Nomura GC retires as bank moves into Russia

Nomura general counsel Terence Kyle is retiring this week after three years in the role. But no successor to Kyle has been named.

Kyle joined the investment bank in 2004 after a long career at Linklaters, where he had been managing partner.

During his time at Nomura he led a realignment of the legal department to focus on the bank’s growing product areas, with an emphasis on derivatives and structured products, particularly on the equity side.

The function now has 48 lawyers, of whom some 35 work in transaction management.

Kyle said: “The team is a little larger than when I joined. We’ve got four people in the equity derivatives team who weren’t there at all and the structured products team has grown in numbers quite a bit.”

Nomura has a panel of five firms: Allen & Overy, Ashurst, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and SJ Berwin. The bank also uses Osborne Clarke on employment issues and Burges Salmon for IT contracts.

The firms were last reviewed in the autumn of 2005. It is expected that there will be a further re-examination of external law firms later this year.

The new general counsel will also have responsibility for Russia, where the bank opened last week. Nomura has opened an office in Moscow, which expands the bank’s reach in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region to 14 offices in 13 countries.

Nomura will provide a full range of investment banking products and services to its clients in Russia.

Kyle, along with former Simmons & Simmons senior partner Janet Gaymer and Kirkland & Ellis of counsel and former IBA chief Francis Neate, is joining forces with mentoring consultants IDDAS.