The rail company’s GC on the challenges of working in a highly specialised industry.
Suzanne Wise first thought it was a joke when she was asked to interview for the top legal role at Network Rail – the controversial owner and operator of most of the rail infrastructure across England, Scotland and Wales.
Continue reading “Client profile: Suzanne Wise, Network Rail”
The group’s general counsel on bringing the member-run organisation back from the brink
After spending 34 years at Allen & Overy (A&O), it took veteran corporate partner Alistair Asher just 48 hours to clear his desk and inform clients that he was taking on the general counsel (GC) role at crisis-hit The Co-operative Group (the Co-op) in June 2013.
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If you wanted to do litigation, there was no better place than Herbert Smith. I have no idea why but it was always going to be litigation. It was all I saw on TV and in books, there were no books written about M&A lawyers.
Suddenly the City just couldn’t get enough lawyers – if you had a pulse you could get a job in those days.
According to one nomination in support of Emily Cane’s inclusion in this year’s report, she is ‘regarded as indispensable to the legal team and worth ten people’.
A former Norton Rose associate, who qualified into the firm’s corporate and regulatory insurance team, Cane joined AIG in January 2010, working for EMEA GC Chris Newby.
Newby is certainly impressed: ‘Emily has displayed not only legal acumen but tremendous adaptability, taking on a variety of increasingly senior and complex roles over the years. She has tackled each with pragmatism and legal zeal to provide legal services to the financial lines, Global Risk Solutions and the EMEA-wide group.’
Some of Cane’s most noteworthy roles include advising on transactions with FTSE 100 companies and developing AIG financial lines products as well as global captive reinsurance programmes, sanctions issues and multinational matters.
Continue reading “Emily Cane: Associate Counsel for EMEA commercial lines, AIG”
Susan Henderson leads GE’s centralised team of European labour and employment lawyers: a team she developed to provide support across GE’s diverse businesses and employee population – covering over 90,000 employees in 30 countries. Alongside this, Susan is currently focused on GE’s prospective $13.5bn acquisition and integration of Alstom’s energy businesses.
Before GE, Susan worked in-house with Legal & General, having started her career at McGrigors and Lovells.
Susan is qualified in Scotland, England and Wales and New York.
She is regularly invited to speak and write on both domestic and international legal issues and is a former chair of the UK In-House Employment Lawyers Network.
One Magic Circle partner comments: ‘Susan has fantastic technical knowledge but is also a very smart operator who has the absolute trust and confidence of her stakeholders. She can spot the key issues at the outset.’
Continue reading “Susan Henderson: European labour and employment head, GE”
A former Linklaters litigation associate, Daisy Le Vay became an in-house lawyer with Virgin Atlantic in 2007 before joining Nomura in 2008 as an executive director in the Japanese bank’s litigation department.
As head of litigation, Le Vay is responsible for dealing with some of the most complex and high-profile issues Nomura faces. She manages a team of litigators and also co-heads a larger team of commercial, employment, IP and IT lawyers, as well as the company secretarial group.
One counsel at a Magic Circle firm comments: ‘Daisy is an exceptionally bright lawyer with a finely honed ability to spot the important points. She simultaneously gets every detail without losing the ability to see the wider picture. She is also an excellent and a confident communicator.’
What makes Le Vay stand out is her ‘exceptional intellectual ability and rigour. She is someone who always thinks strategically but can also make quick decisions and is totally in tune with her business’.
Continue reading “Daisy Le Vay: Head of Litigation and Co-head of Corporate Legal, EMEA, Nomura”
Gary Partington qualified as an outsourcing lawyer at Ventura in April 2008 before joining HSBC’s technology and services (HTS) division in 2012, as senior legal counsel for supply contracts, providing operational and technical support to HSBC’s global businesses.
In April 2013, he was promoted to become Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) HTS head and has led on a number of major outsourcing deals for the global retail and investment bank.
HSBC did not have a dedicated HTS team prior to Partington’s arrival and he has been instrumental in creating and growing it into a dedicated 60-strong legal function.
One respected in-house consultant observes: ‘He is insightful, wise, generous and strategic. All in all, a top lawyer.’
Wragge & Co-trained, on qualification Alice Marsden joined Latham & Watkins as an associate before moving to Thomas Cook in January 2014 and becoming UK and Ireland head of legal three months later, just seven years after qualification.
An outsourcing lawyer by training, Marsden now heads a team of ten lawyers, including a number of new recruits, as Thomas Cook further boosts the quality of its UK legal offering.
In her own capacity Marsden supports the IT, HR, risk and marketing teams and has been heavily involved in Thomas Cook’s ongoing IT transformation programme, which will see it move globally onto the same IT infrastructure.
Paul Gilbert, chief executive of LBC Wise Counsel, comments: ‘I have been consulting in-house lawyers for 15 years and over that period I have been very fortunate to see some of the most talented young lawyers this country has. Among a few others who we have worked with, and who have also gone on to do great things, Alice has the temperament, drive and potential to be brilliant.’
Continue reading “Alice Marsden: Head of legal UK&I, Thomas Cook Group”
Martin Graham joined Oaktree Capital from Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in 2007 as assistant vice president (VP), becoming VP in January 2010 and senior VP in 2014. His role at Oaktree – one of the most influential houses in the alternative investment space – focuses on managing and executing pan-European distressed debt and private equity investments.
Key matters he has worked on include a $650m arbitration against a major international oil company and, in 2014, $1bn of debt fundraising across five different financing instruments for three portfolio companies.
The Freshfields-trained lawyer is commended externally for the volume and complexity of work he handled in 2014 alone, including a $320m senior secured bond by Harkand Finance; a $130m secured loan facility for Harkand Global Holdings backed by export credit support from the Norwegian government; and a €350m secured bond issued by SGD Group.
Continue reading “Martin Graham: Senior vice president, Oaktree Capital”
As BG Group’s chief corporate counsel, reporting to GC Graham Vinter, Howard Landes is the lawyer responsible for BG Group’s M&A and corporate finance matters globally.
Landes joined BG Group from Clifford Chance nine years ago and now regularly provides strategic advice to senior management on the energy giant’s major transactions and related issues. His key recent achievements include leading the legal function in successfully delivering multibillion-dollar securities fundraisings in the US and Europe in 2014, in executing one of Australia’s largest ever infrastructure deals, the $5bn sale by BG Group of its 540km pipeline network QCLNG Pipeline to APA Group.
Landes is described by a partner from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer as ‘extremely sophisticated and astutely commercial’. The partner adds: ‘[Howard] operates like a Magic Circle partner and general counsel at the same time. He is very smart, [an] excellent negotiator, understands internal drivers and commands significant respect internally and externally.’
Another City partner comments: ‘Howard has the ability to effortlessly navigate the global landscape of an industry with a multiplicity of challenges. He is available and responsive 24/7 and his knowledge and experience provide confidence to make big-money decisions.’
Continue reading “Howard Landes: Chief counsel, corporate finance, BG Group”
