Energy veteran lands at Frost Bank in Texas

San Antonio’s Frost Bank has appointed C.E. Rhodes to succeed James Waters as general counsel. Rhodes, who is currently the managing director and chief compliance officer of New Fortress Energy, will also join the Texas bank’s executive committee and serve as a group vice president and corporate secretary for its parent company, Cullen/Frost Bankers.

Phil Green, Frost chairman and chief executive officer, said: "We are fortunate to have C.E. Rhodes join our executive team. He's someone who is familiar with Frost's lines of business and its philosophies, and we welcome him to the Frost family."

Rhodes began his legal career as a commercial litigator at Haynes and Boone before he went on to spend more than a decade working in technology company Baker Hughes’ legal department, where he was a vice president and associate general counsel for global operations. He also served as corporate and global energy transactions senior counsel at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in Houston. 

Waters left Frost Bank after a three-year stint in the role for a similar position at KeyBank in Cleveland.   

GC for CCC

Copyright Clearance Center (CCC), a Massachusetts-based collective copyright licensing services company, has hired Catherine Zaller Rowland as general counsel. 

Rowland previously worked at the US Copyright Office, where she held a number of roles during her ten-year stint including senior counsel for policy and international affairs, senior advisor to the register of copyrights, and most recently associate register of copyrights and director of the office of public information and education in Washington DC. She has also worked in private practice as an associate at Arnold and Porter and Hogan & Hartson, where she focused on intellectual property litigation, transactions, and counseling. 

While at the Copyright Office, Rowland served as one of four principal legal advisors to the head of the office on a variety of complex matters, chaired the board that considers second appeals of registration decisions, and co-chaired the group responsible for updating the Compendium of US Copyright Office Practices. 

She also advised the office on issues involving domestic and international copyright law, policy and legislation. 

In conjunction with Rowland’s appointment, CCC appointed three new members to its board of directors, including Johannesburg-based copyright lawyer and licensing expert Nothando Migogo. 

Deloitte Legal nabs Thyssenkrupp’s long-standing legal leader

Deloitte Legal, the legal management consulting arm for Big Four audit firm Deloitte, has added Thyssenkrupp’s group general counsel, Arne Wittig, as a partner to its banking and finance team in Frankfurt. The German conglomerate’s chief compliance officer, Sebastian Lochen, has been named as Wittig’s replacement on an interim basis. 

Lochen, who has been with the company for ten years, took on his current role as chief compliance officer after his predecessor, Christoph Klahold, moved to German multinational insurance company Munich Re. 

Wittig arrived at Thyssenkrupp in 2012 after more than two decades working at Deutsche Bank, most recently as general counsel for the German and Central European regions. His addition to Deloitte’ European legal roster reflects the firm’s recent activity in the region, which has seen it enter alliances with two Italian independent firms, LabLaw and Munari Giudici Maniglio Panfili. The acquisitions broadened Deloitte Legal’s access to the Italian market across Milan, Rome, Naples, Padua, Bari, Pesara, and the northern port city of Genoa. 

Daily Harvest shakes things up with first-ever general counsel appointment 

Daily Harvest, a New York-based direct-to-consumer food delivery service, has appointed Adam Wegner as its first-ever general counsel. 

Wenger joins the company after six years as the top in-house lawyer for Optoro, a reverse logistics technology company that works with retailers and manufacturers to manage and resell their returned and excess merchandise. Before that, he spent a decade at Denver-based luxury vacation club Exclusive Resorts as general counsel and later executive vice president of strategy and corporate development. 

Founded in 2015, Daily Harvest has seen a steady increase in its business throughout the Covid-19 pandemic as demand for food delivery services skyrocketed as a result of stay-at-home orders being doled out across the US. The company specialises in delivering frozen organic produce, including soups and smoothies. 

According to Forbes, Daily Harvest’s success has led it to consider a potential initial public offering after reaching more than $250m in revenue to date. The company has reportedly been on the hunt for legal leadership since 2019, and first posted a job listing for the top job back in April. 

INX beefs up blockchain legal squad

INX, the owner of blockchain-based platforms for trading digital securities and cryptocurrencies, has signed on Jonathan Blattmachr as deputy general counsel. 

Prior to joining INX, which operates the first security token IPO cleared by US regulators, Blattmarch served as virtual currency chief and assistant deputy superintendent at the New York State Department of Financial Service in its research and innovation division. He also worked in private practice at BakerHostetler and Schulte Roth & Zable, 

Blattmachr’s new role will see him work alongside general counsel Cathy Yoon and oversee the company’s regulatory strategy and its operating subsidiaries and will allow it to ‘further establish itself as an operator of a trusted digital asset trading platform’, according to a statement.

Alan Silbert, CEO of INX in North America, said: "We are excited to have Jon join us and help guide us through the regulatory landscape of digital assets. His experience at NYDFS and in private practice will be critical as we establish ourselves as the preferred global hub for digital assets."

US Copyright Office GC arrives at Spotify

Leading music and podcasting streaming platform Spotify has recruited US Copyright Office general counsel Regan Smith to lead its public policy and government affairs. 

Smith joins Spotify in Washington DC following a six-year stint at the US Copyright Office, where she worked as general counsel and associate register of copyrights. She joined the office in 2014 as assistant general counsel, and was later promoted to associate general counsel and later deputy general counsel before taking on the top legal role in 2018. She has also worked in private practice at Loeb & Loeb and Kirkland & Ellis, where she focused on intellectual property litigation, transactions, and counseling. 

During her time at the Copyright Office, Smith spearheaded the multi-year implementation of the Music Modernisation Act, including the establishment of conditions for demand-side reporting, royalty payments, and framework for metadata exchange and transparency in the digital supply chain. She also played a role in multiple public proceedings spanning music, audio-visual, and registration issues, and helped formulate government opinion on every copyright litigation to reach the Supreme Court and multiple circuits during her tenure, according to her Linkedin profile. 

Kevin Amer took on Smith’s role as acting general counsel when she announced her move into the private sector in July, according to Bloomberg Law. No specific timeline has been set for finding her permanent replacement.

Citgo move

Houston’s Citgo Petroleum Corporation has appointed Mark Holstein as its new general counsel, eight months after he was named interim general counsel following the departure of incumbent Judith Colbert. 

Holstein will report directly to Jack Lynch, vice president of legal and government affairs,

Prior to joining Citgo, Holstein managed the insurance defence practice for Travelers Insurance and spent nearly three decades at BP America, where he worked in a number of legal roles including chief counsel for Deepwater Horizon Claims. His role at BP saw him work closely with Lynch as they helped the company respond to the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Carlos Jorda, president and CEO of Citgo, said: “Citgo holds itself to the highest standards of moral, legal and ethical behavior. Mark brings a wealth of experience and insight dealing with complex legal issues related to the energy industry, and we welcome him to this vitally important position at CITGO.”

Lynch took on the additional role of chief compliance and ethics officer in February with a brief to ramp up the Houston refiner’s compliance after a Miami executive admitted to handing out bribes to win contracts from Petroleos de Venezuela, Venezuela’s state-owned oil company.