Power struggles – the challenges facing counsel in the $5trn oil and gas industry

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Legal Business talks to lawyers on the frontline of the controversial and risky oil and gas business to explore the industry trends and challenges in-house legal teams face

2010 was arguably a turning point in the $5trn global energy market. That was the year that Brazilian oil giant Petrobras undertook a record-shattering $70bn equity offering ahead of unveiling a $224bn investment plan, on some measures the largest corporate spending programme the world has ever seen.

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Profile: Andrew Whittaker and Kate Cheetham, Lloyds Banking Group

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The bank’s group and deputy GCs discuss the split of Lloyds and TSB, and helping Lloyds’ efforts to rebuild trust after the banking crisis.

When Andrew Whittaker joined Lloyds Banking Group as group general counsel (GC) in May 2013, the message to the market behind his move following a 13-year stint as GC of the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) was not lost.

The trend towards embracing regulatory skills (think now-departed FSA chief executive Hector Sants’ appointment as compliance head at Barclays) came as the major high street bank continued to deal with the fallout of the financial crisis, which for Lloyds meant a multi-billion pound bail-out by the UK government. That is to say nothing of its implication in payment protection insurance mis-selling and ongoing investigations into its involvement in alleged Libor rigging.

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Lessons learned – will bluechip legal teams ever take training seriously?

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While the in-house profession has come of age, the number of home-grown trainees remains tiny. Legal Business assesses whether in-house teams should lessen their reliance on law firm-schooled staff

Despite talk of radical changes to legal education and burgeoning in-house legal teams in blue-chip organisations, there has been no real breakthrough in a mainstream plc route to qualification.

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Profile: Alison Kay, National Grid

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The energy giant’s group GC discusses the overhaul of its legal function

When the in-house legal team of a large corporate announces a ‘review’, it’s often enough to instil a sense of foreboding in its external legal panel. For the law firm, it’s likely to mean months of painstaking paper pushing, parading in front of senior lawyers (and, these days, possibly their bosses) and making promises they hope they can keep, particularly when it comes to costs versus service levels.

But at National Grid, things are a little different, for now at least. There is a review planned, but group general counsel (GC) and company secretary Alison Kay is determined to analyse service levels closer to home, starting with her own 31-strong UK team.

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Rising Stars for 2014 – Introduction

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Welcome to Legal Business’ second annual GC Power List, which follows up on our successful launch last year. While we already knew we wanted the Power List to be an ongoing strand for Legal Business and its sister title The In-House Lawyer, reflecting the growing clout of in-house lawyers, attentive readers will note a shift in format from 2013. Since we didn’t feel the most influential senior general counsel (GC) would materially change in the space of 12 months, we decided it would be more worthwhile to this year focus on the rising stars of in-house legal. Continue reading “Rising Stars for 2014 – Introduction”

Rising Stars for 2014 – RPC

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Twelve months ago, when Legal Business’s inaugural GC Power List landed, the global economic outlook was still decidedly bleak. Talk of a double-dip recession had started to feel like blind optimism, with global manufacturing output at its lowest level since 2009, unemployment in the eurozone at epidemic proportions and signs that the Chinese economic engine was beginning to falter.

A year on and there’s cause for cautious optimism, in the UK at least, with joblessness falling and it seems more reason for economists to be bullish about the strength of the recovery than for half a decade. Continue reading “Rising Stars for 2014 – RPC”

GC Powerlist – Rising Stars for 2014

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Rising Stars for 2014 – Getting there

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As the in-house profession has swelled in size and status in recent years the competition to secure a small number of high status senior roles has intensified. Legal Business asks what it takes to become a Rising Star when the bar keeps rising

What does it take to get ahead in the legal team of a major company? It seems an obvious enough question but despite the well-documented expansion of the in-house profession over the last 20 years, there is relatively little material on the career track for the ambitious in-house counsel.

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Joined up thinking – GCs push to make collaboration more than a buzzword

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Collaboration has become a buzzword as progressive GCs press their advisers to parcel up work between them. Legal Business asks if such an approach can deliver the value its supporters claim

The battle to secure panel work is arduous for any law firm partner. With the threat of reduced panel slots and clients seeking more innovative examples of what separates firms from the competition, collaboration is increasingly becoming a buzzword among the more progressive general counsel (GC). As a condition of getting one of those coveted places on a major corporate’s panel, more firms are being asked to collaborate with all the other firms on the roster. They must communicate frequently, swap data and even, in some cases, pitch together for future pieces of work.

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