Barclays Global Investors (BGI) has snared a former Goldman Sachs rainmaker to become its new global general counsel.

Michael Crowl joins after 13 years at the investment bank, where he was most recently managing director and global general counsel, as first revealed on www.thelawyer. com (9 October).

Barclays global head of banking Mark Harding told The Lawyer: “We searched the globe for someone with the right experience in regulatory issues for this position. Michael joins from Goldmans, where he was a very important member of the organisation and dealt with extremely high-level legal and regulatory issues.”

Based in Hong Kong, London and New York, Crowl was instrumental in developing Goldmans’ capital markets regulatory framework and spearheaded the bank’s response to high-profile US securities reform in 2005 and 2006.

Crowl, who will be based in BGI’s San Francisco office, will oversee the group legal and compliance issues and will also be a member of Barclays’ legal and executive committee.

He will report to global chief operating officer Rohit Bhagat and Harding.

Harding said: “We have regular meetings either in person or electronically. It’s important to make sure that each part of the group is well connected.”

Crowl will replace Joanne Medero, who served as general counsel at BGI for more than 10 years. Medero is now the head of government relations and public policy for the investment banking and investment management divisions of Barclays.