Recruitment: Keeping it in the family
Top in-house roles are short on the ground and corporates can have a huge wishlist of qualities a new general counsel will need. But in contrast with the US, the UK's leading companies are far more likely to promote internally or to look for a senior lawyer at a rival than try to lure a partner from a top law firm. Philip Hoult reports
April 16, 2003 at 08:03 PM
20 minute read
One of the two plum general counsel jobs on offer at the UK's leading companies has just been filled. Global energy giant Shell has appointed Beat Hess from Swiss-based engineering group ABB to succeed the retiring Pieter Folmer as head of its 400-lawyer strong legal department.
Attention will now focus on who is to succeed Howard Trust as group general counsel at Barclays Bank. The appointment of Trust's successor is one that many in the legal community, not least the bank's 250-plus in-house lawyers and its outside law firms, are waiting with bated breath to hear about. As yet there is no word – even though headhunters were understood to have sounded out potential candidates several months ago.
Despite the availability of these two high-profile posts, the reality is that head of legal or senior general counsel posts have been pretty thin on the ground of late. According to leading recruitment and search consultants, the uncertainty created by the economic downturn means that many heads of legal are reluctant to risk switching jobs.
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