David Eveleigh, the general counsel of BT Global Services and former Ashurst lawyer, is to join private security giant Serco as group general counsel and company secretary.

Eveleigh (pictured), who will join the FTSE-listed company on 17 November, will sit on Serco's group executive committee, and will be responsible for all of the company's legal affairs.

The appointment is the first time Serco has had a permanent general counsel, and follows last year's corporate renewal programme, which highlighted a series of shortcomings in the company's governance, ethics policies and compliance.

Last year, Serco was fined £68.5m by the Government for overcharging on contracts to tag criminals in the UK.

One of the recommendations of that review was to appoint a group general counsel, a post which is currently held by former Clifford Chance partner Katrina Allison, who is understood to be leaving the company once Eveleigh is installed.

Serco's current company secretary, John Hickey, will remain at the company after transferring to another senior role.

Eveleigh, who is also on BT Group's leadership team for the wider BT Group, has held a number of senior legal roles in the company, and headed the company's in-house teams in Canada, the US and Latin America between 2008 and 2009.

Earlier this year, Eveleigh helped steer the company to what he described as its "third phase" of its legal process outsourcing (LPO) development, after signing a deal with alternative legal services provider Axiom to take on chunks of its larger commercial work.

"David Eveleigh is a highly accomplished general counsel with extensive experience in multinational organisations," said Serco group chief executive officer Rupert Soames.

"His appointment marks an important milestone in our corporate renewal programme. I am delighted to welcome David to Serco where he will be an invaluable member of the senior team as we build a strong future for the business."

See: General counsel work/life balance Q&A – BT's David Eveleigh