The Guardian has announced that it is looking for a legal director to replace Siobhan Butterworth, who has taken up an editorial role at the newspaper.

Butterworth set up the newspaper group’s in-house legal function in 1997 when she joined as a litigation specialist from Finers Stephen Innocent. Under her leadership the media group’s in-house team grew to seven lawyers and was involved in a number of high-profile cases including the Sara Keays v Guardian Newspapers defamation case in 2003.