Alternative legal services provider LOD has hired the head of legal operations from the John Lewis Partnership.

The company has taken on Maria Passemard as its new director of innovation and design in a rare example of an in-house lawyer joining an alternative law business.

According to LOD, she will start at the beginning of March this year.

Passemard has worked at John Lewis since 2014, first as head of its employment law team and latterly as head of legal operations where she was responsible for the legal department's day-to-day management.

Prior to that, Passemard had stints at Pinsent Masons, DLA Piper and legacy Martineau, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Speaking to Law.com International, Passemard said that the relationship between legal departments and their external advisers was changing rapidly, and that it was up to advisers to help alleviate the pain points of their clients.

"The pain points for a company like John Lewis won't be the same as pain points for an HSBC, it's wrong to assume they all have the same problems," she said.

Passemard's recruitment follows the recent appointment of Andrea Klieve from Bertelsmann as head of LOD's new Düsseldorf office, which opened for business last month.