USA Gymnastics Inc. has found in-house legal help as it seeks to resolve sexual abuse claims against the bankrupt organization as the postponed 2020 Summer Olympics prepare to get underway in July.
Within the past month, USAG has recruited former Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan partner Debbie Leilani Shon as its chief strategy officer and Rebecca “Beckie” St. John as safety and compliance counsel, said a source briefed on the matter.
Shon, a former chair of Quinn Emanuel’s international trade practice in Washington who previously spent a decade as a litigator at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, disclosed her new role on her LinkedIn profile. So did St. John, who spent the past year as a deputy attorney general in the Indiana Attorney General’s office.
The Indianapolis-based nonprofit, the U.S. governing body for the sport of gymnastics, parted ways in January with former safety and compliance counsel Mark Busby. At the time, USAG told Bloomberg Law that it would seek to hire a chief legal officer and a replacement for Busby’s position.
St. John, who also previously worked in the Indiana Department of Child Services, has taken over the bulk of Busby’s former duties, a source said.
That same source noted that Shon, a former CEO of Ticketmaster China and international trade executive at U.S. Steel Corp., is in a “business-focused role” that sees her work with USAG’s outside legal chief, C.J. Schneider, a crisis counseling and litigation partner at Michigan-based…
