By Wailin Wong  | UAL Corp, the parent company of United Airlines, said it has hired Thomas J. Sabatino Jr. as general counsel.

Sabatino joins the airline March 29 and will report to UAL Chief Executive Glenn Tilton, the company said in a statement. Sabatino previously was general counsel at pharmaceutical company Schering Plough, which merged with Merck last year. Before that, Sabatino was general counsel at Baxter International.