Things will soon change in the Pittsburgh-based legal department of PNC Financial Services Group Inc. After nearly two decades in the general counsel role, Helen Pudlin will retire at the end of the month.

Pudlin assumed the general counsel mantle in 1994, and was appointed executive vice president in February 2009.

“In her 18 years as general counsel, Helen has become more than a trusted legal adviser,” PNC Chairman and CEO James Rohr said in a statement. “Her sound judgment and masterful strategic counsel have been decisive in some of the most important business decisions this company has ever made.”

Pudlin, who previously worked as a partner at Ballard Spahr from 1974 to 1989, will make way for Robert Hoyt, who joined the financial services firm in 2009 as senior deputy general counsel and chief regulatory affairs officer. In his most-recent position, Hoyt was responsible for a wide range of legal issues related to PNC’s retail, asset management, and corporate and institutional businesses.

Prior to joining PNC, Hoyt was general counsel of the Department of the Treasury, and served as special assistant and associate counsel to President George W. Bush before joining the Treasury Department in 2009.

Hoyt also was a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, and clerked for Justice Herbert P. Wilkins of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

“Along with prior experience as a general counsel, Bob brought to PNC expertise in the operation of important federal agencies,” Rohr said. “He has dramatically increased our regulatory and legislative affairs capabilities at a time when these skills are in very high demand. We expect him to build on the exceptional work done by Helen Pudlin.

For more on PNC’s general counsel, read the Pittsburgh Business Times.