MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- J. Richard Buchignani has joined Concord EFS as the transaction processor's vice chairman and general counsel. A director of Concord and previously a partner at the Memphis firm Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, LLP, Buchignani replaces Marcia E. Heister, Concord's general counsel in Wilmington, Del.
Heister, who built the general counsel function at Concord, will remain with the company in a consulting capacity through a transition period.
Edward A. Labry III, Concord president, said that the company's planned move into a new headquarters building creates opportunities to centralize some executive management functions in Memphis. "The general counsel is an important advisory position, and accordingly we made relocation of this position to Memphis a priority," he said.
Buchignani, who joined Wyatt, Tarrant in 1995, has been in private practice since 1977 with a concentration in the area of complex commercial litigation. He began his law career in 1973 as an assistant U.S. attorney after obtaining both his J.D. degree and his bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Tennessee. He has been a member of Concord's board of directors since 1992.
