Ryan Smith will start in January as a New York-based correspondent and legal analyst, complementing the work of ABC News‘s chief legal analyst and Nightline anchor Dan Abrams, ABC News president Ben Sherwood said in a memo to staff today. Ryan will also offer legal analysis on Espn. Smith had until recently anchored Hln’s Evening Express, which was among the programs dumped last month by Hln’s new-ish Gm Albie Hecht as part of a rebranding of that network. (Evening Express was, ironically, replaced by What Would You Do! — the ABC News show to which Hln bought cable TV rerun rights about a year ago. ) From Sherwood’s memo: An engaging storyteller, Ryan joins us from Hln where he anchored the nightly news program “Evening Express” and co-hosted Hln’s primetime show “Hln After Dark.” Prior to hosting “Evening Express” Ryan was part of the team on “Morning...