UnitedHealth Changes Out Law Chief Amid Swirling Legal Issues

UnitedHealth Group Inc. disclosed that its chief legal officer Rupert Bondy will transition to a new role next month with Christopher Zaetta, head of legal for its Optum unit, succeeding him as the health insurance giant’s top lawyer.

Zaetta’s ascension makes him the third legal chief in four years at UnitedHealth, which is facing a variety of legal challenges. The company was hit with a putative class action lawsuit this week by an investor over antitrust issues related to its $7.8 billion acquisition of Change Healthcare Inc., which is now the subject of a US Department of Justice probe.

Stock sales by certain UnitedHealth senior executives before that probe became public have also led some US lawmakers to call for another inquiry by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Bondy, who hasn’t sold any UnitedHealth stock, currently owns shares in the Minnetonka, Minn.-based company valued at nearly $5 million, according to Bloomberg data. Bondy received an $11 million pay package after being hired by UnitedHealth in 2022.

UnitedHealth and Change Healthcare are also facing the fallout from a cyberattack this year that reportedly may have put the personal data and health information of one in three Americans at risk. UnitedHealth, which has said it paid a ransom to protect hacked data from being disclosed, is also facing litigation and government scrutiny from that matter.

A UnitedHealth spokesman declined to discuss the rationale for Bondy turning over the legal reins to Zaetta, which was disclosed in a securities filing late Wednesday. Bondy’s new job will see him serve as senior counsel and executive vice president of governance, compliance, and security as of June 4. Zaetta, a former Hogan Lovells partner who previously was head of litigation for UnitedHealth, took on Optum’s legal chief role in 2020.

The new titles for Zaetta and Bondy are already reflected on the management page of UnitedHealth’s website. So is that of UnitedHealth’s newly named executive vice president for global public policy Danielle Gray, who initially joined the company earlier this year as an executive in residence after stepping down as legal chief for the Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.

Bondy took over UnitedHealth’s legal chief position two years ago from Matthew Friedrich, a former partner at Boies Schiller Flexner and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer who was recruited for the role in 2021 and who resigned after only a few months at UnitedHealth. The company hired a new chief executive in Andrew Witty, who used to work with Bondy at global drug giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC.

UnitedHealth disclosed in its most recent proxy statement filed in April that Bondy received more than $6.4 million in total compensation last year. Bondy’s pay included roughly $4.5 million in stock and option awards and almost $1.6 million in cash, including $875,000 in annual base salary.