Peter Rees QC
Legal director
Royal Dutch Shell
In 2010 Shell’s legal director Beat Hess retired, leaving big shoes to fill, so the oil major took the unusual step of hiring arbitration specialist Peter Rees QC.
Graham Martin – Tullow Oil
Graham Martin
General counsel and company secretary
Tullow Oil
‘If you cut Graham Martin he would bleed Tullow Oil,’ says one leading energy lawyer. Martin is clearly committed to a company that he has been associated with since his private practice days at Vinson & Elkins in the eighties, which has exploration and production assets in 23 countries, including Africa, Europe, South Asia and South America.
Andrew Carr – Sellafield
Andrew Carr
Head of legal services
Sellafield
Andrew Carr is modest about the pressures of being one of the most high-profile general counsel in the country, but few industries have experienced the dramatic swings and roundabouts of the nuclear sector. It is important for Carr that external counsel understand the unique demands of the industry.
Rupert Bondy – BP
Rupert Bondy
Group general counsel
BP
Few general counsel are as well-known outside their industry as Rupert Bondy at BP – he is a clear example of a legal director that operates in a secretarial rather than a GC role.
Following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, Bondy oversaw the company’s risk management strategy, effectively steering its emergency response from the beginning of the crisis through to the eventual financial settlement.
Philip Davis – Cable & Wireless Worldwide
Philip Davis
General counsel and company secretary
Cable & Wireless Worldwide
Described by one telecoms expert as having done ‘a great job as GC at Cable & Wireless Worldwide in challenging times’, Philip Davis’ main task at CWW right now is to bring down group legal spend, which currently stands at around £1.2m a year.
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Rosemary Martin – Vodafone
Rosemary Martin
Group general counsel and company secretary
Vodafone
One of the most high profile and respected GCs around today, Rosemary Martin joined Vodafone after more than a decade at news agency Reuters.
Paul van Straaten – Chief legal officer
Paul van Straaten
Chief legal officer
Lebara Group
Paul van Straaten loves to be in the middle of the action. Whether it’s high-profile disputes before the European Court of Justice, major M&A transactions or projects in developing countries, Lebara Group is never just ‘ticking over’, he says.
Stephen Lerner – Hutchison 3G UK
Stephen Lerner
General counsel and director of regulatory affairs
Hutchison 3G UK
Steven Lerner sees his role as an innovator. ‘3 is not afraid of challenging the status quo or taking risks so we expect our external firms to think in a more creative and challenging way,’ he says.
Maurice Woolf – Interoute
Maurice Woolf
Group General counsel
Interoute
Having practised in-house for telecoms companies since 1995 Maurice Woolf has, according to one telecoms lawyer, ‘long been at the heart of the UK communications industry’.
Ed Smith – Telefónica UK
Ed Smith
General Counsel
Telefónica UK
Ed Smith certainly paid his dues before becoming GC at Telefónica UK in 2010: he has been with the company for 11 years. During that time, he has seen his company demerge from BT, rebrand into O2 and finally be acquired by Telefónica in 2005. So when he says, ‘I started absolutely at the ground floor’, he is not being too modest.