BT appoints former AB InBev legal chief Chalmers as group GC as it delays global panel review
BT's global review which is set to significantly reduce its roster is delayed until next year
December 11, 2017 at 06:00 AM
3 minute read
BT has appointed Sabine Chalmers as its new group general counsel, as it emerges that it has delayed a review of its global legal panel.
Chalmers will join BT in April 2018 as group general counsel and report to chief executive Gavin Patterson, and become a member of the executive committee.
She was previously chief legal officer at brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev for 13 years, before stepping down earlier this year. She is currently a non-executive director of beauty company Coty and also holds a board role at the Royal National Theatre.
Current group general counsel Dan Fitz, who joined BT in 2010, will continue to support the board as company secretary from April and will remain on the executive committee, reporting to Patterson.
Fitz joined BT from technology firm Misys where he was executive vice-president, general counsel and company secretary from 2003 to 2009. Prior to that he spent 12 years at fellow telecoms company Cable & Wireless in a number of roles, including group general counsel.
Meanwhile, BT has also delayed a review of its global panel after it completed its UK and Ireland panel review earlier this year.
The review was set to be completed by the end of 2017 but was delayed due to a high workload and is now set to complete in the first half of 2018.
The process was also delayed to decide how to plan and carry out the tender process, which is set to see the current panel – which numbers in the hundreds – significantly reduced.
The review is set to rationalise the list of its firms so that they can do a range of different work across the jurisdictions that BT currently operates in.
Alongside the types of service firms can provide, they will also be asked to submit proposals that relate to its commitment to diversity and inclusion and innovation.
A source close to the matter said: "We will want firms that can do contract work, for example, in the morning and then something completely different in the afternoon."
The delayed review follows BT finalising its UK and Ireland review in April 2017. The process saw 37 firms appointed to its new line-up.
The review of what BT describes as its legal 'network' began in 2016, but was delayed due to the merger with EE in January 2016. The new line-up of firms is a significant increase on the previous 19-strong roster announced in 2013.
The global panel covers BT's three distinct regions outside of the UK – the Americas; Europe; and Asia, Middle East and Africa. The firms in each of the jurisdictions will be reviewed by the company's local head of legal.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer was previously the only magic circle law firm on the roster, but Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance and Linklaters were added in the last review.
Other UK top 50 firms to have won places include Addleshaw Goddard, Eversheds Sutherland, Berwin Leighton Paisner, Bond Dickinson, Burges Salmon, DAC Beachcroft, DWF, Fieldfisher, Osborne Clarke, Simmons & Simmons and TLT.
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