British American Tobacco GC Neil Withington tells Alex Aldridge about the outsourcing deal he struck with Lovells and recalls his early days at ICI in a team of lawyers destined for the top

During the 1640s, lawyers in Virginia were paid in pounds of tobacco – a way of working that would continue to suit British American Tobacco (BAT) quite nicely, jokes the company's general counsel, Neil Withington. But resigned to the likely failure of resurrecting such a payment method, Withington is instead focusing on the rather more 21st century concept of legal process outsourcing as he bids to keep BAT's external legal spend as tight as possible.

For over three years now, the company has been quietly sending commoditised tasks such as document review out to lawyers at outsourcing provider Integreon in India. The arrangement was set up by Lovells, one of five 'chosen partner' law firms BAT regularly works with (the others are Linklaters, Herbert Smith, Baker & McKenzie and Chadbourne & Parke).

"We wanted to manage a large part of discovery obligations in a more efficient way, so we worked with Lovells," says Withington. "They helped us set it up, leaving their lawyers to do the more high-end work." He adds that while he is all for law firms being creative when dealing with commoditised work, he sees little reason for them to change the way they handle more complex matters. "When you want five hours of a top lawyer's quality time, straightforward hourly rate arrangements give you a level of unquestionable independence and impartiality," he says.

The consideration of such matters is just one of a number of priorities facing Withington as the legal chief of a company employing over 55,000 people across more than 100 countries. "In terms of size, we're at the level of many law firms [271 lawyers]," he says, "which means that management and strategy form the core part of what I do."

Withington runs the team with assistance from his global legal board, which he chairs. On it sit all of his 10 direct reports: five assistant general counsel for each practice area and five regional general counsel.

They operate according to their corporate philosophy, 'legal means business' – with bold red versions of these words adorning the fourth-floor window of BAT's central London head office, where the company's 54 UK-based lawyers reside. "Our aim is to be professionals at the heart of the business, balancing the classic in-house issues of being a business partner, while also managing risk effectively," he continues.

The size of the BAT legal team means it handles a lot of the company's legal work itself; work that, as Withington is keen to point out, is not just about fending off product liability cases. "There's this perception that we're just a group of product liability litigators, which isn't true. We're a team of international business support lawyers of the type you'd find at most FTSE 100 companies," he says.

Still, liability arising from the sale of cigarettes is a part of life at a tobacco company, with 12 in-house litigators working on such cases nearly full-time. Withington is matter-of-fact about what it means to work for an organisation that generates this kind of work.

"I'm a firm believer in tolerance," he says. "Okay, we don't sell widgets, but essentially a tobacco company is a group of people trying to do the right thing with a difficult product. And that's not a bad place to be. It's certainly interesting."

Not that Withington saw himself in the tobacco business – or any business, for that matter – when starting out as a young barrister at St Johns Buildings Chambers in Manchester after graduating from Oxford University in 1979. "I always wanted to be a barrister, but I'm not entirely sure why. It was a good experience, but after five years of whiplash cases I wanted to do something different, and was lucky enough to get an in-house legal job at ICI," he recalls.

There, Withington met a group of young lawyers who would rise to occupy a host of top legal positions throughout the City. He was in the same team as Paul Maher (now chairman of Greenberg Traurig's London office), Steve Williams (now general counsel of Unilever), Andy Ransom (now executive director of Rentokil), Michael Herlihy (former ICI general counsel, now interim general counsel of Smiths Industries and a consultant at Jomati) and Graham Musker (recently retired general secretary at AstraZeneca).

"The place proved to be a fantastic breeding ground," remembers Withington, who left ICI to join BAT in 1993. He attributes the "excellent training" at ICI as key to his and his former colleagues' subsequent successes – alongside a fair dose of luck.

"Never underestimate how much it helps to be in the right place at the right time," he reflects. "Having said that, to be in a position to take those opportunities you need to have had your head down and worked hard in the intervening period."

Which is what Withington is planning to do during the years ahead: "The rest of my career? More hard work and, I hope, more success for the business."

paul-maher-greenberg-traurigPaul Maher on the old days at ICI

"During our time at ICI in the 1980s, Neil was always a good guy to have around, exuding the confidence that people who come from the Bar tend to exude.

"That job shaped my career; mainly because we were responsible for handling virtually all of the deals the company was working on at the time, and just left to
get on with the work.

"So I guess it's no coincidence that many of the people on the team during that period have gone on to have successful careers. Happy memories."