Former Clifford Chance (CC) managing partner Peter Cornell is to take up a non-legal role at private equity giant Terra Firma.

Cornell, who left the magic circle firm in May, is set to start at Guy Hands' buy-out house later this month as managing director of stakeholder relations.

Cornell will be responsible for dealing with the private equity house's relationships with regulators, investors, banks, the media and the Government. His appointment comes in the wake of increasing political criticism of the private equity sector over the past year.

Cornell became CC's managing partner at the firm in 2003 and was succeeded by current incumbent David Childs in May 2006. He is well known for overseeing a difficult period in the firm's history, in which the firm's US arm suffered from a spate of partner departures. Cornell eventually relocated to New York towards the end of his tenure in an effort to shore up the office.

Terra Firma is a London-based private equity house which has invested more than £4.7bn since it was set up in 1994.