BP's Group General Counsel Rupert Bondy will step down from the job at the end of 2016, after eight years, during which time he oversaw the legal battles surrounding the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, a company spokesman said on Oct. 24.

Bondy, an executive team member, will join health and home products manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser as senior vice president, general counsel and company secretary.

A successor for Bondy has yet be named, the company said.

Bondy is a British national who joined BP Plc (NYSE: BP) in 2008. He was at the heart of several huge legal processes with U.S. authorities and claimants following the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion in April 2010 in which 11 workers died and which resulted in the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

BP subsequently paid more than $55 billion in penalties and cleanup costs in the years following the incident.

"Rupert has been a greatly valued member of BP's executive team and will always have the deep respect of the board and senior management of the company. I wish him all the very best," BP CEO Bob Dudley said in a statement.