Kent Dreadon
Head of Legal, Telefónica UK
A litigator by training, Dreadon is ‘essentially number two’ in the UK legal and regulatory team at Telefónica under general counsel Edward Smith.
Having previously worked in private practice at Debevoise & Plimpton and SJ Berwin, Dreadon’s career in-house has seen him rise through the ranks from head of litigation in 2007 to head of competition and litigation in 2009, followed by a promotion to head of legal nearly three years ago.
He was an integral part of the industry bargain that preceded the 4G spectrum auction in 2013, and notably led the Telefónica team on the £180m disposal of its consumer broadband business to Sky.
He is exceptionally bright and a brilliant problem solver operating in a very complicated regulated industry. More so than his peers in Telefónica and elsewhere, Dreadon has a knack of influencing events.
Celine Cohen
Legal Counsel, Interoute
A very young Rising Star at just 29, French-qualified Cohen joined Interoute last year. Having studied economic law and international business law, Cohen previously worked as legal counsel at Interoute Communications and is described as a ‘very positive and sunny’ character despite having to cope with multiple demands from all areas of the business, all under intense commercial pressure, according to one insider.
Through a combination of creative thinking and hard work, Cohen ‘achieves what needs to be done’.
The insider adds: ‘Not just fighting the team is a real skill for a lawyer to have – her achievement is her commercial aptitude and positive attitude.’
Kristin McFetridge
Chief Counsel UK Global Banking and Financial Markets and Global Products, BT
The ‘inspirational’ McFetridge leads an eight-strong team of lawyers and commercial contract managers at telecoms giant BT, negotiating, drafting and advising on commercial contracts in the financial services market for customers and suppliers.
The former Weil, Gotshal & Manges M&A associate liaises with the senior business management team on strategy, performance and objectives for legal in supporting the global banking and financial markets sector, and briefs and co-ordinates with the global legal management on current projects, issues and forecasted opportunities in the sector.
Qualified as an attorney in New York and admitted to the solicitors’ roll in England and Wales in 2011, McFetridge also provides legal advice on potential disputes in existing agreements and negotiates settlements.
Having ‘impressively risen’ up the ranks, McFetridge started at BT as a senior commercial lawyer in March 2007, where she advised, negotiated and drafted complex commercial contracts for projects valued at over £50m.
An external nomination noted McFetridge ‘seems to thrive on management’.
‘She’s really inspirational and inspires her team – she has a big personality but doesn’t take any crap.’
Senior Legal Counsel, Vodafone
Described as a ‘compelling advocate of change’, Pearce is a member of Vodafone’s centre of excellence team within group legal, having previously been part of the legal technology and outsourcing group.
Part of a three-strong team, Pearce is at the forefront of Vodafone’s legal transformation activities to improve the way in which the company delivers efficient and effective legal support to both procurement (supplier facing) and enterprise (customer facing) and enabling the business to undertake simplistic and repetitive legal tasks without recourse to the legal team.
Pearce’s portfolio includes numerous projects including knowledge management; contracts and templates; contract automation; training; reporting; and work allocation tools and techniques.
The team’s current transformation activity is designed to promote self-service by business colleagues, freeing up precious legal time to concentrate on high complexity matters.
One insider comments that Pearce brings ‘both structure and simplicity to the way in which we organise our legal toolkits, and an enthusiastic spirit of transformation which is spreading across many of the local market legal teams as well as group level legal teams with whom Emma interacts’.
Oliver Wilson
Senior Vice President, Legal, Pace International
A former Pinsent Masons lawyer, Wilson joined consumer electronics company Pace International in 2009 as legal counsel and was promoted to senior vice president in legal last year. He is praised for his dedication, commitment, understanding of the business and the law. Working for Pace, a leading technology developer for PayTV and other broadband service providers which produced $2.4bn in revenue in 2012, Wilson has the ability to deal with issues in all territories and his rounded support for the business extends from negotiations with tier-one suppliers to supporting the exit of a senior employee.
Aoife Mcardle
Associate General Counsel Europe, Airbnb
A&L Goodbody-trained McArdle is an experienced strategic adviser at executive level.
Having spent over four years at Skype, McArdle reported to the chief legal and regulatory officer and was responsible for a team of lawyers based in London, Luxembourg and Singapore.
She built and managed an international commercial team of six lawyers and two paralegals during a period of rapid growth, which saw Skype grow from 196 million registered users in 2007 to over 600 million, and its annual revenue jump from $250m to almost $1bn.
She also took the lead in negotiating many of Skype’s most important commercial deals worldwide, before joining Airbnb in France in September 2012.
Fluent in French, Italian and German, her technical legal skills and commercial acumen are ‘excellent’ while insiders say her client’s interests are ‘second to none’.
Eve Hartley
Head of Legal, Property, Mobile Broadband Network Ltd
Admitted as a solicitor in the UK in 2005, Hartley has been praised for her involvement in one of the most challenging integration programmes undertaken by a 3G mobile giant across the world. She is noted for introducing innovative and effective management and process solutions across a range of activities, including bringing together and successfully managing the legal aspects of the consolidation of former networks Three and EE (formerly T-Mobile, which in 2010 merged with Orange). Hartley has worked tirelessly with internal and external counsel to provide the best legal solutions to integrate the two networks while also being responsible for the day-to-day management of legal support in excess of 20,000 sites across the UK.
Hartley implemented these complex legal solutions to achieve consolidation targets while also minimising risk, and spearheaded new reporting which dramatically increased alignment between shareholders.
Mariko Newell
Legal Counsel, Hutchison 3G UK
A former Mayer Brown lawyer, City-based Newell is the sole property counsel at Hutchison, which currently operates over 330 retail stores, multiple offices and data centres across the country. She has pushed for new stores and nationwide refurbishments while also getting involved with the thousands of existing masts and the 4G network rollout.
2005-qualified Newell has further expanded her knowledge of Hutchison by seconding part-time to the mast and telecoms side of the business in order to gain a better understanding of the business needs, the demands of the company and its main purpose. Her day-to-day workload is varied and full yet she ably and clearly communicates and liaises with all departments as appropriate, and manages external agents, solicitors and advisers highly effectively.
She is praised for her ‘understanding of the business as a whole as well as her dedication and willingness to learn while being incredibly passionate about her field and responsibilities but also the company generally’.
One nomination adds: ‘She is astoundingly commercial, balancing legal risk with practical objectives and outcomes, being as pragmatic as possible but always pushes for the best result for her company whether that be financially or legally or both. All this while being a new doting mother and all in her early 30s.’
Chief Counsel, TV, BT
An ‘extremely clever’ and ‘excellent technical lawyer’, Johnstone knows his business inside out. Previously in-house at Top Up TV, and Sparrowhawk Media (part of NBC Universal), Johnstone is now responsible for managing the legal function which supports telecoms giant BT’s TV businesses, including BT Sport, ESPN, BT Vision and YouView.
Qualified in 2000 and formerly a senior associate at Olswang, he is regarded as very commercial, keeps his team motivated in stressful situations and delivers on time. Johnstone can take on enormous projects, including BT’s launch of its premium sports channels in August 2013 in competition with Sky. He managed the legal team for the project from a standing start. In support of his entry, one nomination says: ‘For a project of this size, they relied very little on outside counsel. This was also a new area for BT but one that Russell knew well so his role was not just to ensure that the legal team closed the several hundred deals needed but also to help shape the commercial terms of those deals.’