One of the two plum general counsel jobs on offer at the UK’s leading companies has just been filled. Global energy giant Shell has appointed Beat Hess from Swiss-based engineering group ABB to succeed the retiring Pieter Folmer as head of its 400-lawyer strong legal department.
Attention will now focus on who is to succeed Howard Trust as group general counsel at Barclays Bank. The appointment of Trust’s successor is one that many in the legal community, not least the bank’s 250-plus in-house lawyers and its outside law firms, are waiting with bated breath to hear about. As yet there is no word – even though headhunters were understood to have sounded out potential candidates several months ago.
