The Co-operative Bank has appointed has appointed former CMS Cameron McKenna lawyer Brona McKeown as its new general counsel and company secretary.

McKeown will take up her post on Monday (2 December), less than a month after the Co-op Group lost control of its banking arm, forcing the mutual to divide its in-house legal team into two separate functions.

McKeown joins from Coventry Building Society, where she was interim GC and corporate secretary. She previously held the position of global general counsel of Barclays Corporate.

At the Co-op Bank, she will report directly to chief executive Niall Booker, with an additional reporting line to Co-op Group general counsel Alistair Asher, who previously had full oversight of the bank's legal functions before ownership of the financial institution transferred to a consortium of hedge funds including Aurelius and Silver Point.

Although Asher will no longer have full oversight of the bank's legal function, he will work alongside McKeown to develop the newly structured legal department. According to a prospectus filed on 4 November, McKeown will be supported by a senior treasury manager and a regulatory head.

"As a member of the group executive, I expect a significant proportion of my time to continue to be taken up by the bank going forward as the group will be the single largest shareholder," Asher told Legal Week an email earlier this month.

"Given the transformation of the bank, including the revised capital structure, the LME process and a putative future listing, this is a key appointment for the organisation," commented Co-op Bank chief executive Niall Booker.

"We welcome Brona to the bank and in particular to the executive committee, of which she will be a member."