Group general counsel: John Collins. Team headcount: 400 lawyers. It has undoubtedly been a difficult few years at The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) but the bank’s former group GC, Chris Campbell, maintains that the work the team has done stands above any other bank in the UK. ‘The world and his dog are aware …
Group general counsel: Andrew Whittaker. Team headcount: 320 lawyers. Lloyds Banking Group (LBG)’s corporate, and corporate real estate team in particular, received high praise from the wider legal market for their progressive and imaginative approach – the former, led by Hugh Pugsley, GC, group legal, for having the ‘ability to navigate a complex business and …
Global general counsel: Gary Lynch. Team headcount: 120 lawyers in EMEA. Supporting Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML)’s entry into the GC Power List 2015, Aviva’s group GC Kirsty Cooper observes: ‘Financial services breed strong teams because of the volatile nature of that industry over the last few years. People have to be innovative, resilient …
Group general counsel: Richard Walker. General counsel for the UK and western Europe: Emma Slatter. Team headcount: 100 lawyers in London, 600 globally. In common with many global financial institutions, Deutsche Bank has been at the centre of the regulatory cyclone for years and its 100-strong London legal team has played an instrumental role in …
General counsel and company secretary: Brona McKeown. Team headcount: 21 lawyers. With the bank mired in controversy for much of 2014, the legal team at The Co-operative Bank has received recognition and admiration within the industry for ‘ably managing the bank’s legal affairs during a particularly challenging time’. This is no understatement: in March 2013 …
Global general counsel and head of compliance: Romeo Cerutti. Managing director and EMEA general counsel: Maria Leistner. Team headcount: 450 lawyers globally. Maria Leistner, managing director and EMEA general counsel (GC), says the Credit Suisse team is one of the best in the business when it comes to the integration of compliance and risk. ‘We …
Group general counsel: Coralie Bouscasse. Team headcount: 134 lawyers. The legal team at French nuclear giant Areva has been praised for its capabilities in ‘perhaps one of the largest and most complex cases in the history of international commercial arbitration’, namely its high-profile battle against Finnish energy consortium Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) over the construction …
Legal affairs director and company secretary: Guido Santi. Team headcount: 47 (including support staff). EDF Energy, one of the UK’s big six energy suppliers, has faced a tumultuous 2014 that highlighted how effectively the legal team operates in a politically sensitive industry. The team guided the business through the controversial investigation undertaken by Ofgem over …
Director of legal services: Liz Tanner. Team headcount: 63 lawyers. 2014 was a busy year for the legal team at this renewable electricity and gas supplier, which appointed a new director of legal services, reorganised its in-house legal department and oversaw the appointment of the energy provider’s first ever legal panel, consolidating almost 30 external …
Legal director: Donny Ching. Team headcount: 700 lawyers globally. Shell’s huge legal team, led by legal director Donny Ching, supports one of the world’s largest companies, with businesses across more than 70 countries and total revenues of $451.2bn in 2013. They play an integral role on issues ranging from acquisitions, divestments and litigation to project …
