State Street Corp., the Boston-based financial services giant, has announced the appointment of Mark Shelton as its new general counsel and corporate secretary. An ex-Gibson Dunn partner, Shelton departed from Barclays last year.
In his resurrection role, Shelton is succeeding David Phelan, who served as State Street’s top legal authority since mid-2020 and is currently retiring. Shelton’s confirmation of the role occurred on January 1.
Prior to joining Barclays in 2015 in New York, Shelton used to work at Gibson Dunn. He transitioned into Barclays from his previous role at Swiss bank UBS Group AG. Notably, Shelton had spent more than a decade at UBS and had held the roles of Americas general counsel and global head of investigations.
Gibson Dunn had recruited Shelton in 2014 and upon his movement to Barclays, UBS had acquired Credit Suisse the previous year.
In recent news, State Street declared yet another layoff of 1,500 jobs by the end of the year in their bid to optimize operations. This decision followed a similar announcement of 1,500 job cuts back in January, 2019.
Phelan, with a tenure of nearly 20 years at State Street, was initially hired by the company in 2006. His previous professional engagement was at the law firm – now known as Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. Both Shelton and Phelan have the common credential of having served as associates at this firm, which holds its origins in Boston.
However, in the list of State Street’s highest-paid executives during the financial year of 2022, Phelan’s name was missing according to the company’s latest proxy statement. His possession of $5.5 million worth of company stocks was revealed by data from Bloomberg.
Phelan had also reduced his holdings last year by selling nearly $1.3 million in State Street stock. A record shows his son (with the same name) was an employee at State Street and had earned a total compensation under $250,000 from the company in 2021.
In the wake of Shelton’s departure, Barclays filled the void by recruiting Crystal Lalime last year from Credit Suisse Group AG. Lalime has been deployed as the company’s Americas legal chief and the spearheading lawyer for its investment banking operations.