Government efficiency group appoints ex-Slaughters partner as GC

Wylde, a former corporate partner at Slaughter and May, was seconded to the Treasury in March 2009 to assist with Asset Protection Scheme work. She was made acting general counsel at the APA since its launch in December 2009 and was appointed the role of permanent general counsel in December 2010 (21 December 2010).

Wylde joined Slaughters in 1984 and was made up to partner in 1993. She has experience of a broad range of corporate and finance transactions and has acted for long-term insurance company and fund management clients on M&A transactions, outsourcing and other projects. She officially retired from the partnership in April 2011 to take up the role of general counsel at the APA.

Commenting on the appointment, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said: “The Efficiency and Reform group in Cabinet Office have been driving through some ambitious reforms that have saved £3.75bn of cash savings in just ten months, from May 2010 to March 2011. Some of this work is commercially and legally complex and while we have made a great start we have only scratched the surface in the reforms and savings we want to make. This new appointment will not only bring the commercial expertise to drive forward this agenda but will also build our in-house capacity and skills to allow us to reduce our dependence on external spend.”

Wylde is the ERG’s first general counsel for commercial law and will take up the new post at the ERG later on in 2012 once a successor at the APA has been appointed.