Life during law: Peter Crossley, Squire Patton Boggs

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I started life in South Africa mainly doing crime and divorce. Knowing something about criminal law, and the cut and thrust of the courtroom, is a good base for anybody who wants to do litigation.

I wanted to go to the Bar but my father was a bank manager in South Africa with a lot of barrister customers who weren’t doing very well so he basically said: ‘You’ll never make it so become a solicitor.’ Both my parents were English, my father was at Dunkirk and was badly wounded and captured so he emigrated to South Africa for health reasons. He was always a pretty strong character and was the sort of man who you couldn’t ignore!

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Client Profile: John Davidson, SABMiller

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The multinational drinks giant’s GC on balancing regulation with refreshment.

A pub crawl or alcoholic supermarket sweep is not typically on the agenda for the average general counsel (GC)’s business trip, but this is exactly what makes SABMiller’s GC and corporate affairs director John Davidson’s job so unusual.

‘When we are in a country, we always make sure we build in what we call a trade visit, but what my wife calls a paid pub crawl, to visit other premises and outlets,’ says Davidson. ‘I spent Wednesday morning last week in Warsaw visiting four different supermarkets. Imagine doing that and getting paid for it.’ Continue reading “Client Profile: John Davidson, SABMiller”

Life during law: Mark Darley, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom

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The lift bank on my floor is the perfect length for a cricket pitch. My son’s old school cricket bat gets used and at 10pm it can be dangerous, as there is quite possibly a golf ball being chipped down the corridor. I have a number of dents outside my office. There is some valuable artwork on that wall, but nobody’s succeeded in hitting it yet.

I trained at Simpson Curtis in Leeds in the early 1980s, because I swore I would never come down to London. I just wasn’t going to come down to this nasty part of the world where it was a case of one-up-over-the-Joneses.

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‘There are still things I want to achieve’: Q&A with former law firm leader Tony Angel

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Tom Moore talks to Tony Angel, the former Linklaters managing partner who stepped down as global co-chair of DLA Piper on 1 May. Widely regarded to have been one of the outstanding law firm leaders of the past 25 years, he discusses diversity, harnessing technology and gifting Simon Levine a genie’s lamp.

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What advice would you give to the profession?

First, operating a global business with a single business model is going to be an increasing challenge. We’re all struggling with how to make our organisations more efficient and aligned to client needs. But those needs are increasingly varied and a one-size-fits-all model cannot any longer meet them all. The accounting firms have been very good at managing different business models in a single organisation; law firms need to learn how to do that too or really narrow their focus.

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Life During Law: Niri Shanmuganathan, Taylor Wessing

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I’ve always been interested in two things. One is people and that is a key part of the business. I’ve always liked the business of law and I wanted a role in the direction of the firm because I am home-grown. I’ve been here a long time – it means a lot to have some influence.

I did a history degree at Durham and I was looking at film and TV production, journalism and law. My family are pretty much all professionals – they would have been concerned if I went down the journalism or TV route.

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Client profile: Carolyn Jameson, Skyscanner

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Skyscanner is truly a business of the digital age. Officially launched in 2003, the travel search site, which provides instant online comparisons for over 1,000 airlines, as well as car hire and hotels, has grown to become the number-one flight search engine in Europe and now operates worldwide with offices in eight countries and travel searches in more than 30 languages.

For senior director and general counsel (GC) Carolyn Jameson, this was just one of the factors which encouraged her to join the team as its first legal head two years ago.

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Client profile: Benoit Belhomme, British American Tobacco

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BAT’s western Europe GC on the trials and tribulations of working in a controversial industry

Most general counsel (GCs) working for large multinational corporations will deal with regulation fairly frequently, but it is unlikely to be quite as stringent as that faced by in-house lawyers at one of the world’s largest tobacco groups – British American Tobacco (BAT).

‘We are working in one of – if not the –toughest regulatory environments that there is,’ argues BAT’s regional GC for western Europe, Benoit Belhomme.

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Life During Law – David Ereira

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I’m always in the present and think of the now.

You make your own luck. You have to put yourself in harm’s way. You have to be standing by the street when the ambulance goes by or you’re not going to be able to chase it. There’s a degree of intelligent positioning.

I come from a generation who have been very lucky. The role of law firms and lawyers went through a dramatic transformation in the 1980s with the Big Bang, and my generation rode that wave.

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Q&A: Mishcon de Reya’s Kevin Gold talks peers, New York and international strategy

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High-flying City firm Mishcon de Reya recently kicked off a review of its strategy, aiming to create a ten-year vision. Managing partner Kevin Gold, last month named Management Partner of the Year at the Legal Business Awards, talks to Sarah Downey about the firm’s future as a limited liability partnership, its Manhattan struggles and his leadership style.

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Life During Law – Kevin Ingram

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I fell into a career that suits me. I’ve done interesting things that kept me motivated and worked with intelligent, motivated people. I’ve never had a patch I didn’t enjoy.

I was the second person from my South Wales school to go to Oxford or Cambridge. All of the law firms at the time were recruiting heavily – nothing changes – I sent some printed CVs. It was quicker than filling in forms and Clifford Turner was one of them.

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