Co-op Bank hires head of legal and litigation chief
Bank makes another hire from Eversheds and recruits Nationwide deputy GC to bolster legal team
March 16, 2015 at 08:03 PM
2 minute read
The Co-operative Bank has appointed Nationwide Building Society deputy general counsel Claire Morris as its new head of legal, replacing James Southworth who has returned to Eversheds.
The bank has also hired Tim Buckingham, head of Eversheds' financial services disputes and investigations team in Leeds, as head of its litigation team.
Dispute resolution partner Southworth had served as interim head of legal at the bank since January last year.
The Co-op Bank has opted to follow Southworth with another interim hire, with Morris' appointment understood to be for an initial six-month period.
Morris took on the deputy GC role at Nationwide in December 2011, overseeing a team of more than 50 lawyers. Previously she was a regulatory projects solicitor at Lloyds TSB and company secretary at Legal & General.
Before his secondment at The Co-op Bank, Southworth had undergone an eight-month secondment to the litigation and regulatory team at Barclays, specialising in breach of mandate and conversion claims, security enforcement disputes, commercial fraud, asset and sales finance disputes, investigations and contentious regulatory work.
Owing to conflicts, The Co-op Group had to divide its in-house legal team into two separate functions following The Co-op Bank's split from the group in 2013.
Alistair Asher, the former head of Allen & Overy's financial investments group, came in to the GC role at The Co-op Group, but is not allowed to directly oversee The Co-op Bank's legal function, which is now run by bank GC and former CMS Cameron McKenna lawyer Brona McKeown.
Within The Co-op Bank, the 21-strong legal team is split into three areas. Morris will oversee non-contentious work, including a team dedicated to the sale of the bank's non-core assets.
Buckingham will head up litigation.
Adam Moy, former head of legal at financial services group Close Brothers, is serving as head of treasury legal at the bank, dealing with public limited company and shareholder matters – the third branch of the bank's legal team.
- The inaugural Legal Week Banking, Litigation and Regulation Forum will take place in London on 10 June. For speaker, sponsorship and delegate enquiries email [email protected]. For further information about the conference go to bankinglitigationforum.com
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