Former Deutsche Bank global co-general counsel Christof von Dryander has re-joined Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton as senior counsel in the firm's Frankfurt office.

He was previously global co-GC of the bank alongside Simon Dodds, but the pair were replaced in the role by the bank's EMEA general counsel Florian Drinhausen at the end of 2017.

Von Dryander originally joined Cleary in 1982 and co-founded the firm's first German office in Frankfurt in 1991. He left the firm for Deutsche Bank in 2012 to become general counsel for Germany and Central and Eastern Europe.

In 2013, he also took on responsibility for the bank's asset and wealth management and private and business clients division before becoming global co-GC in 2015.

In his new role, von Dryander will assist the firm in advising the boards and management of corporate clients on a broad range of governance and compliance matters.

Cleary's managing Partner Michael Gerstenzang said: "Christof has deep and broad experience on issues of fundamental importance to our clients, which will be invaluable. We are honoured to have him re-join us as senior counsel and look forward to sharing his insights and perspectives with our clients."

Von Dryander's co-GC Simon Dodds also started his career at Cleary before joining Deutsche in 1999 as UK GC. He is currently assisting Drinhausen with his transition to the global GC role and is set to leave the bank on 31 March 2018.

Dodds and von Dryander took on their roles as co-GCs at a time when Deutsche was besieged with legal problems over misconduct.

In the second quarter of 2015, the bank's litigation costs rocketed to €1.2bn (£846m), more than double the figure for the same period the year before.

This was the result of a host of ongoing litigation and investigations. This included a European Commission credit default swap antitrust investigation and an associated US class action.

Deutsche Bank's new GC, Drinhausen has been at Deutsche since joining from Linklaters in 2014. He spent almost 10 years as a partner at the magic circle firm, where he was one of the firm's global telecommunications, media and technology sector leaders.