The Bank of England is pleased to announce the appointment of Sonya Branch to the role of General Counsel. She will take over from Graham Nicholson, who retires at the end of April. Ms Branch joins the Bank from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), where she was Executive Director of Enforcement and a member of the Board. She will assume her post in mid May. Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England said: 'I am delighted that Sonya Branch is joining the Bank. Sonya brings excellent judgement, versatility, a commitment to public service, as well as extensive private sector experience. All of the Bank’s senior management team are looking forward to working closely with her.'

General Motors Canada has recruited Volkswagen Canada's general counsel Peter Cho as its vice president and general counsel as well as appointing GM Canada lawyer Christina Cuthbert as assistant general counsel. Mr Cho will also join the GM Canada Board of Directors. He will report to GM Canada president Stephen Carlisle and Lucy Clark Dougherty, vice president, general counsel of GM North America and Chief Legal Advisor, Global Vehicle Safety.  Ms Cuthbert will also now serve as the secretary for the GM Canada Board of Director. Mr Cho previously worked at Canadian law firm Fasken Martineau DuMoulin and Macleod Dixon and was general counsel at  Kia Canada.

Barclays has appointed Simon Croxford as general counsel for Investment Banking for the Europe and Middle East region. Mr Croxford, who will report to general counsel Mark Shelton, will be also be responsible for Barclays Non-Core group as well as remaining on the group and investment bank legal executive committees. He previously worked at UBS and law firm Linklaters.

The National Security Agency’s chief legal officer is to join the Washington DC office of Mayer Brown. Rajesh De was principal legal adviser to NSA current director, Michael Rogers. At the NSA, Mr De stood at the nexus between national security policy and law as the agency was dealing with the fallout from former agency contractor Edward Snowden’s exposure of the government’s broad-scale surveillance programmes.

Private equity firm NGP Energy Capital Management has appointed Jeffrey Zlotky  private-as general counsel, the company announced this week. Mr Zlotky was a partner at Thompson & Knight  corporate and securities practice, focusing on energy finance and private equity.NGP Energy Capital Management is based in Texas.