Barclays has made a number of high profile general counsel appointments in the US as part of an ‘alignment’ exercise with the rest of the business.

Casey Kobi, a former Sidley Austin associate, has been promoted to global head of banking at Barclays. For the past four years, Kobi has been head of banking legal for the Americas and began his in-house career with Barclays in 2008. Prior to that, he was a vice president of the investment banking division of Lehman Brothers.

Barclays has appointed UBS general counsel Bert Fuqua as global head of markets, who will start his new role in January. Fuqua was at UBS for over 15 years, and filled roles such as general counsel of the Americas investment bank division and head of legal of the Americas investment banking department.

Other previous roles include advising on derivatives, structured products and fixed income businesses at Bear Stearns, Greenwich Capital and Bankers Trust.

Barclays has also promoted legal head of Americas shared services Emma Bailey, who has been at the bank since 2000, to the role of Americas GC. She will advise the intermediate holding company (IHC), which is a bank holding company that sits beneath Barclays Bank PLC and consolidates Barclays’ US subsidiaries. Bailey will also advise the board of directors.

The three appointments were made as part of an internal restructuring at Barclays International, which has seen Americas GC Mark Shelton step down to focus solely on Barclays International.

Earlier this year, The Lawyer reported the hire of a new global head of financial crime at Barclays – Bank of America (BoA) managing director Frederick Reynolds in New York.

Last year, Barclays hired former Gibson Dunn & Crutcher partner Mark Shelton as general counsel of its corporate and international business (C&I). Shelton’s appointment came amid a major restructure of the bank’s legal team ahead of ring-fencing reforms that will come into force in 2019.

The restructure saw Barclays’ legal team split into two divisions: Barclays UK and Barclays Corporate & International.

Barclays also slashed its global legal panel by 60 per cent last year appointing 140 firms to its new three-tier roster.

Firms on the panel include Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Simmons & Simmons. 

Barclays is facing a number of legal challenges in both the US and the UK since the 2012 Libor-rate fixing scandal. In the US, it is at loggerheads with the US Department of Justice over a mortage bond misselling scandal, while in the UK, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has charged it with counts of fraud over funds it raised from Qatar at the height of the financial crisis.

A separate dispute arising from the Qatar loan and brought by investment firm PCP Capital Partners was adjourned until October next year out of concern it would prejudice the SFO’s investigation.

PCP, founded by Amanada Staveley, has indicated it may appeal the ruling.