Trump, Brexit and what they mean for general counsel featured heavily on the agenda of today's Transatlantic GC summit, which was chaired by Coca-Cola European Partners' GC Clare Wardle and KPMG UK GC Jeremy Barton (pictured above).

The event, jointly run by Legal Week and its US sibling title The American Lawyer, saw more than 100 GCs gathering to discuss a host of issues from geopolitical risk, through to crisis management, corporate governance and investigations.

Opening the day, Oxford University's Centre for Corporate Reputation, Rupert Younger, who also co-founded financial communications group Finsbury, analysed recent corporate crises at companies from BA to Volkswagen and United Airlines.

He told the audience: "Your brand is simply what you want it to be. Your reputation is what people actually believe you to be. Reputations differ not because of what you are or what you want your brand to be, but because of what people actually think. Ultimately, other people own your reputation."

The morning also saw a panel discussion about the impact of transatlantic elections on business, with Dechert partner and co-chair of the firm's EU, international and government regulation practice, Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, alongside former Safran group general counsel Adam Smith and Dechert partner and co-leader of the white-collar crime practice, David Kelley.

The group discussed the populist election of Donald Trump, Britain's rejection of the EU and the debate over open borders and how these factors may help or hinder business going forward.

Kelley commented: "With Brexit, real things are happening with real deadlines. In the US we don't have that. It has been a bumpy ride characterised by chaos. We have these executive orders and the tweets and lots of political fluff but if you really examine from an enforcement and regulatory perspective what's happening, there has been and likely won't be a lot of change in the future."

Other sessions saw Barclays group GC Bob Hoyt discuss cross-border criminal, regulatory and civil investigations alongside BAE Systems' chief counsel for compliance and regulation Joanna Talbot and partners from Kobre & Kim.

Other speakers included Andrew Bull, group GC of GE Capital, Anthony Kenny, assistant GC corporate at GSK, as well as representatives from Shire, National Grid, Accenture, Boston Consulting Group and BT.