Philip Reed has been named as general counsel and company secretary of one of the UK's largest retail investment funds managers, Threadneedle Investments.

In his newly-created role, Reed will oversee a team of 32 staff in the legal and compliance teams and report to managing director Crispin Henderson.

Reed leaves the dispute resolution team of Norton Rose after acting as one of the founding partners of its securities litigation group. Threadneedle manages assets worth more than £72bn.