Around the house

National Express general counsel Sandra Forbes has left the company after two years in the transporter's top legal role. After 18 years as a partner at legacy firm Frere Cholmeley Bischoff (now part of Eversheds), Ms Forbes served as head of corporate and financial institutions for Burges Salmon before joining National Express in April 2014. The company has not yet commented on the reasons behind Ms Forbes' departure, or her likely successor. 

Meanwhile, Lloyds of London general counsel Sean McGovern is leaving the banking group to join XL Group as its new chief compliance officer, head of regulatory and government affairs. Mr McGovern has been a member of the Lloyds team since 1996 and rose to the business’ executive team in 2002. Following his departure in July he will be replaced by current Lloyds head of legal and compliance Peter Spires, while Mr McGovern’s role as chief risk officer will be filled on an interim basis by head of internal audit Hilary Weaver. The outgoing Lloyds GC will take up his new post at XL Group in November.

Also in the banking and finance sector, Barclays has reshuffled its in-house legal team ahead of ring fencing reforms which will split the bank’s retail and investment arms. Two new divisions have been created: Barclays UK and Barclays Corporate & International, with Mark Chapman having been appointed as GC of Barclays UK in March. His senior team comprises David McCahon as GC for personal banking, Helen Oldfield as GC for the newly-established wealth, entrepreneurs and business banking, Benjamin Frarin La Michellaz as head of legal in Europe and Rob Dinning as GC for operations and technology legal.

The bank’s group general counsel Bob Hoyt will take on the additional role as GC for Corporate & International, with Richard Hickson and Anjali Chhania reporting directly to him as GC for Barclaycard and GC for the corporate bank respectively.

Professional services consultancy WJP Parsons Brinckerhoff has picked up Addleshaw Goddard finance projects partner Karen Sewell as its new EMEIA (Europe, Middle East, India and Africa) general counsel and UK head of legal. Ms Sewell has worked as partner at Addleshaw’s Leeds office since 2011 after training at Linklaters and holding an associate position at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, where she spent time in both London and New York. Ms Sewel replaced former WJP Parsons general counsel Nick Weston, who exited the company in January.

Finally, Silicon Valley-based Marvell Technology Solutions has appointed Mitchel Gaynor as executive vice president, chief legal officer and secretary of the company. Mr Gaynor joins Marvell after an 11-year stint at Juniper Networks, where he also served as general counsel. His resume boasts in-house leadership roles at Portal Software and Sybase. Mr Gaynor joins Marvell as the silicon solutions company faces ongoing SEC and DoJ probes relating to accounting and governance issues.