Karena Vleck
Head of legal
Rugby Football Union
‘The ultimate part of my job is arriving at the stadium on an international match day,’ says Karena Vleck, who joined the RFU eight years ago and loves running her team of four.
She says that the RFU relies heavily on external law firms as it handles a vast array of issues and Vleck puts different specialist firms on separate panels to deal with specific matters. The RFU is a governing body, so it is concerned with rules and regulations, but also does a lot of charity work and also has big construction issues as well as frequent employment matters. Vleck directly instructed the Bar in RFU’s recent Supreme Court victory over secondary ticket sellers viagogo but also instructed Kerman & Co, a specialist firm in ticketing matters that is not on her panel.
Typical annual legal budget is £300,000, although she says some years she’ll spend significantly more than that and others less. She believes that her organisation understands that her budget is a guesstimate. That said, she expects law firms to be up front with her on fees. ‘It’s all about communication: you don’t want to be surprised on cost,’ she says.
She believes that it is very important to assess how significant each piece of work is to her business and how much she is willing to spend on it. Considering that she herself, as well as two colleagues, have previous associations with her panel firms, relations are good.
Law firms used: Bates Wells & Braithwaite, Bird & Bird, Farrer & Co, Forsters, Onside Law, Slaughter and May, Travers Smith, Wragge & Co
2004-12: Head of legal, Rugby Football Union
1990-2004: Partner and head of sports group, Farrer & Co