City firm RPC has hired former Worldpay corporate general counsel Matthew Griffith as a partner in its corporate insurance and financial services team, in a bid to ‘sharpen client focus’ in the sector.
Griffith led the corporate team at payment services group Worldpay and was responsible for providing support and advice while focusing on UK and international M&A and corporate finance. He gave support to the company’s main board and operating committee and collaborated with central business lines including HR, tax, finance, risk, internal audit and technology.
He also supported the business on re financing to simplify its debt structure, fund acquisitions and deliver a significant reduction in the cost of debt, and further carried out a review of its corporate governance structure.
Prior to his role in-house, Griffith was a partner at US firm Sidley Austin for more than two years until 2012, and spent nearly six years at Pinsent Masons.
RPC managing partner Jonathan Watmough said: ‘The combination of [Matthew’s] time in house at Worldpay and his previous experience in private practice means he really understands what goes into building long-term mutually beneficial relationships – we’re looking forward to using his insight to help us sharpen our client focus even further.’
Corporate insurance and financial services head James Mee added: ‘We have stated our ambition to become the go-to transactional and advisory law firm for insurance and wider financial services matters. Over the past few years clients have supported us towards achieving that, both for general insurance and, more recently, life insurance.’
The hire follows RPC’s foray into consultancy earlier this year when it launched a business to target core insurance sector clients with the hire of Rory O’Brien, the former global head of risk consulting and software at Towers Watson, to spearhead the venture.
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk
