Around the house

Alex MacGillivray, Twitter's top lawyer and a well-known champion of free speech, is leaving the company as it prepares for a public offering sometime in 2014. The man,  known as AMac to his colleagues, wrote in his personal blog that he will remain in an advisory role. 'I’ll continue to support the company and its great people by staying on as an advisor for the legal, trust & safety, corporate development and public policy teams. I continue to care deeply about Twitter, the folks who work at Twitter and our tremendous users, so I’ll remain close to all three,' he said.

 AMac announced details of his successor in the blog: 'I will soon pass the Twitter General Counsel torch to Vijaya Gadde (@vijaya). Vijaya has been managing Twitter’s corporate and international legal work, and I’ve gotten to know her well over the last fourteen years. I couldn’t be happier with her appointment as General Counsel of Twitter.'

Another changing of the legal guard was announced at Barclays where Bob Hoyt takes over from Mark Harding as group general counsel. As of mid-October, Mr Hoyt moves into his new role, with Mr Harding leaving after a handover period. The new group general counsel will sit on the executive committee and report in directly to the group chief exec, Antony Jenkins. A former general counsel at the US Department of the Treasury and associate counsel at the White House, Mr Hoyt comes to Barclays from PNC Financial Services Group where he is general counsel, according to Here Is The City Business.

Also beginning a new role in October is criminal lawyer Mxolisi Nxasana who has been appointed as head of the National Prosecuting Authority in South Africa. Mr Nxasana was appointed almost at the last moment by president Jacob Zuma who had to make the announcement before the start of September. 

Mr Nxasana's arrival was hailed as a significant step by lawyer Dumisa Ntsebeza of Advocates for Transformation who said: 'There should be no pressure on him. The public should give him a chance to settle.' It was important, Mr Nxasana added, that the new chief prosecutor be able to carry out his work 'without fear or favour'. Lawyer Sophy Noko has been appointed as Director of Public Prosecutions, according to Dispatch Online.