In-house: RBS loses divisional legal chief to property fund Valad Europe

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has lost a senior member of its in-house legal team, with banking lawyer Robin Macpherson, who headed legal for large corporate and sectors for the UK and Western Europe, leaving the bank. He joins real estate fund Valad Europe as head of risk. Continue reading “In-house: RBS loses divisional legal chief to property fund Valad Europe”

Shell moves to ‘appropriate’ fee arrangements for all matters following panel review

Royal Dutch Shell has implemented a rule that all new legal matters must be priced using ‘appropriate’ fee arrangements (AFAs), following the oil major’s most recent panel review in April 2016.

AFAs, which include capped fees, fixed fees and contingency fees, have been in place for all litigation work since June 2014, but now apply to all legal matters. In addition, every piece of work will be put out to tender to three or more panel firms.

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A buyers’ market – The trends and traumas in adviser reviews

The trend for reduced panels has seen law firms put through their paces by clients eager to drive innovation and control spend. Legal Business reviews the reviews

In-house teams may have grown in size and stature over recent years, but their external adviser panels are definitely shrinking. As a result, law firms find themselves increasingly at the sharp end during adviser reviews (see box ‘Cutting back’, below), with clients pushing for better rates, greater efficiencies and added extras.

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Client profile: David Symonds, Johnson Controls International

The conglomerate’s EMEA GC on forging a groundbreaking sole-adviser mandate and its recent $16.5bn merger

In an area of the profession obsessed with talking up innovation and downplaying costs, David Symonds, EMEA general counsel (GC) for recently merged entity Johnson Controls International (JCI), is a name synonymous with both.

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