Claire Chadwick
Group Legal Counsel, API Group
Chadwick has been an in-house lawyer for under three years and has already overseen the £45m sale of her previous employer, nursery provider Kidsunlimited, which contributed to her winning the Commerce & Industry Group North West Young In-house Lawyer of the Year Award 2013.
When Chadwick joined Kidsunlimited with only three years’ post-qualification experience, there was no legal resource and she quickly established strong relationships with internal and external clients, and identified the need to work closely with the human resources team.
Chadwick used her leadership skills and initiative to restructure Kidsunlimited’s external legal resource, running a panel pitch from seven local firms before selecting Eversheds.
Within Chadwick’s first 12 months at Kidsunlimited, a proposal to sell the business was announced, and she worked closely with the commercial director in preparing the business for sale. She ran the data room, and oversaw the sale purchase agreement and disclosure process.
At foil and film manufacturer API, which she joined in October 2013, the company has recently undertaken a large refinancing in which Chadwick managed the legal process.
‘Claire consistently displays strong leadership skills, and this was clearly demonstrated when [at Kidsunlimited] she initiated and delivered a training programme to 64 nurseries nationally,’ says one nomination.
‘She focused on a range of employment issues that she had identified as key to the business. To progress the programme she got backing from both senior management, as well as local managers. By focusing on up-skilling managers in employment issues, Claire showed initiative and impressive legal knowledge, especially given her background of general commercial law.’
Tom Barr
Senior Legal Counsel, Rentokil Initial
Barr is described as ‘able to deal with whatever the business throws at him’ and ‘calm in a storm with a focus on delivery to the business’. At Rentokil Initial, Barr has introduced and managed a global compliance programme, dealing with different cultures across the globe, ‘winning friends, respect and buy-in among colleagues along the way’.
Barr is also responsible for the company’s legal work in Asia, corporate governance, establishing a waste recycling company in the US, employment advice and managing the group debt recovery function.
Trained at Wragge & Co, Barr is noted as an extremely commercial and astute lawyer, flexible with a ‘can-do’ mentality, and he particularly stands out for working closely with the business, winning the commercial teams over in the process.
Barr, who joined the 60,000-staff, UK-based support services company in January 2009, is also simply described as ‘an asset to Rentokil’.
Divisional General Counsel, Aerospace – Europe, GKN
Payne has very strong knowledge of the law across a broad range of subjects and understands the dynamics, risks and commercial position of the businesses within the GKN group that he supports and makes sound judgements based on that understanding.
The equity capital markets and M&A lawyer is described by one market commentator as ‘a very easy guy to get along with, who is a loyal team player and has a great sense of humour’.
Payne’s career achievements at GKN, which he joined from Wragge & Co in 2007, include his significant role in the £633m acquisition of Volvo Aero and its related equity, bridge and bond take-out financing, together with taking on responsibility on the legal side for the integration project.
Legal Director, Commercial, Royal Mail
Reporting to general counsel Neil Harnby, Radford has been instrumental in leading the Royal Mail commercial team through a period of intensive change that has seen the group undertake rigorous and lengthy preparations for a public listing before eventually floating in 2013.
Radford’s nomination is backed by both in-house and private practice sources, with one Magic Circle partner commenting: ‘Rebecca is bright, proactive, commercial, friendly and a breath of fresh air. All of our lawyers who go on secondment to Royal Mail speak highly of her.’
A further supporter adds: ‘A superb in-house lawyer – bright, commercial and pragmatic and also a pleasure to deal with for external lawyers.’
Director and Head of Legal Services, UK and Ireland, Dragados
Noted by peers as having ‘a sharp intellect and with the ability to work seamlessly with colleagues and external counsel’, Ragunathan has an ability to deliver excellent results on complex transactions and manage large projects across borders. She has worked tirelessly since her arrival and one of her advocates says: ‘Dragados is now established as a force to be reckoned with in the UK construction industry from close to a standing start a couple of years ago.’
Ragunathan joined the Madrid-headquartered construction company in 2012 from Carillion having started out at Linklaters and Myers Fletcher & Gordon, and spent two years as a solicitor at boutique West End firm William Sturges & Co. While at Carillion she was the lead lawyer on a number of PPP/PFI deals, including the Building Schools for the Future Programme. As the first lawyer on Carillion’s leadership programme, Ragunathan spent six months on secondment to charity Business in the Community, where she sat on the panel of key contractors at the King’s Cross development programme, set up with the likes of Network Rail and Argent. Her sector experience includes rail, health, defence and roads.
John Evans
Solicitor, TNT Post UK
As a solicitor at one of Royal Mail’s main challengers in the UK, Evans draws plaudits for deftly dealing with a vast array of legal matters from M&A to Data Protection Act issues. He has also set up a well-regarded training programme on commercial and competition law considerations. All this is in addition to advice on day-to-day agreements with a very diverse customer and supplier base.
Formerly with full-service Reading practice Field Seymour Parkes, one of his supporters says he is ‘efficient, responsive, and understands the business and commercial imperatives of the company’.
Senior Counsel, Cummins
Berenzweig is head of legal for Cummins Power Generation, a global business leader dedicated to increasing the availability and reliability of electric power around the world.
Reporting to Cummins’ US-based general counsel Sharon Barner, Berenzweig – who has a broad range of experience across multiple legal disciplines, including M&A, joint ventures, distribution agreements, supply agreements, litigation, competition law, product safety and global regulatory compliance programs – manages a team of eight lawyers, three in the US, two in South Africa, one in Singapore and two in Australia.
Berenzweig’s team is responsible for all legal matters for Cummins’ power generation and distribution unit, as well as real estate and all legal matters in the South Pacific, Africa and North-East and South-East Asia. He is among a small group of leaders at Cummins selected for a two-year executive development program run by the chief executive, and has recently led a global initiative to train all Cummins’ joint venture directors (more than 100 people) on their duties and responsibilities.
The former Dechert M&A associate and head of legal at sports.com has led or been a member of teams that created the company’s first legal panel, rolled out global training initiatives, developed and implemented new standard form contracts, developed annual legal plans/budgets and improved the law department’s processes and procedures.
Competition Lawyer, British Airways
Franklin is an astute competition lawyer who does not leave any stones unturned in any anticipated, threatened or pending competition litigation.
As one lawyer who has worked with her recently says: ‘With her, you know that all angles of a case will be covered. She is also extremely nice to work with.’
The former Jones Day and Mayer Brown senior associate is currently working on a highly sensitive precedent-setting case with potential ramifications for the entire airline business.
Celia Gough
Chief Legal Officer and Company Secretary, Veolia Environnement UK
Gough has been heavily involved in Veolia’s integration of its water and waste business and has ably led a team of more than ten lawyers during a period of internal upheaval.
According to one private practice partner: ‘She is an outstanding lawyer, a good manager and she works very hard.’
Gough’s highly developed leadership and interpersonal skills have stood her in good stead as the merger of different parts of Veolia’s business have brought together the various limbs of its legal team and Gough has achieved the transition to UK chief legal officer with assurance.
Senior Legal Counsel, Network Rail
Kayne, who has been at Network Rail since 2007, is described as ‘a future leader of the Network Rail business’, following his commanding presentation at Network Rail’s new panel lawyers’ day. Appointed as one of three route leaders in a restructured Network Rail team, Kayne also manages residual pre-restructuring workloads and, according to one commentator, ‘balances great legal intellect with a flexible and commercial approach’.
Able to respond quickly to the needs of the business and mobilise panel-firm resource to meet time-critical demands, Kayne – who qualified at Dechert – is described as having ‘a warm personality, which encourages people to respond positively to him and want to work for him’.