Ex-Lovells man takes first head of legal role at Resolution

Insurance company Resolution has hired a former Lovells lawyer as its first-ever head of legal.

Randal Barker, previously European general counsel for Genworth Financial's mortgage insurance business, joins the company four months after it was created through a merger between Britannic Group and Resolution Life.

Barker will report to chief executive Paul Thompson and will be responsible for all legal, secretarial and corporate governance matters, including managing external advisers. He is dual-qualified in the UK and US.

At Lovells, Barker was an of counsel advising on cross-border corporate transactions. He was then hired by GE Mortgage Insurance to set up its first in-house legal department. While at GE he worked on the New York IPO of GE Financial subsidiary Genworth in May 2004.

Firms hoping to win work from Resolution will include Herbert Smith and Slaughter and May, which advised Britannic and Resolution respectively on the merger.

Resolution is a consolidator of closed-life funds, looking after assets worth £35bn.