The Menlo Park, California-based financial technology company Robinhood has named one of its board members and a former commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to be its next chief legal officer.

Daniel Gallagher will begin his role later this month and will be based in Washington, D.C. He will oversee all of the global legal functions including corporate counsel, regulatory counsel and product counsel. A spokesperson for the company declined to say how many attorneys make up the legal department at Robinhood.

"I look forward to doing my part to help Robinhood reach even greater heights in serving its customers. I will miss WilmerHale, but I know I will stay close to all of my friends there," Gallagher said in the blog post announcing his hiring.

Gallagher was not made available to comment beyond the press release.

Gallagher started his career at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in Washington, D.C., where he currently works as a partner and deputy chair of the securities department.

"We are delighted that Dan has this opportunity, and we are confident he will be an asset to Robinhood as he was at the SEC and Mylan before rejoining WilmerHale," Bob Novick, co-managing partner at Wilmer in Washington, D.C., said in an email to Corporate Counsel.

Gallagher has also worked at the SEC as counsel to the commissioner and was named commissioner of the agency in 2011 by President Barack Obama. Before rejoining Wilmer, he became chief legal officer at Mylan N.V. in 2017 after the drugmaker came under fire over hiking the price of its life-saving allergy auto-injector EpiPen.

Since November 2019, Gallagher has served as an independent board member at Robinhood. The company noted they will be looking for a replacement once Gallagher takes on his role as chief legal officer.

Gallagher will replace Anne Hoge, who has served as chief legal officer since November. The blog post states she will be leaving the company later this month to help with a sick family member.

"We've been incredibly fortunate to have Anne as part of our leadership team, and she will be working with Dan over the coming weeks to ensure a smooth transition period for the company and the legal organization," the company said in the blog post.