Several corporations and organizations are preparing for new in-house lawyers, come January, or they will be working to integrate fresh hires. Big names such as Walmart and Smithsonian, generative artificial intelligence innovators and more will ring in the new year with new legal department leadership.

Here are some of the big in-house moves announced in the past few weeks or those planned for early 2024:

• Walmart has tapped former WWE General Counsel Beth Collins to lead its regulatory and specialty legal function, reporting to CLO Rachel Brand. Collins is an experienced regulatory lawyer, having previously served as assistant attorney general for legal policy with the U.S. Justice Department. She was also previously with Caterpillar and Boeing as compliance chief and lead counsel, respectively.

According to Brand, Collins will specialize in health and wellness and financial services. She'll also work on labor and employment and antitrust matters.

• Truist Financial Corp. gains its newest CLO on Tuesday, with Scott Stengel succeeding Ellen Fitzsimmons. Stengel has served as general counsel of Ally Financial since 2016. Before then, he was general counsel for UMB Financial Corp. and partner at both King & Spalding and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. Fitzsimmons retires after six years at Truist.
• Hot on the heels of explosive growth in 2023, fintech innovators Koin and Marker Trax have made Mark Hemmerle their new CLO. The sister companies specialize in cashless payments for the gambling industry and launched a series of collaborations this year which have dramatically expanded their footprint. Marker Trax President Charlie Skinner said that "exceptional growth" made Hemmerle's appointment essential for future success.
• Hewlett Foundation, known for its charitable contributions to progressive causes, has named Elizabeth Peters as interim president, replacing departing president Larry Kramer until a permanent successor can be found. While Peters serves as president at the Foundation, deputy general counsel Kristy Bernard Tsadick will take over the legal department.
• Artificial intelligence unicorns Cerebras Systems and Glean Technologies have both named new legal executives following the meteoric rise of generative AI this year. Glean hired former aiXplain GC Victor Huang on Dec. 4, while Cerebras tapped Snapdocs lawyer Shirley Li earlier this month as well.
• Canadian investment firm Alberta Investment Management Corp. (AIMCo) has recruited Shelley Nixon as chief legal officer from Ausenco Engineering Canada, where she was president of global consulting. Search firm Caldwell assisted in the recruitment, which AIMCo said was geared toward finding a strategic hire to support future growth initiatives.

Health and Life Sciences Moves

• Optics and medical imaging pioneer Olympus announced earlier this month that Neil Boyden Tanner will join as top company lawyer on Jan. 8 and fully replace Global General Counsel Donna Miller on April 1 after a short transition period.

Tanner was most recently GC for finance, strategy and international markets at Cigna, which he first joined in late 2010. Miller retires from Olympus after seven years as global general counsel. She was appointed in the wake of a bribery scandal that saw Olympus pay $646 million in fines to U.S. authorities.

• Immunotherapy company Harpoon Therapeutics has appointed James Bucher as chief legal officer. He has significant life sciences experience, having most recently served as GC at Alder Biopharmaceuticals. He was also previously a partner at Shearman & Sterling.

Education and Nonprofit

• Longtime in-house lawyer Scott Rice will start his tenure as general counsel at the University of Illinois (U of I) System on Jan. 1. He will serve in an interim role until the U of I board of trustees finalizes its approval on Jan 18. Rice has been with the university system since 2005 and replaces Tom Bearrows, who served as U of I's top lawyer since 1997. Bearrows was the longest-ever serving general counsel at the university system and will retire at the end of the year.
• New Mexico State University (NMSU) has a new general counsel and chief legal affairs officer in Lisa Henderson. She joins from Oklahoma City Community College, where she served as associate general counsel. Henderson will also serve the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, which is housed at NMSU. She started on Dec. 15 and replaces Scott Field, who has served as interim general counsel for the past six months.
• The Smithsonian Institute will also gain a new legal chief. Jennifer Brosnahan McIntyre, currently chief counsel for strategy and policy at Boeing Defense Space and Security, will join the Institute on March 11. McIntyre will succeed Judith Leonard, who retired in March 2023, and Acting GC Farleigh Earhart, who was previously associate general counsel at the Institute.

Departures

Meanwhile, other organizations are facing departures without appointing new leaders.