The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has hired former Barclays deputy general counsel Michael Shaw as its new legal chief.
The appointment follows a three-month search to replace former RBS general counsel John Collins, who resigned in December less than a year after taking on the top job.
Collins defected to Santander UK as director of legal, compliance and regulatory affairs.
Shaw will join on 19 April, also taking on the position of company secretary and joining the executive board. He left Barclays last September after almost six years as deputy general counsel.
He was originally tipped to be leading the race to replace Barclays former group general counsel Mark Harding in 2013 but missed out on the appointment in favour of Bob Hoyt.
Shaw will inherit a 400-lawyer team at RBS facing a raft of regulatory reforms and big-ticket litigation over the next two years. The bank also faces an expected return to private ownership following its £45bn Government bailout in 2008.
A statement from the bank said Shaw will “bring a breadth of leadership experience in complex legal, regulatory compliance and company secretarial matters from both private practice and in-house environments”.
Prior to joining Barclays Shaw was a partner at legacy Herbert Smith and joint secretary of the UK Takeover Panel.
He said: “I’m delighted to be joining RBS and I’m looking forward to starting shortly and leading on the most talented legal teams in the country.”
The appointment follows a series of shake-ups in RBS’s senior legal team. Deputy general counsel Rushad Abadan left to join Standard Life last September.