Key clients: Anheuser-Busch InBev, Tesco, Smiths Group
Partner since 2015
As a teenager I was desperate to be a criminal defence barrister. I did work experience with a barrister when I was 16 and loved it. At some point after becoming more educated about the profession, I wanted to work as part of a big deal team.
Continue reading “Rising Star: Alison Smith, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer”
With new legislation putting human rights on the business agenda, we teamed up with Herbert Smith Freehills to gather lawyers and experts from a range of industries to debate the key issues
In our recent Insight report on business and human rights (see Soft law, hard sanctions – Human rights laws and the next risk front facing business) – published in September in association with Herbert Smith Freehills – we noted how the arrival of the Modern Slavery Act (MSA) in the UK in 2015 has crystallised the groundswell of awareness of the human rights concerns in business. We heard from in-house human rights experts how the debate over the last 15 years had moved beyond a vague concept to which lip service had been paid to become a bona fide business consideration, combining legal liability with potentially devastating reputational risk.
Continue reading “The business and human rights debate: The new judges”
Key clients: Glencore, Lloyds Banking Group, Alinda
Partner since 2011
I always wanted to do M&A. I used to look at the financial papers at university and was always interested in the deals. As a Linklaters trainee I decided very quickly I wanted to do corporate. I enjoyed the transactions and being at the centre of client relationships.
Key clients: Shell, Mediclinic, RSA, Dentsu Aegis, Remgro, Priceline
Partner since 2015
I went into law on gut feel. A non-law student who studied history and French. When you start thinking about getting in the City and what would suit my skillset, law felt like the natural choice.
Continue reading “Rising Star: Rob Innes, Slaughter and May”
With high-billing duo Charlie Jacobs and Gideon Moore taking the helm at Linklaters there is renewed swagger on Silk Street. Will it be enough to revive the City leader after a troubled post-Lehman run?
For a young South African who saw law as a stepping stone to business, Charlie Jacobs has had quite a journey. Something of an anomaly at Linklaters in the early 1990s, when even by the standards of the City elite, the firm was ‘stiff and English’, Jacobs found the place ‘a bit intimidating’ in the early years. But if he truly lacked confidence then, he hid it well. Now, after nearly a decade as Linklaters’ unrivalled corporate star, the youthful-looking 50-year old has this month begun his role as the City giant’s new senior partner for a five-year term.
Continue reading “Rain men – goodbye Harvard Kool-Aid, hello plain speaking at Linklaters’ c-suite”
We teamed up with Reed Smith to ask which skills the GCs of tomorrow will need to lead and what the future holds for in-house leadership training.
Continue reading “Leadership and the modern GC: a special report”
Leadership training has until recently neglected the growing ranks of GCs. To begin our Insight special with Reed Smith, we assess the educational options for in-house counsel striving to meet growing skills demands
In 2012 the MBA degree established itself as the most popular subject of postgraduate education in the US, accounting for more than a quarter of all enrolments according to the US Department of Education. Along with the usual diet of macroeconomics, management theory and financial accounting, MBA programmes have ensured that those who seek to carve out a corporate career focus on one quality above all others: leadership.
Continue reading “Taught leaders – executive training for the ambitious GC”
An ambitious generation of in-house counsel is determined to take on leadership roles, despite corporate pressure to stay in the box. We ask GCs what it takes to break out as a leader
Are in-house counsel ready to be business leaders? It seems a strange question to ask given the level of education and training of most in-house lawyers and the dramatic expansion of the size and responsibilities of legal teams over the last 15 years.
And yet, leadership remains an issue that hangs ominously over the careers of in-house counsel. As they take on work that once would have gone to law firms and deal with mounting organisational, legislative and regulatory complexity they are often pushed towards the technically-demanding side of their legal role. Meanwhile, colleagues from finance, marketing or sales teams remain far more likely to be promoted to senior leadership roles within the company.
Continue reading “The next step – meet the GCs determined to seize leadership roles”
What does leadership mean in a region where the role of the in-house lawyer is rapidly evolving?
‘Becoming an in-house lawyer has not traditionally been a desirable career path for Asia’s top graduates,’ says Amy Ng, general counsel (GC) for the Asia-Pacific region at global real estate company CBRE. ‘But we are seeing a lot of change now in the number of people leaving private practice to work for a business.’
Continue reading “The art of leadership in Asia – an evolving role for legal heads”
To mark this year’s Global 100 report, we gathered a group of senior figures at the top of Tower 42 to debate the big issues facing Big Law
Alex Novarese, Legal Business: How are market conditions looking now?
David Bickerton, Clifford Chance: Too early to tell. Clearly there was a pent-up demand leading up to the referendum in June. What is interesting is whether all the optimism that partners are feeling will manifest itself in transactions come the fourth quarter.
