Barclays' newly-installed general counsel Bob Hoyt has been awarded £703,808 in shares after just four months in the role.

The award was part of £32m worth of shares distributed to top executives at the bank yesterday (18 March), which include elements of salary and long-term performance incentives.

Hoyt (pictured), who replaced Mark Harding as Barclays' legal head in November last year, saw £330,792 – or just under half – of the share award sold on his behalf to meet tax liabilities.

On an annualised basis, the award would put Hoyt's share incentive package at more than £2m, excluding basic salary and other bonuses.

The general counsel was also awarded £158,000 in shares as part of his welcome package in December, £75,000 of which he immediately sold.

Last year, the bank's outgoing general counsel Harding was awarded £3.6m in shares, as part of the annual incentive plan for the bank's directors and managers.

Harding was paid 1.22 million shares worth 308.1p each, 1.18 million of which he immediately cashed in through the bank.

Overall, the amount awarded to the bank's executive committee is 25% less than that paid out in 2013, and comes against annual profits of £5.2bn for the year – a fall of 32%.

Rewards packages for executive members have drawn particular scrutiny in recent weeks, amid the award of sizeable pay-outs by a number of struggling financial institutions.

There has also been some further insight into the amounts paid by the largest companies for their most senior lawyers.

Last Friday (14 March), Legal Week revealed that Alistair Asher, the general counsel of the Co-operative Group, was on a higher basic salary than the average FTSE 30 legal chief even before news of the group's above inflation pay review emerged.

Leaked details of the Co-op's executive remuneration review show Asher's current basic salary of £475,000 is at the top end for UK listed companies, by the mutual's own estimates.

The review proposed Asher's total target remuneration should increase to £1.2m for 2014. The sum would be made up of a £550,000 base salary, a £550,000 bonus and other fixed allowances.

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