Barclays combs market for general counsel replacement after shock exit

As revealed on www.thelawyer.com/lawyer news last week, Trust will also resign from his position as group secretary to seek fresh challenges elsewhere.

The two roles will now be separated and a source close to Barclays told The Lawyer that the new general counsel is likely to be picked from external candidates.

Trust's role of group secretary has already been filled by the current global chief operating officer for Barclays Private Bank Lawrence Dickinson, who will take over on 20 September following the next board meeting.

Trust's decision to quit the high-profile roles coincides with the group's plans to overhaul its internal legal function. Barclays is in the middle of executing an organisational review of its legal and compliance risk strategy to see where it can better leverage its resources and consider whether its organisational structure is up-to-scratch. The review will be completed by the end of August.

Trust reports directly to the chief executive officer of Barclays Bank. His role has become increasingly less hands on as he has had more managerial issues to control and his position involves a broad overseeing of the legal function.
Although Barclays Capital in-house lawyers have a reporting line into him, they tend to deal more closely with the head of compliance and risk management Frank McGarahan. Trust's second in command is deputy general counsel Jeremy Ogden.

The next major strategy review of panel firms is to take place at the end of May 2003, just after Trust's intended departure. Currently on the general advisory panel of Barclays Group is Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, DLA, Linklaters, Lovells and Simmons & Simmons, but there are many other panels in existence to deal with litigation and corporate recovery.