GC Appointments
Citigroup Inc. appointed Rohan Weerasinghe as its general counsel and corporate secretary, effective June 1. He joins Citigroup after 35 years at Shearman & Sterling, where he has advised financial institutions on corporate governance, IPOs, complex transactions and debt issues. Weerasinghe replaces Michael Helfer, who will become Citigroup’s vice chairman.
John Ale joined Occidental Petroleum Corp. as vice president and general counsel. Most recently, Ale served as the partner leading the Houston office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where he focused on energy and infrastructure projects. Prior to joining Skadden, Ale was a partner at Vinson & Elkins.
Quaker Chemical Corp. named Robert Traub as general counsel and director of global corporate compliance. Traub has worked for Quaker since 2000, most recently serving as senior counsel. Prior to joining Quaker Chemical, he worked for Penske Truck Leasing and in private practice.
Electric utility company Energy Future Holdings (EFH) promoted two new general counsel: Stacey Doré at EFH, and Stephanie Zapata Moore at its subsidiary Luminant. Doré, who previously served as Luminant’s general counsel, joined EFH from Vinson & Elkins in 2008. Moore came to the company seven years ago from Gardere Wynn Sewell. Doré and Moore join Cecily Gooch, GC of subsidiary TXU Energy, on EFH’s all-woman general counsel team.
Phil Ragona joined iPayment, a credit and debit card payment processing service, as its general counsel and senior vice president. Ragona has more than 20 years of legal experience, most recently as senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of Atrium Corp. He also spent seven years with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker.
Other In-House Moves
Nicole Seligman, general counsel and executive vice president of Sony Corporation of America (SCA), will also assume the role of president on June 27th. In her new position, she will oversee SCA’s U.S. headquarters operations, including legal, finance, human resources, investor relations and communications. Seligman joined SCA from Williams & Connolly in 2001.
Law Firm News
Bobby Turnage, the former general counsel and vice president of Network Solutions, joined Venable as a partner. As a member of the firm’s cyber security and e-commerce practices, he will advise clients on contract compliance, domain name disputes, search engine advertising, data security and more. Before his time at Network Solutions, Turnage spent eight years as a prosecutor and defense lawyer in the U.S. Army Reserve’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps.
Fried Frank hired John Pisa-Relli as a corporate special counsel in its Washington D.C. office, where he will advise domestic and international clients on international trade and anticorruption. Pisa-Relli’s previous experience includes seven years as the in-house legal advisor for trade compliance at Thales USA Inc., and a stint as a senior international program liaison at the U.S. Treasury.
