By Phil Wahba
Sept 10 (Reuters) - Avon Products Inc said on Monday it has
appointed a former in-house lawyer at Novartis Corp with
experience in government investigations to be its new general
counsel.
Jeff Benjamin, who held various general counseling positions
at Novartis from 1996 until he retired in 2011, will start at
Avon on Wednesday and also join its executive committee.
He will report to Avon Chief Executive Sheri McCoy, who
joined the cosmetics company in April from Johnson & Johnson.
He graduated from New York University School of Law in 1971
and began his legal career as a litigation associate with the
firm now known as Kronish, Lieb, Weiner & Hellman.
Avon is being probed by U.S. regulators on whether the
company broke U.S. anti-bribery laws overseas in the last
decade. McCoy said last month that Avon is in talks to settle
the probe.
Benjamin replaces Kim Rucker who left in July to become
general counsel at Kraft Foods Inc.
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