Barclays has appointed ex-Gibson Dunn & Crutcher partner Mark Shelton as general counsel (GC) of Barclays’ corporate & international business following a ring-fencing restructure which saw the bank split its legal team to create two new divisions – the other being Barclays UK.
In addition, Shelton will also be the GC for Barclays Corporate and International Americas and its separately capitalised holding company, established in the US on 1 July 2106.
The appointment means that the bank’s group GC Bob Hoyt, who was appointed in May to hold the role of GC for the corporate and international business in the interim period, no longer holds this position, and Shelton will report into him. Mark Chapman was appointed as GC of Barclays UK in March.
Reporting into Shelton will be Anjali Chhania, GC of corporate banking and Rachel Huf, GC of APAC.
Shelton joined Barclays Investment Bank as its global GC and the regional GC for the Americas in March last year from US firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher where he had served as co-chair of financial institutions.
He joined Gibson Dunn in February 2014 where he was a member of the investigations and crisis management, securities enforcement, securities litigation and white collar defence practice group for a brief one year. He joined the US firm from UBS AG where he was GC and global head of investigation for UBS’ Americas business in New York for almost eleven years.
Barclays set aside £1bn in October to meet the costs of the Bank of England’s ring-fencing rules, requiring banks to separate their retail arms from more risky investment banking divisions. The post-Lehman reforms are intended to make it easier to contain problems in the banking sector.
Barclays’ shake-up comes as its rival UK banks gear up for equivalent reforms. Lloyds Banking Group in March appointed former Berwin Leighton Paisner partner Frances McLeman to oversee its ring-fencing process.
Last month Legal Business revealed a raft of firms including Clifford Chance, Ashurst, Eversheds, Mayer Brown, Reed Smith, Simmons & Simmons, Hogan Lovells, Pinsent Masons, DWF and Bond Dickinson won places on Barclays’ reduced legal roster, however DLA Piper lost its spot following the global panel review.
kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk
