Royal Mail, Sky and Deliveroo have all made senior legal hires in a busy period for in-house recruitment.
Royal Mail has filled the void left following former general counsel (GC) Maaike de Bie’s departure to easyJet, hiring in-house veteran Mark Amsden as its group GC and chief risk and governance officer.
Amsden was group GC and company secretary for Morrisons between 2013 and 2017, before a brief stint last year as interim company secretary at Yorkshire Water. Prior to going in-house, Amsden spent 14 years as a partner at Addleshaw Goddard, after starting out at Manchester firm Slater Heelis. Royal Mail has historically counted Addleshaw Goddard among its preferred external counsel.
Amsden has big shoes to fill, with his predecessor de Bie drawing considerable plaudits for her innovative leadership style. One of her initiatives was setting up an internal training academy, which schooled junior lawyers on soft skills such as networking and leadership, in addition to traditional legal training.
Elsewhere, Sky appointed a new GC for UK and Ireland, promoting Claire Canning (pictured) to the role from 1 July. She was previously Sky’s director of legal for content and commercial, and replaces Vicky Sandry, who was bumped up to group GC at the turn of the year. Sandry replaced the long-serving James Conyers, who retires this summer after a 26-year career at Sky.
Canning, previously a partner at legacy Olswang, has more than 20 years’ experience as a commercial lawyer, including 13-years at Sky.
She commented: ‘Sky will continue to be at the forefront of innovation as part of the wider Comcast family, further enhancing our ability to do more, move faster and better connect our customers to more of what they love.’
Finally, takeaway-ordering app Deliveroo has named its new legal head, promoting former corporate and compliance chief, Chantelle Zemba, to GC.
Zemba, who was previously a senior associate at Norton Rose Fulbright, originally joined Deliveroo on a five-month secondment between in late 2016 before joining permanently.
She replaces previous legal chief Rob Miller, who left in January this year, and will report to Thea Rogers, chief communications, policy and legal officer.