Prudential’s Margaret Coltman (pictured) has retired from her role as group general counsel (GC), with the insurance business’ company secretary Alan Porter adding the GC role to his.
It is understood that Porter took on the group GC role in July, with Coltman then retiring from Prudential in September.
The company secretary role was originally held by Coltman, but was separated from legal during her tenure. Porter has held that role since 2012, and will now take responsibility for both legal and company secretarial. Prior to his arrival at Prudential, Porter held the group GC role at Tesco and before that spent 15 years at British American Tobacco.
A highly rated GC and an original Legal Business GC Power List member, Coltman took on the role after moving from Lloyds Banking Group in 2009 and spending more than 22 years as an insurance partner at Norton Rose. Known for a distinguished track record in the financial services industry, Coltman restructured the legal team so that each of its four core businesses had its own legal panel, as well as an additional head office panel which was led by Coltman and group legal director Simon Ramage.
In addition, Coltman led an efficiency drive to maximise the efficiency of the in-house legal team to better service the group’s four main business units: Prudential Corporation Asia, Jackson National Life Insurance Company, Prudential UK and M&G.
First on Porter’s to do list is likely to be finalising the insurance company’s legal panel. The insurer kicked off the tendering process in August but has not confirmed whether this has been completed. The panel was last reviewed in 2011, a process which saw Linklaters and Norton Rose both win spots following a five-month competitive tender.
In addition, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton was reappointed to provide US law advice, while Baker & McKenzie was retained to advise on employment matters. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Slaughter and May and Hogan Lovells also took spots four years ago.
kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk