Boeing taps former federal judge to oversee crash cases

CHICAGO – Boeing is assigning its top lawyer to a new position in which he will handle legal issues stemming from two deadly crashes involving its 737 Max airliner.

The Chicago company said Wednesday that general counsel and executive vice-president J. Michael Luttig was named counsellor and senior adviser to CEO Dennis Muilenburg and the board.

Luttig, 64, is a former prosecutor and assistant U.S. attorney general who was named to a federal appeals court in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush. He joined Boeing in 2006.

Boeing named Brett Gerry its new general counsel.

Boeing faces a growing stack of lawsuits over crashes that killed 346 people in Indonesia and Ethiopia. Investigators are examining the role of flight-control software that pushed the planes’ noses down based on faulty sensor readings.

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