By Mary Mullally and Sara Zaki
Halifax's legal department is set for a major shake-up with the arrival of a new joint head of legal and company secretary to replace the long-standing head of legal, Chris Jowett.
Jowett, group solicitor with Britain's largest mortgage lender for 17 years, retired on 30 Sept.
His departure comes only three months after the retirement of company secretary David Gilchrest on 14 June. Gilchrest had been with Halifax for 34 years.
Jowett's replacement, Harry Baines, ex-group legal adviser at automotive components company T&N (formerly Taylor & Newall), initially joined the bank as company secretary on 14 June.
Now he has also taken over Jowett's job and will head a team of approximately 35 lawyers. It is the first time that the bank has combined the two roles of group solicitor and company secretary. The move is believed to have been at the instigation of Baines.
Baines was at T&N – where he was both company secretary and group legal head since 1993 – for 13 years but left following the take-over by US Federal Mogul Corporation in 1998. Patricia Robinson now heads the T&N UK in-house team.
Halifax is one of the few banks and building societies not to run a panel system but observers predict Baines is almost certain to set one up.
Law firms instructed by the bank include Linklaters, Dibb Lupton Alsop, Hammond Suddards, Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy, Wilde Sapte, Walker Morris, Shoosmiths & Harrison, Marsons and Charles Caplin.
In April, Halifax instructed Hammond Suddards to act for the bank on the impending sale of 224 of its estate agent outlets.
At the time, Jowett said he did not have a fixed panel of firms because he liked to keep the choice of advisers entirely flexible. He said this avoided complacency.