State Street hires new general counsel from Barclays

State Street Corporation has appointed Mark Shelton as executive vice president and general counsel, reporting to CEO and chair Ron O’Hanley. Shelton succeeds David Phelan, who announced his retirement last year.

Shelton joins State Street from Barclays International where he was general counsel, a role in which he oversaw legal services related to client transactions and trading in addition to cross-border regulatory compliance, data security, privacy and ESG strategy.

According to his LinkedIn profile, before moving to Barclays Shelton was co-chair of the financial institutions group at law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. Before that he spent more than a decade at UBS, most recently as global head of investigations and general counsel for the Americas.

Shelton had previously been a partner at Wilmer Cutler & Pickering, where he advised broker-dealers and investment advisers on regulatory and enforcement matters. He began his legal career in the office of the SEC’s general counsel having been a law clerk on the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

Phelan joined State Street having formerly been a senior partner focusing on the investment management industry, securities law compliance, M&A and corporate governance matters with Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.

According to State Street, the firm had $40 tn in assets under custody and/or administration and $3.7 tn in assets under management as of September 30, 2023.

O’Hanley says in a statement: ‘Mark is an accomplished financial institutions attorney with a commercial orientation and deep knowledge of the banking industry. With more than 30 years practicing law in both private practice and public sector environments, he has extensive experience related to multi-jurisdictional regulatory and other sophisticated legal issues facing large, global financial institutions. We are pleased to welcome him to State Street.’