firm of Kroger, Gardis & Regas and the Chicago law firm of Leo & Weber, according to the machinery manufacturer's blog.

Watt earned her law degree from the Chicago-Kent College of Law at Illinois Institute of Technology.