Welcome to the hurricane – Latam GCs struggle with corruption clampdown

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Welcome to the hurricane – Latam GCs struggle with corruption clampdown

It has been a turbulent few years for many of those in the upper echelons of Brazilian politics and business. Around the world, headlines have been filled with salacious tales of corruption, perhaps most notably the bribery and kickback scandal emanating from state-backed oil giant Petrobras, embroiling many high-profile individuals and entities across the region.

Anti-corruption legislation and regulation enacted in the past five years – the so-called 2014 Clean Company Act, fully implemented in 2015 amid public unrest by the soon-to-be-impeached President Rousseff – has enabled Brazil to usher in a new era of compliance, the efficacy of which has left many in the business community reeling. The judge-led ‘Lava Jato’ (‘Carwash’) investigation, started in 2014, is perhaps the most recognisable herald of this new era. Continue reading “Welcome to the hurricane – Latam GCs struggle with corruption clampdown”

Client profile: Sarah Nelson Smith, Yum! Brands

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Client profile: Sarah Nelson Smith, Yum! Brands

In many ways it was ideal preparation. Before embarking on a legal career, Sarah Nelson Smith took a post-law school gap year working as a holiday rep in the popular Greek retreat of Halkidiki. It was an eye-opening experience, figuratively and literally, welcoming holidaymakers at unholy hours and dealing with bizarre questions and gripes.

‘We had one guy who complained about the sea. There was a beautiful blue-flag beach but he said: “The hotel smells too salty in the morning.” He also complained about too many fish, while once a woman was crying during the welcome speech. When I asked her what was wrong, she said: “I can’t find my boyfriend.” I asked: “When was the last time you saw him?” and she said: “I haven’t seen him since we arrived at the airport, when the police took him.” He’d been smuggling drugs and got arrested. I had to go to the British consulate and fetch him.’ Continue reading “Client profile: Sarah Nelson Smith, Yum! Brands”

On borrowed time – the GCs looking for answers in a post-LPO age

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On borrowed time – the GCs looking for answers in a post-LPO age

The collapse of film giant Kodak in 2012 is already established to many as the definitive case study of the failure of a business convinced its model would last forever. At its peak, Kodak’s share of the photographic film market was more than 80% in the US and 50% globally. So, when a Kodak employee invented the first digital camera in the 1970s, he was told by the board to keep quiet about it. Denial took hold right up until January 2017 when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Reborn as a tiny, niche player with a few lucrative patents these days, annual profits for Kodak now are around $12m.

The lesson? Adapt or die. If innovators stop innovating, problems follow. Just ask Nokia and BlackBerry. This, on a much smaller scale, could be an existential crisis that the legal process outsourcing (LPO) industry may have to face. Continue reading “On borrowed time – the GCs looking for answers in a post-LPO age”

Precision instruments – the curiously orderly disruption of legal ops teams

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Precision instruments – the curiously orderly disruption of legal ops teams

With increasing scrutiny of outside spend, general counsel (GCs) are under mounting pressure to deliver a smooth-running and more efficient machine, as well as effective legal advice. GCs must therefore fine-tune their teams with a discerning eye for quality and economy.

It is a far cry from even ten years ago, when legal heads in the main functioned as a general superintendent of sorts, deploying outside counsel to do much of the work. By 2018, it is becoming increasingly common to see GCs at major plcs running in-house teams similar in scope to top-tier law firms. Continue reading “Precision instruments – the curiously orderly disruption of legal ops teams”

Client profile: Neil Murrin, trainline

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Client profile: Neil Murrin, trainline

The train puns were inevitable, but it took longer than expected. Towards the end of my conversation with the general counsel (GC) of online ticket retailer trainline, Neil Murrin, he says: ‘It’s a matter of getting people to join us on that journey.’ And adds: ‘Getting people on the right track and all that.’

Coming from a family of medics, Murrin was intent on avoiding a career in health services. He cites his earliest interest in law as originating from seminal-yet-cheesy drama series L.A. Law, in addition to the influence of his solicitor uncle. He recalls: ‘I’ve always been interested in economics and companies. There was an understanding that law gives you a good training in those areas and could move you towards the company side.’ Continue reading “Client profile: Neil Murrin, trainline”

Northern exposure – The Scots GC debate

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Northern exposure – The Scots GC debate

Earlier this year, Legal Business ventured north of the border to highlight the community of commercial counsel flourishing in Scotland in an extended feature. To follow up, this autumn we teamed up with Addleshaw Goddard to gather a panel of senior general counsel (GCs) at Edinburgh’s Signet Library in Parliament Square to debate a range of related issues to an audience of over 60 in-house counsel. With Brexit on the agenda, a changing legal profession and Scotland’s economy striving to reinvent itself for an increasingly-globalised age, there was plenty to talk about.

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Alex Novarese, Legal Business: In recent years, the Scots economy has tracked a little behind the UK. How confident are people feeling now in a turbulent time for business? Continue reading “Northern exposure – The Scots GC debate”

Fresh starts – inside the pioneering US school training lawyers on the start-up community

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Fresh starts – inside the pioneering US school training lawyers on the start-up community

Look out law schools, there is a disrupter in town. Naturally, that town is Silicon Valley, the home of innovation. And the innovator in question is University of California Berkeley, which includes a leading US law school, renowned for its prowess in technology and IP.

It might seem natural that Berkeley Law’s proximity to the Bay Area tech hub would lead to an inventive approach to legal education. This idea certainly drew Hannah Porter, a former entrepreneur, to enrol at Berkeley Law in 2015. Continue reading “Fresh starts – inside the pioneering US school training lawyers on the start-up community”

Back to the drawing board

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Back to the drawing board

You wouldn’t mistake a lawyer for a designer. One is usually armed with a pen and a rulebook, the other with a Mac and a black turtleneck. Right? Wrong.

Design concepts have been around in business for decades. Global design consultancy IDEO, famous for creating the iconic first Apple mouse, is often credited as being the first to reposition design from a ‘beautiful wrapper’ around a previously developed concept, to a system for creating ideas that can be applied not just to processes, but systems and even organisations. Continue reading “Back to the drawing board”

Education, education, education – the struggle to find quality GC training

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Education, education, education – the struggle to find quality GC training

Speaking at the Westminster Legal Policy Forum recently, renowned industry futurologist Richard Susskind accused the UK’s law schools of being stuck in the 1970s, preparing graduates to undertake work that will become increasingly uncommon while failing to train aspiring solicitors in the new technologies that will replace much of the work lawyers now do.

He has a point. Dutch start-up Clocktimizer recently compiled a list of legal tech courses available in English – of the 37 courses currently being offered, just four are taught in the UK (one of which, the Legal Geek Hackathon, is delivered extramurally). Continue reading “Education, education, education – the struggle to find quality GC training”

Client profile: Rushad Abadan, Standard Life Aberdeen

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Client profile: Rushad Abadan, Standard Life Aberdeen

The general counsel of the Scots-based investment giant reflects on the lessons of the financial crisis and what it takes to run a FTSE 100 legal team

Rushad Abadan always knew what he wanted to do with his life. ‘I always fancied the idea of being a lawyer, even at school. I was one of those people who was very clear about their career path early on. Happily for me it worked out.’ Continue reading “Client profile: Rushad Abadan, Standard Life Aberdeen”