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International Edition

Westminster Council set to overhaul legal team

Westminster City Council is set to kick off a restructuring of its in-house legal division at the end of next month (30 November). The overhaul of the 24-strong function comes as the council's director of legal and administrative services, Colin Wilson, steps down form his after taking voluntary redundancy.The legal and administrative sectors of the function will be separated, with current divisional deputy Peter Large taking up the leadership when Wilson departs at the end of November.
2 minute read

International Edition

Scots drinks company signs up new GC from Coca-Cola

Drinks company William Grant & Sons has appointed Eva Bishop as its new group general counsel. Bishop will officially begin the role at the beginning of next year (5 January) and will also sit on the company's supervisory board and executive.She joins form the Great Britain division of soft drinks giant Coca-Cola, where she was vice president legal and company. It is understood that current head of legal Andrew Bishop will stay with the company working under Bishop.
2 minute read

International Edition

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank unveils first-ever external panel of legal advisers

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) has completed a review of its external advisers and created its first-ever legal panel. The changes follow January's appointment of Simon Copleston as the bank's first general counsel. Copleston has selected a 10-firm panel including long-standing adviser Reed Smith as well as Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Allen & Overy, Linklaters, Norton Rose, Clyde & Co and Middle East practice Al Tamimi & Company.
2 minute read

International Edition

GCs slow to win early-payer deals despite buyers' market

Some senior in-house lawyers at global companies would be willing to pay in advance for routine legal work in return for a discount on fee levels it has been claimed.General counsel at companies including Coca-Cola told Legal Week they would be happy to pay fees upfront as long as they received a significant discount on rates. However, most said firms had not approached them about discounts despite predictions that the economic downturn could force them to reduce normal fee rates.Coca-Cola European group general counsel Christopher Barnard said he could be persuaded to adopt the model if the discount was significant.
2 minute read

International Edition

Divided loyalties

Barack Obama and John McCain have been running a tight race for the votes of America - and among the country's top corporate lawyers. McCain has a slight lead in total donations from general counsel (GCs) at Fortune 100 companies. Still, elite GCs are giving significantly more to Obama than they did to Al Gore or John Kerry, the previous two Democratic presidential nominees.According to a review of general counsel contributions by Legal Week sister title Corporate Counsel, 23 legal chiefs have given McCain $53,250 (£30,400), while 19 have given Obama $47,950 (£27,400). And they are loyal to their favourite - only one GC gave to both candidates. Another legal chief also gave McCain $2,300 (£1,300) more than allowed by federal law, and that donation will probably be returned.
7 minute read

International Edition

World Wrestling Entertainment calls new GC into the ring

American sports entertainment company World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has appointed Jared Bartie as its new executive vice president and general counsel. Bartie will be responsible for the company's legal and business affairs and joins from Bobcats Sports and Entertainment, the parent company of NBA basketball side Charlotte Bobcats. He has previously worked with companies including United States Tennis Association.
1 minute read

International Edition

Samsung announces first-ever general counsel

Samsung has appointed its first-ever European general counsel with Jeremy Shewring taking up the post. Shewring, who took up the post this week, joins from French IT company Steria. He will be responsible for the Korean company's legal function across Europe - excluding Russia. Meanwhile, Eversheds associate John Benjamin, who has been acting as the legal team's co-ordinator, is returning to the national firm.
1 minute read

International Edition

Ready to ride out the storm

With the credit crunch starting to impact on businesses outside the property and investment sectors, one of the key issues discussed at this year's Legal Week Corporate Counsel Forum Europe was the effect of financial constraints on in-house legal functions.The credit crunch and its influence on the relationship between general counsel and external firms came in for major scrutiny at the event, which was held on 23-24 September in Switzerland.HSBC's head of legal Richard Hennity noted that law firms had been successful in protecting their clients from litigation risk in the fallout of the credit crunch.He said: "Litigation lawyers have been rubbing their hands with glee waiting for litigation tao hit and I haven't seen it happen. I do not know what that says about firms trying to protect their clients' interests, but it appears they have done a reasonably good job."Fellow panellist Mike Henley, commercial and dispute resolution partner at Hammonds, suggested that while the credit crunch continued, law firms would, as a result, pick up more work from their clients.Henley said: "We are starting to see a pick-up in litigation between corporate clients, who have more reason not to pay and more things to argue about. Also in financial services, with institutions looking at the possible falling of asset values and what they can do about that."But what will the upshot of increased litigation mean for client fees? InBev chief legal officer Sabine Chalmers hinted that relations between advisers and clients would increasingly depend on fee levels. She said: "There is a lot of talk about cost and trying to keep cost down. The two main areas that freak us out are legal fees and investment banking fees. How will firms react to the level of fees?"With risk high on the agenda, HSBC's Hennity said general counsel would be looking for a new approach to risk management through their contracts.He said: "There is a focus on risk. Risk has become a buzz word. Risk managers deal with numbers - lawyers deal with words. We could reach a point where legal contracts work on a numerical scale of one to 100."The discussion also touched upon the importance of maintaining control over in-house legal teams as a means of combating the effects of the crunch. Richard Shoylekov, group company secretary and general counsel of Wolseley, said it was important that the legal head and the internal function had clear goals to sustain a healthy future for the business."One of the important things that I would like to achieve is clarity in the reasons for the team working with you," Shoylekov said. "What are the values sustaining your long-term business propositions?"Lawyers as leadersDomestic general counsel have long glanced across the pond at their American counterparts and seen lawyers who have more responsibility and a stronger leadership brief with their business.In recent years, UK-based general counsel have emerged somewhat from the shadows, but a healthy debate was held on how lawyers can establish themselves as leaders within their business.David Brimacombe, the head of legal and compliance, Middle East, Pakistan, Africa and Europe for Standard Chartered Bank, said the most important attribute in legal leadership was integrity. "Without integrity you cannot be a leader," he said. "You have to be firm and fair; you have to be able to deliver to the corporation but also to your team."Brimacombe added: "There is an old adage which says it is better to be feared than loved. That is true, but what you really need is to be respected."The Royal SunAlliance (RSA) Insurance Group's legal director Humphrey Tomlinson, suggested that leading as a lawyer involved working closely with your team and taking stock of their needs.He said: "To lead you have to know what is going on. You have to be looking for areas where you can make actual change. "You have to get people in the team inspired by following collective goals and you must unlock doors for your team."One of the issues raised was how general counsel were able to know if they were doing a good job and how they could measure their leadership skills.Jeremy Barton, general counsel of The Boston Consulting Group, said without a system of performance metrics all steps taken to ensure better leadership would be rendered useless."One of the key questions is: how can all these things be measured?" Barton added. "You have to keep a clear focus on how the team is performing and how you measure up in reality. "Reviews and feedback are crucial to the process."
8 minute read

International Edition

Cool in a crisis

It is 7am on 18 September and Robert Hoyt, general counsel at the US Treasury Department and the busiest lawyer in Washington DC, sounds chipper as he barrels through the laundry list of crises he has helped manage during the last several weeks.He's praising his team, running down some of the nuts and bolts of the work he has handled and chatting about his old days at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. The tone is light for a lawyer who has just managed the legal work on the biggest corporate bailouts in US history.
8 minute read

International Edition

Facebook makes surprise choice for legal chief

Facebook has hired a Republican party insider as its new general counsel, one of the most highly-coveted in-house roles in the market, reports The Recorder.Theodore Ullyot - a Kirkland & Ellis partner who has worked in the Bush White House and the Alberto Gonzales Department of Justice - will head Facebook's legal department, the social networking site announced on Monday (29 September). "It is a fascinating company - it's dynamic, it's innovative," Ullyot, 41, said. "From a lawyer's perspective, the legal issues are novel and interesting."
3 minute read

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