Welcome to Legal Business’ second annual GC Power List, which follows up on our successful launch last year. While we already knew we wanted the Power List to be an ongoing strand for Legal Business and its sister title The In-House Lawyer, reflecting the growing clout of in-house lawyers, attentive readers will note a shift in format from 2013. Since we didn’t feel the most influential senior general counsel (GC) would materially change in the space of 12 months, we decided it would be more worthwhile to this year focus on the rising stars of in-house legal. Continue reading “Rising Stars for 2014 – Introduction”
Rising Stars for 2014 – RPC
Twelve months ago, when Legal Business’s inaugural GC Power List landed, the global economic outlook was still decidedly bleak. Talk of a double-dip recession had started to feel like blind optimism, with global manufacturing output at its lowest level since 2009, unemployment in the eurozone at epidemic proportions and signs that the Chinese economic engine was beginning to falter.
A year on and there’s cause for cautious optimism, in the UK at least, with joblessness falling and it seems more reason for economists to be bullish about the strength of the recovery than for half a decade. Continue reading “Rising Stars for 2014 – RPC”
GC Powerlist – Rising Stars for 2014
In-house: National Grid conducts wholesale review of internal and external legal function
National Grid‘s group general counsel (GC) Alison Kay (pictured) has launched a wholesale review of the FTSE 100 energy giant’s in-house and external legal function, which will look at whether the internal legal team is delivering the right services and adding value to the business, as well as a potential shake-up of both its UK and US external law firm panel.
The current UK panel, which was put together in 2011 when National Grid cut its roster of firms by 25% to 16, includes Allen & Overy, Linklaters, DLA Piper, Eversheds, CMS Cameron McKenna, Berwin Leighton Paisner and Field Fisher Waterhouse.
Rising Stars for 2014 – Getting there
As the in-house profession has swelled in size and status in recent years the competition to secure a small number of high status senior roles has intensified. Legal Business asks what it takes to become a Rising Star when the bar keeps rising
What does it take to get ahead in the legal team of a major company? It seems an obvious enough question but despite the well-documented expansion of the in-house profession over the last 20 years, there is relatively little material on the career track for the ambitious in-house counsel.
GC Power List 2014 – The view from the top
Legal Business returned to its original GC Power List and other legal heads who have already climbed the ladder for insight into career development and how they try to help their star performers reach their potential.
Continue reading “GC Power List 2014 – The view from the top”
Joined up thinking – GCs push to make collaboration more than a buzzword
Collaboration has become a buzzword as progressive GCs press their advisers to parcel up work between them. Legal Business asks if such an approach can deliver the value its supporters claim
The battle to secure panel work is arduous for any law firm partner. With the threat of reduced panel slots and clients seeking more innovative examples of what separates firms from the competition, collaboration is increasingly becoming a buzzword among the more progressive general counsel (GC). As a condition of getting one of those coveted places on a major corporate’s panel, more firms are being asked to collaborate with all the other firms on the roster. They must communicate frequently, swap data and even, in some cases, pitch together for future pieces of work.
Continue reading “Joined up thinking – GCs push to make collaboration more than a buzzword”
Profile: Maurice Woolf
The telecoms company’s GC discusses the challenges his company faces
Maurice Woolf’s candid recollection of shifting client-side into the telecoms world will resonate with anyone familiar with those heady dot.com-influenced boom days of the 1990s – including being caught up in some of the bust.
Much like many private practice lawyers, the former Denton Hall lawyer had his first taste of in-house life while on secondment at telecoms company Hermes Europe Railtel, which was eventually acquired by GTS, Woolf’s first in-house employer.