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Jul 16, 2019

Harrington to retire as Eli Lilly general counsel

Mike Harrington has been top lawyer since 2012

Eli Lilly and Company is hunting for a new top lawyer: Mike Harrington, senior vice president and general counsel, has announced he will retire at the end of the year.

Harrington joined Lilly in 1991 having previously worked as a litigator at Baker & Daniels in Indianapolis. During his lengthy career at Lilly, he has held a variety of business and legal roles including managing director of the New Zealand affiliate, associate general counsel for operations in the Asia-Pacific region and vice president and deputy general counsel of global pharmaceutical operations.

He was promoted to general counsel in January 2012 and has been a member of the company’s executive committee since then.

‘Thanks to Mike’s leadership, the company [has] maintained patent exclusivity for a number of important medicines, including Alimta, completed the Elanco divestiture and finalized acquisitions such as Loxo Oncology and ARMO BioSciences,’ Lilly chair and CEO David Ricks says in a statement.

‘But his impact goes far beyond the legal department. Mike models the Lilly values, has developed and mentored talent throughout the organization and served as a key adviser to Lilly’s board and two CEOs.’

Lilly has a well-regarded legal and compliance program. The company won the award for best use of technology by a corporate secretary or general counsel at the 2017 Corporate Governance Awards. It was also short-listed for best compliance and ethics program (large cap) at the 2016 and 2018 awards.

Ben Maiden

Ben Maiden is the editor-at-large of Governance Intelligence, an IR Media publication, having joined the company in December 2016. He is based in New York. Ben was previously managing editor of Compliance Reporter, covering regulatory and compliance...