Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management draw up details of post-merger legal team
Standard Life group GC to take up top legal role at Standard Life Aberdeen next month
July 17, 2017 at 05:18 AM
2 minute read
Standard Life group general counsel Rushad Abadan has been appointed to take up the group GC role at Standard Life Aberdeen when the investment firm's merger with Aberdeen Asset Management goes live next month.
The combination – which was backed by shareholders and cleared by the Competition and Markets Authority in June – will create a company with about 9,000 employees, overseeing assets worth £660bn.
Abadan – who joined Standard Life in January 2016 from RBS, where he was deputy general counsel – will be group GC of the merged firm, while Aberdeen Asset Management general counsel Gordon Brough will be GC of the company's asset management division.
The in-house legal function at the new company will be divided into two main teams – one for asset management and one for the the pensions and savings side of the business, with roughly 60 lawyers in each team.
Neither Standard Life nor Aberdeen Asset Management operate a formal panel of external law firms. Standard Life is known to use Slaughter and May and Addleshaw Goddard, while Aberdeen Asset Management also works with Slaughters, as well as Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Scots firm Maclay Murray & Spens.
Freshfields and Maclays both advised Aberdeen on the merger – which was announced in March – while Slaughters took the lead role for Standard Life.
After the deal was announced, the company said it expected to cut about 800 jobs as a result of the tie-up, with savings also set to come from "reductions in legal, professional and consultancy fees".
However, due to the work involved in ensuring the success of the merger, as well as the company's immediate growth plans, the size of the in-house legal team is expected to remain broadly unchanged in the short to medium term.
Although Standard Life itself does not have a formal roster of external law firms, its asset management division Standard Life Investments does use a panel of five firms – Addleshaw Goddard, CMS, Herbert Smith Freehills, Maples Teesdale and Shepherd and Wedderburn – which it reviewed last summer.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All
Whistleblowing in 2025: What's on the Horizon for GCs?
De Brauw Partner Departs for In-House Role with Swiss Family Enterprise
Trending Stories
- 1ACC CLO Survey Waves Warning Flags for Boards
- 2States Accuse Trump of Thwarting Court's Funding Restoration Order
- 3Microsoft Becomes Latest Tech Company to Face Claims of Stealing Marketing Commissions From Influencers
- 4Coral Gables Attorney Busted for Stalking Lawyer
- 5Trump's DOJ Delays Releasing Jan. 6 FBI Agents List Under Consent Order
Who Got The Work
J. Brugh Lower of Gibbons has entered an appearance for industrial equipment supplier Devco Corporation in a pending trademark infringement lawsuit. The suit, accusing the defendant of selling knock-off Graco products, was filed Dec. 18 in New Jersey District Court by Rivkin Radler on behalf of Graco Inc. and Graco Minnesota. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi, is 3:24-cv-11294, Graco Inc. et al v. Devco Corporation.
Who Got The Work
Rebecca Maller-Stein and Kent A. Yalowitz of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer have entered their appearances for Hanaco Venture Capital and its executives, Lior Prosor and David Frankel, in a pending securities lawsuit. The action, filed on Dec. 24 in New York Southern District Court by Zell, Aron & Co. on behalf of Goldeneye Advisors, accuses the defendants of negligently and fraudulently managing the plaintiff's $1 million investment. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick, is 1:24-cv-09918, Goldeneye Advisors, LLC v. Hanaco Venture Capital, Ltd. et al.
Who Got The Work
Attorneys from A&O Shearman has stepped in as defense counsel for Toronto-Dominion Bank and other defendants in a pending securities class action. The suit, filed Dec. 11 in New York Southern District Court by Bleichmar Fonti & Auld, accuses the defendants of concealing the bank's 'pervasive' deficiencies in regards to its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and the quality of its anti-money laundering controls. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, is 1:24-cv-09445, Gonzalez v. The Toronto-Dominion Bank et al.
Who Got The Work
Crown Castle International, a Pennsylvania company providing shared communications infrastructure, has turned to Luke D. Wolf of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani to fend off a pending breach-of-contract lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 25 in Michigan Eastern District Court by Hooper Hathaway PC on behalf of The Town Residences LLC, accuses Crown Castle of failing to transfer approximately $30,000 in utility payments from T-Mobile in breach of a roof-top lease and assignment agreement. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Susan K. Declercq, is 2:24-cv-13131, The Town Residences LLC v. T-Mobile US, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Wilfred P. Coronato and Daniel M. Schwartz of McCarter & English have stepped in as defense counsel to Electrolux Home Products Inc. in a pending product liability lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 26 in New York Eastern District Court by Poulos Lopiccolo PC and Nagel Rice LLP on behalf of David Stern, alleges that the defendant's refrigerators’ drawers and shelving repeatedly break and fall apart within months after purchase. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack, is 2:24-cv-08204, Stern v. Electrolux Home Products, Inc.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250
