Alexandra McGurk
Vice president and counsel, litigation
WILLIAM MORRIS ENDEAVOR ENTERTAINMENT/IMG
Recently promoted to vice president and counsel, litigation, Alexandra McGurk is described by one TMT partner as ‘a very clever lawyer who manages a diverse range of problems in a commercial manner with a high degree of focus on positive outcomes’.
McGurk is based in the London office of the American talent agency William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (WME), which was formed in April 2009 following the merger of the William Morris Agency and the Endeavor Agency. In 2013 it acquired events and talent management company IMG, along with Silver Lake Partners. WME represents artists across media platforms, including film, music, theatre and publishing.
London-based McGurk often needs to work across numerous time-zones and handle conflicting demands across Los Angeles and New York while also managing the European issues. Another partner describes her as carrying out this role while also ‘maintaining a calm and unflappable demeanour which encourages great confidence in that highly demanding client base’.
Before she moved in-house in 2011, McGurk was a solicitor at TMT firm Harbottle & Lewis. Following a stint at talent agency Avalon Entertainment she spent more than three years at Hearst, one of the world’s largest publishing houses. She joined WME in October 2015 and is the company’s only litigator outside the US.
‘McGurk maintains a calm and unflappable demeanour which encourages great confidence in that highly demanding client base.’
McGurk oversees litigation and dispute resolution across EMEA for WME and IMG, reporting to New York-based global head of litigation Riche McKnight.
McGurk comments on her role: ‘In terms of time zones, I do a lot of work in Asia – IMG has a new joint venture in Shanghai. Those calls start early in the morning and then I go through to deal with Europe and the UK and then obviously reporting in and catching up with the US until quite late West Coast time. Most people in the legal team here work for IMG or WME – not exclusively but that is often the case. We do have lawyers in every jurisdiction but no other litigators so that is why my role is broad geographically.’
There are around 25 lawyers working for both WME and IMG in London, and McGurk relies on preferred advisers, including Mishcon de Reya, Herbert Smith Freehills, Harbottle & Lewis and Taylor Wessing for help on matters including European-based disputes, reputation management and IP and litigation.
Senior vice president and deputy general counsel – finance
PEARSON
Former Herbert Smith senior associate Graeme Baldwin joined Pearson in 2012 as the company’s first corporate finance counsel. The meat of Baldwin’s role now sees him supporting Pearson’s chief financial officer Coram Williams, with his team acting on the group’s M&A and minority investments around the world, in addition to advising on general corporate and listed company issues and working with many of the group’s head office teams, including treasury, tax, financial reporting and investor relations.
Shortly after joining, Baldwin cut his teeth on the combination of Pearson’s trade book publishing division, Penguin Group, with Bertelsmann-owned Random House to form the world’s largest trade publisher, Penguin Random House (PRH). While the combination now accounts for a quarter of book sales globally – Pearson has announced its intention to exit PRH and Baldwin is once again working at the deep end.
Pearson’s decision to withdraw marks the culmination of a strategy begun under former chief executive Marjorie Scardino, reshaping it from a media portfolio company to an education content and services provider. This change in focus led to the disposal of the Financial Times in 2015, a deal Baldwin was closely involved in. The ultimate buyer, Japanese media group Nikkei, entered proceedings at a relatively late stage in a process that went down to the wire.
‘Widely regarded as the GC of tomorrow.’
These deals have also brought Baldwin into the complex world of pension law. ‘De-risking pension liabilities is incredibly important for any large organisation,’ says Baldwin. ‘It is a hugely specialist area of work that has certainly given me a real affinity with Pearson’s emphasis on lifelong learning! Ultimately, that is what makes working in-house so refreshing. It gives you the flexibility to shape your role in a way that really benefits the company.’
As part of Pearson’s drive to manage exposure to global risks, Baldwin has developed an antitrust centre of expertise within his team, hiring former Michelin Group head of antitrust Johanne Peyre and embarking on a training campaign for the company’s 35,000 staff. He also sits on general counsel Bjarne Tellmann’s five-person operating committee, which meets weekly to discuss the strategic direction of legal function. It is not difficult to see why one nominator says Baldwin is ‘widely regarded as the GC of tomorrow’ by those he works with.
As a result of Pearson’s changing focus, there are a number of strategic issues to keep Baldwin and his colleagues occupied. ‘The education sector, much like trade publishing, is going through huge disruption,’ he says. ‘The move from physical to digital products and services represents a major change to the type of issues we face as lawyers. Data privacy is critical for any digital business, and in the education sector there is a big trend toward collecting data to measure how effective products are for our learners. Data is also an increasing issue from a competition perspective. We are having to be flexible as a function and are enjoying the challenge.’
Head counsel, sales and marketing and over-the-top content
SKY
Martin Davidson joined Sky in 2005, initially providing legal and regulatory advice on matters including data protection, commercial contracts and product launches, before being promoted to senior legal adviser of Sky Business and Sky Sports in 2010, and to the role of principal legal adviser for NOW TV and Sky Business in 2014.
Currently head counsel for sales and marketing and over-the-top content, Davidson specialises in general commercial, consumer and advertising law. Managing a legal team of ten, he has been instrumental in overseeing all the marketing operations for Sky. Recent achievements include launching the Sky Q product and a broadband testing service for NOW TV.
Sky group general counsel (GC) James Conyers describes Davidson as ‘excellent and already operating as a mini GC’, adding: ‘He has the confidence to operate autonomously. He’s a good leader and committed to ensuring the development of the people that report to him. He’s curious and constantly open to learning and improving.’
‘He’s a good leader and committed to ensuring the development of the people that report to him.’
‘I’ve always taken an approach to understand the business that I’ve worked with,’ says Davidson of his approach. ‘Working on the NOW TV and Sky Business teams, I got to understand the business inside-out and that has allowed me to tailor my advice. That helps the business. I want to inspire my legal team to follow suit.’
Davidson says he puts ‘a lot of effort into developing his team’ and focuses on building processes to ensure they are not caught up with ‘day-to-day, boring work’, adding: ‘It saves costs on the legal function but also makes life for the lawyers a little more enjoyable – something I try really hard to ensure.’
Davidson was previously an associate at Herbert Smith Freehills where he assisted on corporate M&A and private equity transactions.
Legal director, corporate and business
EE
Described by EE general counsel (GC) James Blendis as ‘an inspirational leader [and] a future GC’, Matthew Redding has acted on some of the most important recent deals in the UK telecoms sector. In 2007 Redding helped T-Mobile set up Mobile Broadband Network, a pioneering UK network-sharing joint venture where he now sits as a board director. In 2010 he was involved in T-Mobile’s merger with Orange to form EE before helping it launch 4G in the UK in 2012 (completing Europe’s fastest 4G launch). He is now involved in the early stages of 5G mobile service development.
Recently, Redding has taken a more prominent role in EE’s ongoing shake-up. In 2015 he led the legal work and formed part of the leadership team for the EE bid for the emergency services communications network, the government’s billion-pound project to build a 4G network connecting the UK’s police, ambulance and fire services, while in 2016 he was heavily involved in EE’s £12.5bn sale to BT. This resulted in EE being retained as a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT, operating under its own brand and largely maintaining its legacy legal team.
‘An inspirational leader and a future GC.’
A frequent speaker at communications events, Redding has helped shape the sector in other ways too. He recently took a leading role in an industry-wide refresh of regulatory controls around the electronic communications code and was instrumental in pushing for the addition of land access reforms to the digital economy bill (currently under review), making it easier for telecoms providers to build masts and improve mobile signal coverage and which will help enable next generation mobile technology.
As director of corporate and business legal affairs, Redding manages a team of up to 20 lawyers covering EE’s network infrastructure, corporate finance, M&A and business-to-business customer contracts, and data privacy work. He is also is involved in EE’s, and now BT’s, panel reviews and controls a sizeable budget of around £1m within his own team.
Director of legal, customer-facing division
TELEFÓNICA UK
Julia Boyle joined Telefónica UK in 2007 and within the last decade has held four different roles in the legal team, including a recent promotion to director of legal and head of the customer-facing team following a reorganisation.
The role is a long way from Boyle’s first role at Telefónica as general intellectual property (IP) counsel, which she held before moving on to lead the team responsible for sponsorship, marketing and consumer law. Following that came a lateral move to lead the team responsible for sales and service, which included all sales channels, comprising telesales, online, the retail store estate (company-owned and franchise) and indirect distribution through Dixons Carphone and other partners.
‘The work I am doing now is pulling all those roles together,’ says Boyle, who argues that opportunities to move around are crucial in building a CV. ‘Moving people around is something [Telefónica UK general counsel (GC) Ed Smith] really advocates. He is firmly of the view that you end up with a far better overall understanding of the business if you are in different areas.’
Boyle is now responsible for three direct reports: the head of marketing and IP (IP was moved into marketing and consumer following the reorganisation), head of consumer sales channels and head of business sales. Overall, Boyle is responsible for a team of ten lawyers.
In the last 18 months, key achievements for Boyle include renegotiating and streamlining commercial arrangements with the franchise partners, managing the trading relationship with Dixons Carphone, renewing the sponsorship agreements with AEG for The O2 and the Rugby Football Union for the England rugby team, and working with Ofcom to introduce and manage tiered pricing in consumer contracts. In addition Boyle is now responsible for all interactions with Telefónica’s 25 million customers in the UK.
Smith says of Boyle: ‘She could have made an excellent living from staying as head of IP, but she took a career risk calculated to increase her chances of promotion and becoming a GC. This was to become a commercial lawyer and get involved in the heart of the most important commercial deals, and people, at the centre of our business. She now advises on all our consumer law issues, and tariffs, and she understands the business as well as pretty much anyone. She also helps to run the team and she is a great role model for all the junior lawyers, but particularly the women.’
Director of legal and external affairs
THREE
Justin Bass looks after marketing, consumer regulatory and intellectual property for Three and leads a team of six direct reports, and a wider team of over 60 people at the telecommunications giant, which he joined in 2003.
Bass, who was previously at Wiggin, is described by the head of Bond Dickinson’s retail and consumer sector team Gavin Matthews as a ‘mercurial figure’.
‘He knows how the business works overall, which is impressive, because it’s a private company with a complex structure to it. He’s good at not getting bogged down with things and keeping an eye out for the broader significance of a matter. He’s also got fantastic people skills. Really the type of person you would see as a GC of the future.’
‘Really the type of person you would see as a GC of the future.’
Bass works within a team of 75 lawyers, reporting to general counsel and director of regulatory affairs Stephen Lerner. The team is responsible for driving legal, regulatory and commercial strategies for the company and is currently overseeing a number of initiatives designed to change restrictive policies in the UK mobile phone market. The legal function has also been acting on Three parent company CK Hutchison’s proposed purchase of Telefónica UK, which was subsequently blocked by the European Commission due to strong concerns that the takeover would have led to less choice and higher prices and would have harmed innovation in the mobile sector.
The legal team at Three was also instrumental on the company’s ‘Feel at Home’ initiative, which allows customers to use their UK calls, texts and data allowances in 18 countries at no additional cost. Since its launch two years ago, Three says their customers ‘have saved £1.3bn, thanks in no small part to our excellent lawyers’.
Sarah Rosser
Head of Enterprise legal team
VODAFONE UK
Sarah Rosser became UK head of the Enterprise legal team in January 2015, having previously spent nearly six years based in the US as head of the legal team for the Americas Enterprise.
She has since spearheaded what Vodafone UK’s head of legal Sarah Spooner describes as ‘an ambitious change programme’ designed to increase efficiency and ‘instil a culture of continuous improvement across her team to create a cutting-edge in-house legal division’.
The programme saw Rosser introduce a new system of reporting for all lawyers and contract managers, implement a new process and guide to manage high-risk terms in customer contracts, and annual objectives for each team. Such changes often meet with resistance, but, says Spooner, Rosser’s ‘inclusive leadership style, accompanied by some tough decisions on key appointments of her management team’, helped to build momentum.
‘Rosser’s inclusive leadership style and some tough decisions on key appointments helped build momentum.’
Technology has also played a part in this shake-up. Rosser’s introduction of e-signatures into Vodafone’s Enterprise division led to half of all contracts being signed electronically, reducing signature times by over 70% and, in a four-month period, shaving 10% of the time taken for Vodafone to pass from instruction to close with its largest multinational customers. Rosser also teamed up with Riverview Law to introduce a contract lifecycle management solution that generates and manages contracts for the global and UK Enterprise customer base.
As a result of these initiatives, the UK Enterprise legal team has been recognised by Vodafone’s wider Enterprise Transformation Board for driving change in the FTSE 100 company, with head of enterprise process transformation Andy May calling the legal team ‘a key part of [Vodafone’s] broader sales and commercial transformation plan’.
Richard Keenan
Chief counsel, major transactions team
BT
Chris Watson, head of telecoms, media and communications at CMS Cameron McKenna, describes Richard Keenan as ‘skilful, commercial, possessing great people skills and very calm. An excellent person and also open minded and fun to work with’.
Keenan joined BT in 2008 as a senior commercial lawyer and went on to serve as head of legal of the major transactions team in 2010, before becoming chief counsel
in 2012. He oversees a team of 18 people working on some of BT’s largest and most complex deals as a combination of global services, group legal and M&A.
‘Skilful, commercial, possessing great people skills and very calm. Open minded and fun to work with.’
In terms of recent achievements, Keenan points to his work in securing a deal with an international airline group. ‘It was a big win for BT. It was one of our first big successes in the sector in terms of end-to-end communications for one of the big airlines.’
Born in New Zealand, Keenan trained in his home country at Simpson Grierson. A UK hiatus followed, where he achieved his masters in environmental policy at the University of Oxford. His stay became permanent after joining Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s corporate team before moving in-house with BT.
Asked what it takes to become established in-house, Keenan says: ‘The ability to distil complex legal questions into easily-digestible content for your business colleagues. There’s no point in being a brilliant lawyer and quoting reams of legalese at people. You can’t dumb it down too much – it’s the fine line between being understood but doing it in a way where you can bring people along with you.’