In-house: Clifford Chance and Slaughter and May lawyers take senior roles at CMA, Shell and PwC

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Magic circle lawyers have this week filled a number of senior regulatory and in-house positions, with a Slaughter and May partner unveiled as general counsel of the new Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and a former lawyer named Shell‘s UK legal head; while Clifford Chance‘s head of employee benefits has joined PwC as a director in its employee rewards team.

The CMA – the new body which brings together the Competition Commission and and some consumer functions of the Office of Fair Trading- yesterday (12 September) announced the appointment of former Slaughter and May partner Sarah Cardell as GC as it completes its leadership team in time for its official launch on 1 October. Continue reading “In-house: Clifford Chance and Slaughter and May lawyers take senior roles at CMA, Shell and PwC”

That bright shiny idea – the in-house teams trying to move from costs to business driver

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With mounting pressure on legal teams to up productivity, a handful of pioneering GCs have attempted the fundamental shift towards becoming a commercial centre

‘A lot of people like to be seen to be innovative,’ says Richard Susskind, author of Tomorrow’s Lawyers, ‘but one shouldn’t pursue innovation in and of itself, it’s got to be relevant.’

While this means different things to different industries at different times, within the context of the in-house legal community in the grip of an enduring economic malaise, there can be little more relevant than the innovations of departments that have turned themselves from traditional cost centres into profit-generating or business development limbs of the overall enterprise.

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The Client: Philip Bramwell – BAE Systems

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Caroline Hill talks to the plain-speaking general counsel

When BAE Systems’ group general counsel (GC) Philip Bramwell started out as a lawyer in the pharmaceuticals industry, his mother approved on the basis that ‘everybody gets sick’. But as the assertive corporate veteran set out on the deliberate path to change industry every few years, she was less convinced by his switch from BT to O2 in 2001, observing that mobile phones were somewhere between a brick and a car battery and ‘no-one would be so rude as to walk around talking on them’.

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Dissent: Why the in-house triumph over law firms may prove short-lived

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Scott Gibson and Kristi Edwards argue that GCs have secured a short-term advantage over their external advisers at the risk of undermining their own position

In the decade prior to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, an excess of work masked the corrosive effect to law firms from competition with increasingly sophisticated and growing in-house legal departments (C&I teams). Post-Lehman, the economic downturn has exposed significant structural challenges to overstaffed law firms, which have been ruthlessly exploited by C&I to decisively shift the balance of power in favour of clients.

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Barclays goes external to replace group GC Mark Harding

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In a surprise announcement, Barclays has today (30 August) revealed that Bob Hoyt has taken over from Mark Harding as group general counsel (GC), following the announcement in February that Harding is to retire.

The decision to appoint an external candidate to one of the most high-profile legal roles in banking ends months of speculation following Harding’s decision to retire at the start of the year, with many calling a two-horse race between deputy general counsel Michael Shaw and global GC for corporate and investment banking Judith Shepherd. Continue reading “Barclays goes external to replace group GC Mark Harding”

BAE international: defence giant rolls out UK cab rank model to Asia and ME

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With the UK’s investment in defence broadly flat British defence giant BAE Systems is looking increasingly to the international markets for growth and its legal team is morphing with it.

This month, BAE’s 250-strong legal team, which counts the company’s 100,000-plus employees as its clients, rolled out its UK cab rank model – under which a pool of lawyers is available on a first-come-first-served basis – to Asia and the Middle East. Continue reading “BAE international: defence giant rolls out UK cab rank model to Asia and ME”

Against the grain: Kent CC’s legal arm introduces trainee programme as it unveils 20% rise in profits

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As private practice firms including Allen & Overy downsize their trainee intakes the successful legal arm of Kent County Council has introduced its first trainee programme as it also unveils a significant increase in profitability.

As of September, Kent Legal Services (KLS) will take on five trainees as it moves to grow its business. The legal arm, which is unique among in-house departments for generating income as a result of offering its services to external county councils, yesterday announced a rise in 2012/13 profits of 20% from £2m to £2.4m and a 9% increase in turnover from £11m to £12m. This represents an improvement on last year’s performance, when profit increased by 18% to £2m while turnover was up 10% to £11m. Continue reading “Against the grain: Kent CC’s legal arm introduces trainee programme as it unveils 20% rise in profits”

In-house Round-up: Swiss Re GC to DAC, Co-op’s Gulliford to Pannone, FACT appoints first GC and Auction.com takes on senior legal team

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If it had seemed that the flow of UK hires between private practice and in-house was very much one-sided in the corporates’ favour a recent run of high profile moves has gone some way to evening out the score.

Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) co-founder Jonathan Gulliford has joined Pannone Affinity as a consultant as part of an ongoing growth drive at the Manchester firm’s white label legal arm. Continue reading “In-house Round-up: Swiss Re GC to DAC, Co-op’s Gulliford to Pannone, FACT appoints first GC and Auction.com takes on senior legal team”

Pioneering Lawyers On Demand business secures high profile ex FT general counsel to plot growth

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Former Financial Times general counsel Tim Bratton is set to join the Berwin Leighton Paisner-backed Lawyers on Demand (LOD) in September as practice development director. Jonathan Brenner (pictured), co-founder of LOD, told Legal Business he was ‘delighted’ to get the high profile Bratton on board.

Bratton joins in a newly-created role to help drive the growth of the legal service provider with in-house teams and law firms.

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Making connections – how in-house counsel swap ideas (and business cards)

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Legal Business assesses the options for senior in-house counsel looking to swap ideas (and business cards) with their peers

Buy-side lawyers are a continual target for a whole host of networking and marketing ‘opportunities’ that may – or more often may not – be useful. As private practice law firms look for ways to deepen their client relationship in a market where that relationship is increasingly de-personalised, others have clocked on to the fact that, to get close to private practice, you need to pull strings among their clients.

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