US luxury cosmetics group The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) has hired Rashida La Lande as general counsel, replacing Deirdre Stanley who stepped down earlier this year.

La Lande joins from US food giant KraftHeinz, where she was also GC. At ELC she will be responsible for overseeing the group’s global legal operations – including compliance, risk mitigation, governance and transactions work – and providing strategic advice to the board on all legal matters. 

She will also oversee its global privacy office and security team. La Lande will take up her new role on 19 August and report jointly to executive chairman William Lauder and CEO and president Fabrizio Freda.

New York-based ELC owns luxury and prestige fragrance, makeup and skincare brands including Estée Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, Tom Ford and La Mer.

Lauder said: “Rashida’s impressive experience acting as a key strategic partner to executive leadership teams and boards coupled with her sound judgement advising a publicly traded, values-driven business on legal matters makes her ideally suited for this role.”

La Lande spent just over six and a half years at KraftHeinz, having joined from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher where she worked for close to two decades, 11 years of them as partner. She started her legal career at Chadbourne & Parke.

Freda said: “Rashida’s extensive experience managing legal matters across a diverse portfolio of iconic and new brands for one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world makes her uniquely qualified for this role.

“Working closely with our board of directors, William and me, Rashida will be a critical partner in driving ELC’s strategy for long-term sustainable, profitable growth, and bringing our brands and company to the next level.”

Stanley, meantime, departed at the start of April after just over four and a half years with the company, having joined after more than 11 years as GC at Thomson Reuters and close to six with its predecessor company The Thomson Corporation.

At the time of her announced departure, Lauder said: “Deirdre is a highly sought-after mentor, collaborative colleague and respected advisor, and has elevated our work around the world, cultivating talent within both the legal function as well as across our organisation.”

In April last year, Estée Lauder completed its largest-ever deal, the $2.8bn acquisition of luxury fashion brand Tom Ford. 

A Paul Weiss team led by corporate partners Krishna Veeraraghavan and Laura Turano advised Estée Lauder on the deal. The New York firm's IP team secured IP Team of the Year at this year's Luxury Law Awards, which were hosted by GLP, for their role on the deal, which involved negotiating licensing agreements with two of Tom Ford's partners: Ermenegildo Zegna – for fashion and accessories – and Marcolin Group - for eyewear.

In other recent in-house luxury moves, luxury bathroom and kitchen fittings business Kohler this month hired Megan Belcher from Scoular as its chief legal officer, replacing Natalie Maciolek who left last year for Molson Coors. And in February, Neiman Marcus Group appointed interim CLO Tom Mattei as its permanent legal chief, replacing Hannah Kim who left to join Circana.