National Express has appointed Burges Salmon’s head of corporate and financial institutions Sandra Forbes as group general counsel and company secretary, becoming the second partner at the Bristol firm to leave for a major transport role in the last few months. Continue reading “Burges Salmon’s head of corporate takes the National Express’ top legal role”
Bonus time: four months on, Barclays GC Hoyt gets £700k in shares in reduced round of payouts
He may have only replaced Mark Harding late last year but Barclays‘ recently appointed group general counsel Bob Hoyt has been awarded more than £700,000 in shares just four months into the role.
In-house: Virgin Media completes leadership reshuffle with new general counsel as Weight Watchers unveils its new GC
Home entertainment company Virgin Media has completed the overhaul of its executive following its £15bn acquisition by Liberty Global in 2013, announcing Mine Hifzi as its general counsel today (17 March).
In-house moves: QBE Insurance Group appoints new group general counsel
Rated as one of the world’s top 20 insurance and reinsurance companies, ASX-listed business underwriters QBE Insurance Group have appointed the group general counsel (GC) and company secretary of Australian supermarket Woolworths, Peter Horton, to join in the same role. Continue reading “In-house moves: QBE Insurance Group appoints new group general counsel”
In-house: US government agency adds to its senior lawyer ranks with AOL and Google hires
The former deputy general counsel at both AOL and Google are set to become colleagues, having separately joined the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as the government agency turns to lawyers with hi-tech backgrounds to fill its top ranks.
Pfizer maintains business-as-usual for legal alliance as Rosenthal latest GC to depart
It was recognised at its 2009 inception as the most radical attempt to carve up the way bluechips instruct their external advisers within a fixed-fee network, but last week Pfizer confirmed Pfizer Legal Alliance (PLA) chief counsel and assistant general counsel Ellen Rosenthal is leaving, shortly in the wake of the departure of PLA pioneer, former general counsel Amy Schulman.
Rosenthal was instrumental in setting up the PLA alongside Schulman, who created the alliance that sees 19 law firms handle the lion’s share of Pfizer’s legal work on a flat-fee structure, in a still rare example of a move entirely away from the billable hour. Continue reading “Pfizer maintains business-as-usual for legal alliance as Rosenthal latest GC to depart”
RBS share sell-off in Direct Line gifts Allen & Overy with £1bn deal
Just under a year earlier than expected by some in the City, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) this week (26 February) announced the sell-off of the majority of its remaining stake in Direct Line, gifting Allen & Overy (A&O) with a further bite of the cherry in a deal anticipated to be worth over £1bn.
A&O led by corporate partner David Broadley was first instructed on RBS’ float of 34.72% of Direct Line in the autumn of 2012, after the 80% nationalised bank was forced to offload the major insurer under EU regulations on state aid. Continue reading “RBS share sell-off in Direct Line gifts Allen & Overy with £1bn deal”
Lessons learned – will bluechip legal teams ever take training seriously?
While the in-house profession has come of age, the number of home-grown trainees remains tiny. Legal Business assesses whether in-house teams should lessen their reliance on law firm-schooled staff
Despite talk of radical changes to legal education and burgeoning in-house legal teams in blue-chip organisations, there has been no real breakthrough in a mainstream plc route to qualification.
Continue reading “Lessons learned – will bluechip legal teams ever take training seriously?”
Sochi over, the World Anti-Doping Agency brings in new GC as it looks to tougher 2015 code
As the excitement surrounding the successful albeit controversial Winter Olympics 2014 in Sochi fades, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will shortly, albeit with less fanfare, welcome the arrival of new general counsel and chief operating officer Olivier Niggli, who joins the global agency from Swiss law firm Carrard & Associés.
Currently a partner at the Lausanne-based business and sports boutique, where he specialises in sport, arbitration and commercial law, Niggli will in June join the agency he helped to set up in 1999, as it prepares to implement a new, far stricter code, which comes into effect on 1 January 2015 and will double the ban for athletes found guilty of doping from two to four years. Continue reading “Sochi over, the World Anti-Doping Agency brings in new GC as it looks to tougher 2015 code”
Profile: Alison Kay, National Grid
The energy giant’s group GC discusses the overhaul of its legal function
When the in-house legal team of a large corporate announces a ‘review’, it’s often enough to instil a sense of foreboding in its external legal panel. For the law firm, it’s likely to mean months of painstaking paper pushing, parading in front of senior lawyers (and, these days, possibly their bosses) and making promises they hope they can keep, particularly when it comes to costs versus service levels.
But at National Grid, things are a little different, for now at least. There is a review planned, but group general counsel (GC) and company secretary Alison Kay is determined to analyse service levels closer to home, starting with her own 31-strong UK team.