Lloyds Bank and Standard Life have both announced senior hires into their in-house legal departments.

Standard Life has recruited Rushad Abadan, Royal Banks of Scotland's (RBS) deputy general counsel, as its new head of legal.

Abadan joined RBS in 2006 from legacy Dundas & Wilson where he was a senior associate in the firm's corporate finance department.

Abadan will replace interim head David Burns when he takes up his role at the Standard Life in 2016. Prior to Dundas he was at DSK Legal (previously Andersen Legal) in Mumbai as a corporate associate and had previously worked at Arthur Andersen as a senior consultant in its tax and advisory service.

Separately, Lloyds Bank has hired Wilson Thorburn as its new interim GC for litigation, regulatory and compliance.

Thorburn, who joins from JPMorgan where he was EMEA litigation head,  replaces Michael Hartridge who left Lloyds earlier this year.

He joined JPMorgan in 2011 from Ashurst where he was a partner.

Lloyds has seen a number of major changes in its senior legal team in recent months.

In April its general counsel (GC) Andrew Whittaker stepped down and was replaced by deputy GC Kate Cheetham.

In the same month general counsel for group legal Hugh Pugsley left the bank to join HSBC as its UK GC.

Meanwhile Linklaters outgoing managing partner Simon Davies is set to join Lloyds next year as chief people, legal and strategy officer.

Davies' forthcoming move – announced over the summer at the same time as the firm's results – sees him step down from the magic circle firm a year early to join the bank in January 2016.