Amos Carrington
Head of legal
SEVEN ENERGY
Formerly of Herbert Smith Freehills in both London and Tokyo, the ten-year qualified Amos Carrington is already head of legal at Seven Energy, the leading integrated gas company in Nigeria, with upstream oil and gas interests in the region.
Carrington, who joined Seven Energy as senior legal counsel in 2015 before being promoted to head of legal in June last year, gained over a decade of experience on international energy and resources projects and cross-border M&A while at Herbert Smith. He leads a team of two other lawyers at the gas company and is in charge of a legal budget.
As Seven Energy’s head of legal, Carrington has been involved with the government of Nigeria in signing a $112m World Bank risk guarantee for gas supply to the NIPP Calabar power station, which will secure the supply of up to 130 million cubic feet per day of natural gas, roughly 20% of the country’s current power generation.
Speaking to Legal Business, Carrington says: ‘I always thought in-house was something I wanted to do. This role at Seven came up, looked really interesting, I liked the idea of a smaller company where you have more visibility across the entire group.’
According to Carrington, although Seven is a small company, there is a lot going on, particularly given the macro challenges in Nigeria.
‘I come from a corporate background, not a huge amount of finance experience but I have spent 70-80% of my time on finance deals. We refinanced our $445m loan for our gas business in June 2015. And at the end of last year – in two phases.’
Carrington comments on the need to build your reputation and contacts when moving into business. ‘Internal networking, particularly if you are working in a company like Seven Energy where you have got operations in a number of different locations, is really important to connect with the people you are working with in those locations.’
Howard Landes
General counsel
CHRYSAOR HOLDINGS
Howard Landes first appeared in the GC Powerlist in 2015, but had another standout year in 2016, running point on Shell’s $70bn takeover of BG Group, which completed last February.
Tom Melbye Eide, who was previously general counsel (GC) of BG Group, acted as the board adviser on the takeover while Landes ran the rest of the legal aspects that the target had to go through, which included all of the regulatory clearances. Landes, who served as chief counsel, corporate at BG Group, was also the principal contact with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, who acted on the BG side.
Landes, who joined BG Group from Clifford Chance over a decade ago, was responsible for its corporate activities globally and looked after a team of lawyers as well as being accountable for a significant external budget.
He left BG Group at the end of last year after handling the transition period at the company following the completion of the merger. He was appointed GC at British investment firm Chrysaor Holdings in February this year.
Nicola Shand
General counsel
SCOTIA GAS NETWORKS
In her early 30s, Nicola Shand is already responsible for leading a team of six lawyers at gas distribution network Scotia Gas Networks (SGN).
According to Addleshaw Goddard head of energy and utilities Richard Goodfellow: ‘Her name appears quite a bit, but for good reason. She’s empathetic, solution-orientated and works well with senior stakeholders.’
Shand, who also sits on the company’s executive board, completed her training at SGN in Perth and was appointed company secretary in 2010 before taking over responsibility for the legal team a couple of years later.
In 2014, Shand worked with SSE, which owns a 33.3% equity stake in SGN, and its director of legal services Liz Tanner to establish a panel consisting of Addleshaws, CMS Cameron McKenna, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Osborne Clarke.
‘Shand is empathetic, solution-orientated and works well with senior stakeholders.’
One of Shand’s more challenging responsibilities is managing relationships with SGN shareholders, which in addition to SSE include two Canadian pension funds and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which recently took a 16.7% stake in SGN from SSE for £621m.
One private practice partner says: ‘Nicola is certainly a rising star. There are various things about her role that are very challenging and she manages those successfully.’
Another adds: ‘The very broad range of work she has to deal with as well is quite unusual. And challenging. SGN is a very large company. It is a very significant company but slightly under the radar. She helps with its capital markets fundraisings, she is involved in M&A, but then there is the whole range of day-to-day matters: commercial contracts, litigation, health and safety as well. She has got a lot of responsibility and a wide range of things to look after.’
Natalie Abou-Alwan
Senior counsel
BP
Natalie Abou-Alwan manages a team of structured transaction lawyers and legal support to BP’s London-based global oil trading business. Her role covers the trading and financial hedging of crude oil and oil products globally, together with structured deals involving financing in a number of jurisdictions. Abou-Alwan’s immersion in derivatives issues means she is frequently working at the forefront of regulatory and commercial developments, something which, she says, her background has prepared her for.
‘The trading environment at BP is dynamic and nimble and the legal advice and support needs to be in harmony with this, but I have worked at law firms in London and New York as well as a US investment bank. That breadth of experience helps to build up confidence, particularly at times when a quick but well-informed response is imperative. Besides, coming from a mixed ethnic background and growing up in the Middle East, I have a natural tendency to look through a wide lens.’
‘Coming from a mixed ethnic background, I have a natural tendency to look through a wide lens.’
Since joining BP in 2012 she has worked on a number of complex commodity financing deals, including BP’s $2.4bn five-year syndicated pre-export finance facility with Rosneft in 2014, the largest oil-backed transaction in the CIS market that year and, in 2013, BP’s agreement to help Iona Energy complete its acquisition of a stake in the Huntington North Sea oil field, one of the most ambitious recent financings in the oil and gas industry. Against a tight timeframe, BP stepped in as a junior creditor, buying a series of call options secured against Iona’s future production. This required Abou-Alwan and her team to complete due diligence and develop a novel commodity-linked derivative structure in a matter of weeks.
Abou-Alwan co-chairs BP’s Positively Ethnic Network and sits on a number of its diversity and inclusion councils. Prior to joining BP she spent six years at JP Morgan, forming part of the initial team that set up its commodities trading business. She was involved, as legal counsel, in many of JP Morgan’s high-profile mergers with competitors, including Bear Stearns and RBS Sempra Commodities. Outside her day job she is a drummer and pianist and has been a volunteer make-up artist with registered charity Look Good Feel Better, which offers beauty advice and workshops for women undergoing cancer treatment, for over ten years. She trained at Clyde & Co in 2000 and has also worked in the New York office of US law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.
Findlay Anderson
Associate general counsel, subsea systems
GE OIL & GAS
Bob Ruddiman, head of energy at Pinsent Masons, describes Findlay Anderson as ‘very engaged in the wider business’ and ‘very good at that interface between law, commerce and practice’.
‘He has got a strong sense of what’s right and wrong as well as being a good all-rounder and team player. He is engaging, passionate and knows his own mind. Which in any general counsel is really important.’
Anderson, currently associate general counsel for GE Oil & Gas’ $5bn business headquartered in Aberdeen, advises on all aspects of the company’s operations in over 30 countries.
‘Anderson is very good at that interface between law, commerce and practice.’
Prior to joining GE, Anderson was a partner in the oil and gas team at legacy McGrigors, where he advised clients on a wide variety of upstream and downstream oil and gas work both in the UKCS and overseas acting for oil majors, independents, utilities, and service companies on a broad range of activities from large development projects to deals and providing close operational support for daily activities.
Previously, Anderson spent a number of years in-house as legal manager for CNR International, the main international arm of the Canadian energy independent Canadian Natural Resources, where he was responsible for overseeing all legal support for the company’s operations in the UK and Africa.
Anderson, who started out as an infrastructure projects lawyer at DLA Piper, was also an associate in the oil and gas team at Ledingham Chalmers in Aberdeen.
Head of legal, marketing
ANGLO AMERICAN
As head of legal for the marketing division at Anglo American, Eric Ho has a wide-ranging role that sees him leading a global in-house team and supporting the company’s worldwide sales, marketing, trading and shipping activities. In the face of a tough commodities market, Anglo American has recently undertaken extensive reform of its marketing arm. Ho was a key member of the team that delivered the legal and regulatory aspects of this process, helping to overhaul the way Anglo American sells its commodities worldwide.
The process, which saw the company consolidate numerous marketing operations into a dual global hub, based in London and Singapore, required Ho to renegotiate and restructure a large number of commercial agreements with Anglo American’s counterparties worldwide. This huge undertaking led Ho to re-examine the company’s contracting process and initiate an ambitious transformation project of his own. Ho went on to manage a global roll-out of the contracting excellence programme, which standardised the terms and conditions used by all seven business units within the Anglo American group to sell its products.
Ho’s work on these two extensive transformation projects helped to identify a third area for change and led to the introduction of a new centralised system allowing contracts and other key documents to be shared among the company’s legal and commercial functions, and with external counsel. This, along with Ho’s introduction of ‘virtual’ legal teams bringing together both in-house lawyers and external counsel, has helped Anglo American build closer relationships with its advisers during a period of increased market risk.
In addition to his extensive contributions to operational matters in the marketing division, Ho has helped Anglo American increase its hedging, trading and arbitrage activities, along with other novel forms of trade financing, and has been heavily involved in commercial transactions. In particular, he has helped Anglo American refocus its portfolio by working on a considerable number of non-core divestments.
Head of legal, energy solutions
ENGIE
Former Nabarro lawyer Laura Tabet has spent the last six years building her in-house career in the energy industry, starting at EDF Energy in 2011 before moving to global energy and services group ENGIE (previously GDF SUEZ) as senior legal counsel in 2014.
Tabet has since been promoted to head of legal for the energy solutions division, and is part of the ENGIE UK team involved in navigating legal challenges associated with its ambitious three-year strategy to become a leading player in global energy transition. This has included the company making substantial investments since 2014 and a rebranding of its name to ENGIE.
Tabet works alongside ENGIE’s UK general counsel (GC) and ethics officer for the UK, Sarah Gregory.
She will also have plenty of challenging work to cut her teeth on, as ENGIE is now entering the UK’s residential energy market as well as continuing to evolve as the UK’s number one district heating provider while integrating gas, power and energy services to UK businesses.
Addleshaw Goddard’s head of energy and utilities group, Richard Goodfellow, says Tabet is ‘direct, collaborative and knows how to manage external and internal stakeholders well’.
Managing counsel, global litigation
SHELL
An experienced litigator who handles disputes on behalf of a wide range of Shell businesses in the downstream and upstream sectors, Kevin Smith is described by one energy partner as doing a ‘good job of getting buy-in from the in-house lawyers at the Shell business units who can be protective of their fiefdoms’.
The partner adds: ‘It is a particular challenge to communicate the needs of litigation to business people, and Kevin manages this well. He also translates the strategy of the business into concrete goals in the litigation department.’
After cutting his teeth in private practice as an associate in litigation and investigations at Fulbright & Jaworski before joining Clifford Chance as a senior associate in dispute resolution, Smith first went in-house in 2012 as a senior legal counsel in global litigation for Shell. He was promoted in October last year to managing counsel for global litigation. He is now responsible for working with relevant business teams to develop and execute strategies for managing and resolving disputes, including claims in arbitration and litigation.
‘Kevin translates the business strategy into concrete goals.’
It has been a busy period for the disputes department at Shell, as the oil giant faces fresh environmental claims in the London High Court from two Nigerian communities who allege they have suffered from repeated large-scale oil spills from its pipelines in the Niger Delta.
Debevoise & Plimpton’s Lord Peter Goldsmith QC secured a victory for Shell in January but the claimants, represented by Leigh Day partners Daniel Leader and Martyn Day, will take the verdict to the Court of Appeal and expect it to be heard in the next six to ten months.