Italian bank Banca Commerciale Italiana [BCI] is recruiting its first in-house counsel in the UK.
Catherine McGuiness, who specialises in capital markets work, leaves fellow Italian Bank Sanpaolo IMI at the end of this week, and will join the London office of BCI in early October.
Luigi Carnelli, chief manager of BCI's London branch, said the bank decided to recruit an in-house lawyer because it was to expand its activities in the UK.
Carnelli said BCI had been courting McGuinness for some time. "We are very happy that she is joining us," he said. "She is a talented lady, has a strong background and is the right fit for us. We look forward to seeing her on board."
Carnelli also said that the bank hoped the move would bring down the costs of external advice.
BCI currently outsources most of its UK legal work. Carnelli declined to give the names of the
panel firms, except to say that all the major firms, including Clifford Chance, had worked for the bank in some capacity.
McGuiness said that the move offered her an exciting opportunity to do a different range of work.
She said that she was leaving Sanpaolo due to a contraction of capital markets work following a reorganisation after the merger with IMI in November 1998.
She leaves two lawyers on Sanpaolo's in-house team, David Entwhistle and Fabienne Helix. Entwhistle assumes McGuiness' role as head of legal.
Clifford Chance and Field Fisher Waterhouse – where McGuinness was a partner before joining Sanpaolo – were the main external advisers instructed by McGuinness.
She said that she did not know whether she would continue to instruct the firms.
"The bank will have its own relationships. If they work well, I will leave them in place. I will not seek to override BCI's relationship with its external advisers."
BCI is one of the largest Italian banks with the heaviest international presence. It is currently in merger talks with Banca Intesa.