Online trading company London Capital Group (LCG) has appointed its first-ever group general counsel with the hire of ex-Slaughter and May lawyer Martin Creek from Axiom Legal.

Creek, who joined LCG earlier this month, has become the company's first-ever in-house lawyer.

He is a financial services specialist with experience of UK and cross-border corporate work, including public and private acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures and general public company work.

While at Axiom, Creek was seconded to financial institutions including UBS Investment Bank and Barclays Capital, while most recently, he spent six months on secondment at mortgage and investment firm Castle Trust.

LCG – a financial spreadbetting company founded in 1996 – specialises in online trading services for private, professional and institutional customers.

Martin trained as a solicitor with Slaughters, spending over six years in the firm's corporate practice before moving to an in-house role at Barclays in 2000.

LCG chief executive officer Simon Denham commented: "We are very pleased to welcome Martin to LCG. We will benefit from his wealth of experience in the financial services sector and we are confident that he will be an asset to the team."

Creek's former employer Axiom operates as a low-cost alternative to traditional law firms, with a business model which strips out the usual overheads associated with law firms, including physical infrastructure, administrative support and high partner profits.

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