Burness partner joins Standard Life

Standard Life has created a new role of director of legal services which will be filled by Malcolm Wood, corporate partner at Scottish commercial firm Burness.

Wood says that he became aware that Standard Life was structuring a new post in its legal department before Christmas. Previously, the legal function came under a general manager of corporate services who is not a lawyer. From April, Wood will lead Standard Life's team of 30 lawyers, although he will not sit on Standard Life's board of directors.

Wood worked with Burness' client Standard Life for a number of years and says he was a "known quantity" to them.

Alan Stewart, Burness' managing partner, who himself was in-house at Clydesdale Bank, says: "We are flattered that Standard life chose to ask one of our partners.."

Partner Peter Lawson returns to Burness from a secondment at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and takes over many of Wood's clients.