Stamford, Connecticut.-based BestEx Research Group, a provider of algorithmic trading tools, has appointed former Goldman Sachs lawyer Paul Merolla as the five-year-old company's first general counsel.

Merolla brings more than four decades of legal experience to BestEx. He most recently spent 11 years as a partner at the Murphy & McGonigle law firm and nearly four years at the LeClairRyan law firm.

Merolla said the opportunity to help expand a rapidly growing firm both in terms of diversifying its client base and launching into new asset classes by serving as it first general counsel is what attracted him to BestEx Research.

"I admire BestEx Research's commitment to leading with research and innovation, as well as the vision of senior leadership to reduce trading costs with transparent, high-performance execution algorithms and measurement tools," he added.

Prior to his time in private practice, he served as executive vice president and general counsel at institutional broker Instinet Group. Before that, he was vice president and associate counsel at Goldman Sachs.

Earlier in his career, Merolla spent 10 years as senior counsel at Drexel Burnham Lambert Group and served as an associate attorney at Shearman & Sterling.

"As we continue to expand into new markets and asset classes, [Merolla's] regulatory and financial services expertise will be invaluable," Mittal said.