About

Team size: 500
Major law firms used: Allen & Overy, Ashurst, Eversheds Sutherland, Hogan Lovells, Reed Smith, Slaughter and May, TLT

John Collins attracted headlines in December 2015 when he resigned from his role as the chief lawyer of The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), a position he had only held for 11 months. He had replaced the well-respected Chris Campbell when he was appointed RBS GC in January of that year.

After starting his in-house career at Citigroup in 1995, Collins spent a number of years at the Dutch-based banking group ABN AMRO. In 2007, the company was acquired by a consortium consisting of RBS, Santander and Fortis. He then went on to become a key figure for RBS after the financial crisis, showing enough quality to be seen as the perfect replacement for Campbell.

At the time of his departure, one RBS lawyer lamented the loss, describing Collins as ‘trusted, very capable and a good guy.’ It is easy to see why – Collins presided over a 400-strong legal team as it concluded a $2bn US litigation, brought against a host of banks over alleged losses caused by the rigging of foreign exchange markets.

He has carried on living up to that billing since joining Santander as its director of legal, compliance, regulatory affairs and financial crime in 2016. Collins has overseen a landmark review of the bank’s UK legal advice panel, where in 2017 a host of firms including Slaughter and May, Reed Smith and Eversheds Sutherland were appointed.