Heading up the GC Powerlist team at The Legal 500 for the past year has been a pleasure and a privilege, and, as it is the jewel-in-the-crown and home edition of our esteemed publication, it is my extreme honour to be able to introduce this latest instalment of the UK Powerlist, the GC Powerlist: UK Teams 2022.
For this year’s teams-focused Powerlist, we ran with the theme ‘in-house teams in ascendance’. We chose this to reflect the increased prominence that in-house teams have achieved following the challenging and potentially adverse business environment that UK in-house lawyers have had to navigate over the past two-and-a-half years, which unfortunately looks set to continue. A lot has changed since our team decided on the topic earlier this year (a slightly more optimistic period for the British business world before having to absorb increasingly gloomy predictions about the UK’s economic future). Still, the attributes that a top-quality in-house legal team needs to truly support their business remain the same.
Attributes that the teams within this list have in spades. As well as strategic thinking, a keen but practical sense for risk management, excellent internal team dynamics, a thorough understanding of their company’s operations and a business mindset, the teams within the GC Powerlist: United Kingdom Teams 2022 display profound technical legal skill regularly on the full range of business dilemmas that confront the companies within these pages.
While interviewing for the Powerlist, we took the opportunity to ask some extra questions to some of the in-house lawyers we spoke to, as part of a small survey. It had some interesting results. Of the macroeconomic headaches keeping UK in-house lawyers awake at night, galloping inflation ranked as the number one concern for in-house lawyers in Britain. That this ranked first among such issues as Covid and the Ukraine crisis is quite instructive as to how seriously the business world takes the current position the UK finds itself in. As to how this might affect the way the legal world works going forward, this quote from our interview with Imraan Patel, group general counsel and company secretary of EG Group, may be instructive: ‘The business itself will be more efficient… as cost inflation drives external adviser fee expectations, being able to better anticipate corporate needs and to more effectively resource will be crucial’.
This brings us to our next takeaway from the survey. When asked how their external counsel could help them get through what is likely to be a less-than-optimal short term ahead for many companies, far and away the most popular response was flexibility on billing arrangements. As Tom Parachini, global head of legal and regulatory, explained during his interview, ‘we do not often see law firms focusing on the efficiency of their legal work or delivery of services. It would also be great to see law firms adopting more technology solutions, even simple ones, to drive that efficiency’. For other insights from the great and the good of the British in-house legal scene, read on to the interviews which follow this introduction.
A huge thanks from The Legal 500’s GC in-house legal research team to everyone who helped us put this project together, and a massive congratulations to all the legal teams who made the final cut.
Joe Boswell Head of research
Melissa Yebisi, Research analyst
Sara Maggi, Research analyst
To view the full profiles for our nominated individuals, please visit:
GC Powerlist United Kingdom 2022
