Deputy general counsel (GC) John Collins has replaced Chris Campbell as the group GC of the Royal Bank of Scotland as Campbell prepares to retire.
Collins took up the role on 1 January, however Campbell will stay on for a further three months as part of a handover process before going into retirement.
Speaking to Legal Business Campbell said: ‘I am pleased to be finding more time for myself going forward and I think it is excellent that John Collins who served the bank so well over the last few years has stepped up to replace me. I am very pleased to see that succession.’
Collins trained at legacy firm Wilde Sapte before joining Citibank in 1995 as a loan product lawyer. He moved in 2001 to ABN AMRO, first as wholesale legal head for loan product and corporate finance/M&A and then was appointed GC of the lender after it was acquired by a consortium including RBS.
He takes over a group legal team of 400 who provide legal support to the bank’s divisions and businesses globally and will also oversee RBS’s upcoming panel review, which is due to commence shortly. The bank’s formal panel is refreshed every three years with firms including Allen & Overy, Ashurst, BLP, Clifford Chance and Eversheds all currently on the roster. In September last year RBS turned to US firms Davis Polk & Wardwell and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton on the sale of its US subsidiary Citizens Financial Group in a bid to raise $3.5bn.
Campbell joined RBS in August 2005 and served as director of legal services and deputy general counsel before taking up the group GC role in 2010 from Miller McLean. Prior to that he was managing partner of Scotland’s largest law firm, Dundas & Wilson for nine years.
kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk
For more on in-house succession planning see, Filling big shoes.