Banking giant HSBC has completed an overhaul of its UK legal function as part of a wider efficiency drive that will see it hire an additional 50 lawyers worldwide.

The FTSE 100 banking group plans to hire the lawyers over the next year to take its global legal function up to 650 lawyers. The appointments will give HSBC one of the biggest in-house functions of any financial institution. FTSE 100 rival Barclays employs about 600 lawyers.

The recruitment drive comes as HSBC moves to restructure its centralised legal function, which will be split into eight separate groups relating to business lines.

The shake-up will reduce the number of lawyers that report directly to global general counsel Richard Bennett.

There has also been a reshuffle among senior legal positions at the bank with the co-head of the UK commercial banking team, Keith Ford, taking sole responsibility for that sector. Former co-head Steven Garratt-Frost has retired. In addition, Andrew Jackson, the deputy head of legal in Hong Kong, has become global head of the bank's corporate banking legal team.

Ford and Jackson will work with Richard Hennity, the newly-appointed head of the general headquarters legal department, to oversee the bank's panel of UK advisers. The bank's UK panel includes Addleshaw Goddard, CMS Cameron McKenna, Denton Wilde Sapte, DLA Piper, Eversheds and Slaughter and May.