Anna Cole-Bailey rounds up the latest in-house panel reviews and moves
In a busy month of in-house activity, National Grid revealed the line up of its new legal panel, Lombard International embarked on creating its first-ever legal roster, and blue chips BAE Systems and Lloyds Banking Group lost senior legal heads.
The outcome of National Grid’s much-anticipated panel review, which began in May, saw BDB Pitmans, Irwin Mitchell and Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) dropped from a roster that reduced the number of advisers from 12 to ten.
Womble Bond Dickinson was the sole new appointee on the panel, worth around £12m a year in the UK, joining incumbents Addleshaw Goddard, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang, Dentons, DLA Piper, Eversheds Sutherland, Herbert Smith Freehills, Linklaters and Shakespeare Martineau.
The panel covers regulated and non-regulated property and planning, corporate services, as well as gas and electricity legal work.
More than 60 companies applied for positions on the panel, which was extended in 2017 following its last full review in 2015. The new contract begins on 1 February 2020 for three years, with an option to extend for a further two years.
The FTSE 100 energy company’s panel review was notable as one example of major companies starting to press external counsel to pay to compete for adviser spots, which sees law firms covering the cost of being ‘validated’ by a procurement company. The first-stage supplier qualification process for National Grid cost £540, followed by a £1,200 fee for an all-day assessment. Santander, meanwhile, recently employed a similar process.
Elsewhere, Monica Risam, legal head at Lombard, kick-started the tender process for creating the wealth-restructuring company’s debut legal panel.
Risam, the former Aviva UK Life general counsel (GC) who moved to Luxembourg-based Lombard in January 2018, has invited 11 firms to tender for a spot on a global advisory panel, including several firms the company already works with such as Allen & Overy, Baker McKenzie, DLA and Linklaters.
Latham & Watkins, Hogan Lovells, Eversheds, NRF, Sidley Austin, CMS and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius have also been invited to apply.
The panel has been divided into two – international and domestic – and will run for three years across various practice areas, including M&A, tax, employment, litigation and outsourcing.
Firms approached for international work will see them advise Lombard in 23 markets, including the UK, the US, South Africa, Hong Kong and Israel, and all firms will need to demonstrate commitment to innovation and inclusion and diversity.
Risam told Legal Business: ‘Law firm relationships are about chemistry. I don’t want to lay down rules about what inclusion and diversity is but show that we’re sensitive to it. We’re also developing tools to manage our documents and seeing as law firms have been using AI, we are keen to look at automation opportunities.’
Elsewhere, BAE’s legal chief for air, Julie Smyth (pictured), has landed the GC role at GKN Aerospace where she will head up legal, risk, compliance and governance across the firm’s aerospace business.
Smyth joined BAE in 1998 – when it was British Aerospace – and managed a legal team of 60 within BAE’s air business for seven years. The wider legal team at the company numbers 250 and is run by the highly regarded Philip Bramwell.
The air business accounts for about half of the defence multinational’s £18bn turnover. Stuart Urquhart was named as Smyth’s successor – an internal appointment. Urquhart will combine his new role with his position as chief counsel for BAE Saudi Arabia.
Lastly, Lloyds has lost its head of legal operations, Sophie Schwass, to Magic Circle law firm Clifford Chance. Schwass takes on the position of regional chief operating officer UK and will play a key role in developing an operational strategy for the firm.
Schwass was with Lloyds for nearly three years and was previously in-house at Barclays, working her way up through various legal ranks at the bank over a decade.
She told Legal Business: ‘My previous roles have been about looking more strategically at what the company is doing, so invariably I’ll be looking at our strategy alongside the firm’s leaders. My role is a large one with a big remit on the operational and financial side, which is what we need to ensure that we are looking ahead to the future and continuing to deliver a cutting-edge service to clients.’