The parent group of the New York Stock Exchange has named its new general counsel, taking the former legal head of Citigroup International.
Rachel Robbins, former general counsel of all of Citigroup’s non-US operations, takes over the top legal job at NYSE Group from Richard Bernard, who retired earlier this year after ten years in the position.
William Freeman was serving as an interim general counsel. Both Bernard and Robbins are former private practice lawyers at Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy.
In addition to her stint at Citigroup, Robbins spent 20 years in-house at JP Morgan prior to its 2000 merger with Chase Manhattan. There, she established the its investment banking, legal and compliance group.
She has also co-founded a legal consultancy, Blaqwell, and served at Axiom Legal Solutions prior to joining NYSE Group.
In January, the NYSE named James Duffy as its new general counsel of regulation ahed of its merger with publicly-listed Archipelago Holdings.
In June, the NYSE announced its intention for a friendly merger with continental bourse Euronext, also the subject of a rival bid by Deutsche Boerse. Euronext currently favours the NYSE as its suitor.
Meanwhile, the former chairman of the NYSE, Dick Grasso was ordered by a New York judge in October to pay back $95m (£50m) of the $187.5m (£98.6m) he was paid as chief of the bourse. Grasso is appealing the ruling
