Twitter has appointed a former Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati associate as its new general counsel as current postholder Alexander Macgillivray steps down.

Vijaya Gadde was a corporate senior director and associate general counsel at networking equipment company Juniper Networks before she took up a role as legal director at Twitter in 2011. She left Wilson Sonsini in 2010.

Macgillivray joined Twitter in 2009 from Google, where he was deputy general counsel of product and intellectual property.

During his time at Twitter Macgillivray has championed free speech and handled increasing scrutiny on issues regarding social media policy and data privacy.

In the past two years Macgillivray's legal team fought court orders to release details concerning Wikileaks supporters and Occupy protesters. He was also called before MPs in the UK to confront claims concerning the role Twitter played in the London riots.

Macgillivray, who has known Gadde for 14 years, wrote in his blog: "I am proud to have worked with colleagues who defend and respect the user's voice; who push freedom of expression and transparency; and who innovate and lead."

Gadde has promised to "continue to defend [Twitter] users from around the world".

Last November Twitter appointed former Google deputy general counsel Nicole Wong to a director role, alongside former Google associate litigation counsel Amy Keating, who joined the micro-blogging site as litigation counsel.

Wong had worked from at Google from 2004 to 2011 and was previously a partner at US firm Perkins Coie.