Wedbush Securities Inc. has hired Andrew Druch, a veteran in-house leader in the financial industry, as its first executive vice president and general counsel. 

Druch joins Wedbush Securities a month after the financial services firm paid more than $8.1 million to settle charges for allegedly mishandling pre-released American Depositary Receipts. The firm, which is a subsidiary of Wedbush Inc., is among 11 banks and brokers that have grappled lately with related charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Druch, who most recently served as general counsel of the Americas for DNB, Norway's largest financial services group, is working at Wedbush's headquarters in Los Angeles. In announcing his hiring Tuesday, the firm trumpeted Druch's “30 years of broad-reaching legal experience in securities and banking laws.

“Throughout his career he has played a pivotal role in building and mentoring legal and compliance departments to better serve companies' business lines,” Wedbush added in its news release.

A spokeswoman for Wedbush wrote in an email that the timing of Druch's hiring “has no connection” with the SEC action.

“He was in discussions with the firm well before that,” she added. 

Druch said in a written statement that he was joining Wedbush at a “great time … a time where the company is investing in its long-term growth. I'm thrilled to be in this new position for the firm, to provide legal guidance and perspective as we move forward.”

After graduating from Rutgers Law School, Druch spent the late 1980s and early 1990s as a lawyer for two major investment firms, Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., according to his LinkedIn profile. 

He left Lehman Brothers in 1995 and joined the ING Group, an Amsterdam-based banking and financial services corporation, as general counsel of the Americas. He went on to serve as GC of the Americas for Rabobank, another Dutch bank, before joining DNB in 2015.

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