Hewlett-Packard (HP) has filled the empty spot in its executive team created when the company’s top lawyer, Michael Holston, left in December. Schultz is taking the reins from David Healy, who took the role on an interim basis. John Schultz, who joined in 2008, is being promoted to executive vice president and general counsel. Schultz will report to HP’s Chief Executive Officer, Meg Whitman.

The appointment is just in time for Schultz to lead HP into its latest legal battle against Oracle. The case, which is scheduled to begin on May 31 in San Jose, California, will decide if Oracle has violated its contractual obligations to continue supporting Intel’s Itanium chip in its software. HP uses the chip in several of its high-end servers.

The new face of the general counsel is only the latest in a series of changes at HP as the technology giant attempts to recreate itself. Meg Whitman, who’s leading the company, was only appointed last year. In April, the head of HP Labs, the research and development arm for the company, left to pursue other opportunities. In March, HP promoted Marc Levin to Senior Vice President and Controller; he is scheduled to assume the role in a little over a week on May 1. In February, two key executives, Emil Sayegh VP of Cloud Computing and Dave Barr of the LeftHand unit, resigned. In January, Oracle managed to entice away  Tom LaRocca who led HP’s marketing and strategy team.

Staff changes aren’t the only moves being made at HP. Last year the company dumped WebOS and announced a possible spinoff of its PC unit. We will likely see continued product shifts and restructuring as the company tries to determine its new path to success.