Lennox International on Wednesday said longtime Chief Legal Officer John Torres is retiring and will pass the legal reins to VP and Deputy General Counsel Monica Brown in January.

Brown won't be jumping from the furnace into the frying plan, thanks to the Dallas-based HVAC manufacturer's decision to hire from within, bucking the trend of companies going outside for legal chief hires, believing that the job has grown so complicated and the consequences of making the wrong hire so dire that hiring someone who's never done the job before is overly risky.