Rite Aid Taps Acting Top Lawyer to Cope With Opioids, Abortion

Rite Aid Corp. has a temporary new top legal executive to guide the drugstore chain as it faces opioid litigation and fallout over US abortion drug distribution.

Christin Bassett, a former Reed Smith litigation partner in Philadelphia who Rite Aid hired in 2021 as vice president of litigation, is now acting general counsel and corporate secretary, company spokeswoman Catherine Carter said. Rite Aid had promoted her last year to deputy general counsel.

Rite Aid is “actively engaged in a search for our next general counsel,” Carter said.

Paul Gilbert, hired by Rite Aid in 2020 to succeed the Philadelphia-based company’s former general counsel James Comitale, left April 7, according to Gilbert’s auto-response email. Rite Aid telegraphed his departure in a securities filing last month, saying Gilbert would resign to “pursue other opportunities.”

Rite Aid’s business has faltered in recent years amid a failure to execute deals with larger rivals like Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. and Albertsons Cos. Inc., Bloomberg News reported last week. The US Department of Justice accused Rite Aid in a lawsuit last month of missing red flags in filling opioid prescriptions.

The company named Elizabeth Burr its interim chief executive earlier this year as Rite Aid struggled with sales and found itself embroiled in a broader US debate over contraception. Rite Aid said in January it would limit the number of its stores selling mifepristone, a controversial abortion pill.

Donald Lohman is serving as interim chief ethics and compliance officer, according to Gilbert’s auto-response email. He and Bassett didn’t respond to comment requests.

Lohman is a former Big Law associate who spent nearly a dozen years at Mallinckrodt PLC, a drug maker pushed into bankruptcy by opioid lawsuits that emerged from Chapter 11 protection last year. Lohman most recently was a part-time general counsel for Woburn, Mass.-based Continuus Pharmaceuticals.

As for Gilbert, Summit BHC on April 17 announced his hire as its chief legal officer. He replaces Scott Schwieger, who left the suburban Nashville-based behavioral health and addiction services company last year.

Summit BHC, owned by private equity firm Patient Square Capital LP, did not respond to a request for comment.

Rite Aid Lawsuits

Rite Aid, which is preparing to announce its most recent quarterly financial results on Thursday, has sought to pivot its business toward becoming a pharmacy benefit manager.

That plan was the subject of a lawsuit filed last year by an investor accusing Rite Aid of failing to disclose declining membership levels in its services segment. Davis Polk & Wardwell is representing Rite Aid in that case.

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius has handled more than 20% of cases involving Rite Aid in US federal courts within the past five years, according to Bloomberg Law data.

Morgan Lewis is one of several law firms representing Rite Aid in a partial victory the company secured last week in a case narrowing claims brought by insured customers allegedly overcharged for generic drugs.

Evolving Legal Team

Rite Aid has also sought to rebuild a legal and compliance group hit hard by defections in recent months.

LaShon Kell, a lawyer recruited by the comany in late 2021 to be its ethics and compliance chief, exited after only a few months in the job as the Rite Aid cut ties two firms—Bradley Arant Boult Cummings and Littler Mendelson—due to their connections to certain executives.

Ron Chima, who spent nearly two decades at Rite Aid, where he was head of litigation and legal retail and pharmacy operations, also left last year to join rival CVS Health Corp. as senior legal counsel for mergers and acquisitions.

Among lawyers hired by Rite Aid within the past half-year are data protection and security counsel Mike Zhang, senior corporate counsel and privacy officer Monique Brown, and real estate compliance and task risk attorney Ryan Jones, according to LinkedIn profiles and state bar records.