The formal establishment of the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB) has had a domino effect on senior counsel moves as the government funded initiative’s hunt for a general counsel (GC) comes to a successful close with the hire of rated Pinsents Masons energy partner Euan McVicar.
McVicar, who specialises in the financing and development of energy projects, will join the sustainable project investment bank in late summer 2013, although no specific date has yet been given.
GIB’s interim legal counsel and former Slaughter and May corporate partner Christopher Saunders will become deputy general counsel. Saunders stepped into lead role in November 2012 for outgoing projects lawyer and former Shearman & Sterling London managing partner Kenneth MacRitchie, who was instrumental in the early set up of GIB through its forerunner, UK Green Investments.
MacRitchie has moved on to become director and general counsel at global analysis firm, Oxford Analytica.
McVicar, who was selected as GC following an open recruitment process, will complete the young organisation’s executive leadership board. He will be based at the bank’s headquarters in Edinburgh and will advise GIB on all its legal activities, reporting to CEO Shaun Kingsbury.
Kingsbury said of the appointment: ‘I’m delighted to welcome Euan to the GIB team. He brings exactly the right blend of clean energy and legal expertise to support our growth and development. He is one of the UK’s most accomplished and respected specialists in our field and will play a central role in the ambitious plans we have for the bank.’
francesca.fanshawe@legalease.co.uk
