A handful of prominent investment funds have made key changes to their in-house legal teams in January, with the start of a new year a perennially popular time for promotions and new hires.
Point72 Asset Management LP, the alternative investment firm controlled by billionaire New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, saw its deputy general counsel Jason Colombo this month take on the title of general counsel. Colombo will continue to report to Vincent Tortorella, a former federal prosecutor who initially was named chief surveillance officer a decade ago for Cohen’s Stamford, Conn.-based firm, formerly known as SAC Capital Advisors LLC.
Tortorella is general counsel and chief compliance officer for Point72, having taken on its top legal leadership post in early 2020. Colombo, a former Schulte Roth & Zabel associate, will continue overseeing legal matters for Point72’s core hedge fund business, the firm said. He joined Point72 in 2016 after spending four years at the Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Bloomberg News reported last year on Point72 expanding its operations and teams, a move that has led the firm to make some additions to bolster its in-house legal expertise.
Point72 recently elevated Adam Jablon to deputy general counsel, Gabrielle Sherwood to compliance officer and counsel, and Cody Friesz to associate general counsel, while hiring Shard Capital Ltd. legal counsel Oliver Knight in London this month as a regional assistant general counsel. Point72 received UK regulatory approval to operate in the country last year.
At least four other lawyers also joined Point72 last year, including former Citadel LLC deputy general counsel Harry Greenbaum, who took a similar Stamford-based position in November. Stephen Canna, a longtime deputy general counsel for tax at Point72, has spent the past three years as chief financial officer and treasurer of the Mets, a baseball team Cohen paid $2.4 billion to buy in 2020.
Cohen tapped several Point72 employees to serve double duty for the firm and the Mets after he acquired the team. The Mets have gradually moved to build out their own operation under Cohen’s stewardship, recruiting a new chief legal officer from the Texas Rangers in 2022.
Apollo
Elsewhere in the funds space, Apollo Global Management Inc. underwent a changing of its legal guard as of Jan. 1 when longtime chief legal officer John Suydam transitioned into a senior advisory and partner role at the New York-based private equity firm. Apollo disclosed in a securities filing last month that Suydam will receive $1 million in base salary in his new role.
Apollo gave Suydam a roughly $8.4 million pay package during 2022. Whitney Chatterjee, a former Sullivan & Cromwell partner hired last year as general counsel for Apollo’s asset management and retirement services businesses, took over this month from Suydam. Christian Weideman, Apollo’s former general counsel, earned nearly $5.8 million in that role last year. Weideman has since left Apollo to replace the retired Scott Hoffman in the top legal job at Lazard Ltd.
CVC Capital Partners
CVC Capital Partners Ltd., a London-based private equity firm, announced this month its hire of Allen & Overy senior litigation and restructuring partner Brechje van der Velden to be its legal chief as of March 1, 2024. She succeeds CVC’s former global general counsel Lauren Livingston, who stepped down this month to start her own leadership advisory and coaching business.
CVC, which last year postponed a planned initial public offering in Amsterdam, gets its new top lawyer from Allen & Overy as the latter is poised to combine next month with Shearman & Sterling and create transatlantic legal giant A&O Shearman. Allen & Overy’s van der Velden has been head of the law firm’s Netherlands office and a member of its global executive committee.
Pimco
Pacific Investment Management Co. LLC tapped managing director and general counsel for global regulatory and litigation Sung-Hee Suh to become global general counsel for the Newport Beach, Calif.-based bond giant as of Jan. 1. Suh succeeds Pimco’s longtime legal chief David Flattum, who is retiring but will remain a consultant to the firm through the end of this year.