Gideon Moore to join as general counsel of NatWest Group

Gideon Moore to join as general counsel of NatWest Group

With more than 300 lawyers on his team, Gideon Moore was chosen for one of the top in-house roles in the UK. Linklaters' former firm wide managing partner, Gideon Moore, will join as NatWest Group's chief legal officer and general counsel.

Moore, who stepped down as senior partner of Linklaters in July 2021 and retired in October, will succeed Michael Shaw in one of the top in-house legal roles in the UK on 1 April, 2022.

As the former head of Linklaters' global banking practice, he will be a member of the bank's executive committee and report to chief executive Alison Rose. He will oversee a team of more than 300 lawyers overseeing the bank's legal, governance and regulatory affairs.

"He [Moore] will play an important role in building momentum on our strategy by providing insight, guidance, and challenge," said Rose, who thanked Shaw for his contributions as the legal head since last six years.

NatWest Group, the altered name from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in July 2020, is one of the main clients of Linklaters. Linklaters advised National Westminster Bank on its landmark acquisition by RBS in 2000.

The appointment of Moore comes as the bank approaches a major milestone in its recovery after being rescued by the government during the financial crisis: anticipated the government's stake to slide below 50 percent in 2023, with some analysts predicting a full withdrawal by 2025.

When NatWest was fined £264m in December, Rose promised the bank would invest more in its fight against financial crime. Meanwhile, NatWest has pleaded guilty to failing to fulfil with anti-money-laundering regulations in the first criminal prosecution by the Financial Conduct Authority under UK anti-money-laundering laws.

Operating, the group's legal team will likely continue to put forth pressure on law firms. It instructs to improve their sustainability credentials, as the department blind-scored firms all through its 2020 panel review.

The Law Society Gazette in March 2021 quoted Suzanne Rodway, the GC for legal, governance, and regulatory affairs, as saying that improving diversity is a journey, and many of its firms are at an early stage of progress.

In January 2016, Moore was appointed Linklaters' global managing partner and re-elected for a second term in 2019. Originally scheduled to step down in April, he brought the date forward and handed the baton to global finance head Paul Lewis in July, the same month Aedamar Comiskey became the firm's first woman senior partner.

Moore becomes the second Linklaters leader to take up a prominent in-house role within the UK in recent months. US head, Tom Shropshire, took responsibility from Siobhán Moriarty's as general counsel of Diageo in June 2021.