Jenner & Block Hires GM's counsel

Jenner & Block LLP, the Chicago-based firm of about 450 lawyers, hired General Motors Corp. general counsel Robert Osborne.

Osborne, 54, who previously worked for Jenner, will join the corporate department as a partner in September, the firm said in a statement today.

"Bob is one of the most talented, principled and highly respected corporate lawyers in the country," Jenner Managing Partner Susan Levy said in the statement.

While at Detroit-based GM, Osborne managed more than 200 lawyers in 31 countries and led the teams that resolved complex securities litigation, negotiated a series of federal government loans and brought the company out of bankruptcy, Jenner said.

The U.S. government controls 60.1 percent of GM after it emerged from a U.S.-backed bankruptcy on July 10.

GM named Michael Millikin as its new general counsel, the company said in a statement. Millikin, 60, joined the GM legal staff in 1977 and served most recently as associate general counsel, the company said. He begins reporting to GM President Fritz Henderson today, according to the statement.

"With the new GM successfully launched, Osborne is now making a move he had considered for some time, but had deferred while GM was in bankruptcy," GM said in its statement.

Jenner & Block was the 79th-highest grossing U.S. law firm in 2008, with $347 million in revenue, according to the American Lawyer, a trade magazine.