$273 billion Chevron has hired R. Hewitt Pate as vice president and general counsel, effective Aug. 3.

Pate, a long-time partner at Hunton & Williams in Washington, D.C., has headed the firm's Global Competition practice since 2005. Prior to rejoining the firm in 2005, Pate served as the assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He also served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the antitrust division, responsible for energy, transportation, and other regulatory matters from 2001 to 2003.

Pate’s hiring comes at a time when the oil company is facing a politically charged legal battle in Ecuador brought by 30,000 people in that country, claiming that Chevron dumped billions of gallons of contaminated water in their communities for more than two decades before the company left in the early 1990s. A ruling in the case, which is seeking $27 billion in compensation for the environmental damage, is expected some time this year.