The In-House Survey: managing counsel – Getting with the programme

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For years clients have decried advisers’ poor attitude to flexibility and value. Our third in-house lawyer survey shows the message is getting through at last.

Deborah Prince, head of legal and company secretary at the British Heart Foundation, who is forthright in her views on questionable behaviour by external advisers, recalls a recent incident with a law firm that she swears she will never use again. Responding to a request to work on a high-value contract, the firm sent back an excessively long document, containing endless provisions on issues that were never going to be a concern.

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The In-House Survey: adviser feedback – The usual suspects

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As clients give advisers credit for improving value and service, our third annual in-house lawyer survey shows some of the City’s top firms making the most ground

‘When Magic Circle firms are appointed on appropriate matters, they offer real quality and value. The problem is, there is an ever-increasing type of work that is not appropriate to instruct them on as other firms offer significantly better quality and value. When the Magic Circle is retained on work that is not appropriate, my experiences are broadly negative.’

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The GC Power List summer reception – Reaching out, reaching up

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Legal Business for the first time extended its GC Power List into a summer reception. A distinguished list of panellists debated what it takes to get ahead for rising stars of the in-house world

Having for two years built up our annual GC Power List report and reception, Legal Business in June extended the venture into our first summer event as a means to further support the in-house community.

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Numbers crunching – the rise of KPIs for the progressive client

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Traditional methods of assessing external legal advisers’ performance are giving way to a more formalised approach. Legal Business examines the rise of the key performance indicator.

‘It goes back to the old business truism that you can only manage what you measure,’ says Eversheds head of international, Stephen Hopkins, who is responsible for the firm’s single-supplier client relationships, a number of which use a series of well-established key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure adviser performance.

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Profile: Carol Hui – Heathrow Airport Holdings

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Heathrow’s legal chief on early responsibility, legal satnavs and runway three.

While most general counsel (GCs) at major companies will talk of the attraction of getting close to the business, in a highly varied career Heathrow Airport Holdings legal head Carol Hui really can claim to have been at the corporate coalface for years.

The Slaughter and May-trained lawyer has amassed a huge range of experience since moving to British Gas in a senior corporate role at a time when female lawyers in influential roles were rare in private practice, let alone industry. Continue reading “Profile: Carol Hui – Heathrow Airport Holdings”

GC Power List – Summer Reception 2014

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The GC Power List Summer Reception was held on the evening of 11 June, with RPC as lead sponsor. The event comprised a relaxed debate chaired by veteran City columnist Anthony Hilton followed by an evening of food and drink at the renowned private members’ club at The Ivy. The debate included senior lawyers sharing their experiences from companies including Land Securities, ITV, Royal Bank of Scotland, Shire and Vodafone.

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Second Best – The Pros and Cons of Borrowing Your Talent

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The secondment has long been leant on by corporates to plug holes in their resources but, as the economy recovers and law firms’ resources become strained, does the model still deliver?

Often billed as a win-win for resource-strapped in-house teams and private practice firms looking to deepen their client relationships, secondments are arguably also a convenient window dressing for clients to get something for nothing in the name of relationship building.

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Profile: Simon Dowson-Collins, HarperCollins UK

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The media lawyer talks about daytime TV and taking the top spot at the publishing giant.

Although not recommended for your average wannabe general counsel (GC), before rising up to become HarperCollins’ most senior UK lawyer, Simon Dowson-Collins’ in-house career began by watching television during the day.

Formerly with media firm Wright Webb Syrett, which merged with the now defunct Davenport Lyons, Dowson-Collins’ enviable first taste of life on the buy-side was as a media defamation litigator at the BBC, checking programmes such as Have I Got News for You, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and They Think It’s all Over.

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Taking the lead – the GCs striving for life without a law firm

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A growing band of in-house counsel are taking on major projects with little or no support from outside advisers. How far can ambitious GCs push the envelope?

When asked why an in-house legal team would choose to handle the majority of its major projects in-house, head of legal at Marks & Spencer, Robert Ivens, turns the question on its head.

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Profile: Graeme Colquhoun, Heineken UK

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Global brewer’s UK head of legal on his no-nonsense approach

It’s a terrible cliché to invoke the plain-speaking Scot, but Heineken’s UK head of legal Graeme Colquhoun does rather fit the bill. The intellectual property (IP) and antitrust specialist turned in-house counsel is certainly candid about his strengths and how a legal team in a major global company should operate.

‘My skills are broad but shallow. I am much better qualified to be the lawyer for a corporate than provide corporate/property/litigation advice in a law firm. I’m direct – I don’t like to flannel around the issue.’

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