Anadarko Petroleum
Robert Reeves, the general counsel at oil and gas exploration company Anadarko Petroleum is highlighted as ‘carrying a lot of weight in the industry’. With more than 30 years of legal and management experience under his belt, Reeves has responsibility for the company’s legal, government relations, public affairs, information technology and administration functions.
BG Group
Described as ‘such a big name that his views will always get taken seriously both inside and outside the company’ and having spent the best part of two decades as a partner at a Magic Circle firm, Graham Vinter has high expectations of his external legal panel firms. With an external legal spend of $30m-40m worldwide each year at BG Group he is particularly keen that firms have a deep understanding of the oil and gas industry and the cost pressures clients are under.
Centrica
Since Centrica’s demerger from British Gas in 1997, Grant Dawson has ‘made the role his own’, according to one energy partner. This includes leading the way with his advice on deals covering the full spread of power supply and generation, including Centrica’s joint venture with EDF Energy in 2009 and the acquisition of Venture Production.
ConocoPhillips
Janet Langford Kelly is revered as one of the leading in-house international lawyers on complex energy matters with 25 years’ experience in the industry. ‘I don’t know if there is any straight “path” to becoming a GC, it is often as much luck as preparation,’ she says.
Royal Dutch Shell
In 2010 Shell’s legal director Beat Hess retired, leaving big shoes to fill, so the oil major took the unusual step of hiring arbitration specialist Peter Rees QC.
Tullow Oil
‘If you cut Graham Martin he would bleed Tullow Oil,’ says one leading energy lawyer. Martin is clearly committed to a company that he has been associated with since his private practice days at Vinson & Elkins in the eighties, which has exploration and production assets in 23 countries, including Africa, Europe, South Asia and South America.
BP
Few general counsel are as well-known outside their industry as Rupert Bondy at BP – he is a clear example of a legal director that operates in a secretarial rather than a GC role.
Following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, Bondy oversaw the company’s risk management strategy, effectively steering its emergency response from the beginning of the crisis through to the eventual financial settlement.
Cable & Wireless Worldwide
Described by one telecoms expert as having done ‘a great job as GC at Cable & Wireless Worldwide in challenging times’, Philip Davis’ main task at CWW right now is to bring down group legal spend, which currently stands at around £1.2m a year.
Continue reading “Philip Davis – Cable & Wireless Worldwide”
Vodafone
One of the most high profile and respected GCs around today, Rosemary Martin joined Vodafone after more than a decade at news agency Reuters.
Lebara Group
Paul van Straaten loves to be in the middle of the action. Whether it’s high-profile disputes before the European Court of Justice, major M&A transactions or projects in developing countries, Lebara Group is never just ‘ticking over’, he says.
