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International Edition

Ride to the rescue

Lawyers at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae got word of the plan on 11 July, a Friday, after they and company executives had spent a week watching their stocks tank. To restore public confidence in the mortgage giants, the US Treasury Department was stepping in with a sweeping plan that would allow them access to billions of dollars in public money.In Washington DC, where Fannie Mae is based, and across the Potomac, at Freddie Mac's home base in McLean, in-house lawyers got to work. It was going to be a very long, sleep-deprived weekend. "We were basically there around the clock", and living on "stale sandwiches and bags of potato chips", says Robert Bostrom, Freddie Mac's general counsel.
7 minute read

International Edition

Germany: Internal affairs

On 15 November, 2006, more than 200 policemen descended on the Munich headquarters of German technology giant Siemens and the homes and offices of 30 Siemens executives around Germany to comb the premises for incriminating documents. It was one of Europe's dreaded 'dawn raids', a term that bears little relation to the time of day but usually denotes the start of a tiresome ballet between the government and a company suspected of wrongdoing. In the traditional European model of prosecution, corporations stonewall and fight to the bitter end.
17 minute read

International Edition

Fund management company hires first GC

Investment management company FourWinds Capital Management has appointed former Herbert Smith partner Louise Freestone as its first-ever general counsel. Freestone joined the Boston-based natural resources fund management company's London office earlier this month (21 July) and will report directly to chief executive Kimberley Tara.
2 minute read

International Edition

OFT names Barr as new general counsel

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has ended its two-month search for a new general counsel with the internal appointment of Frances Barr, Legal Week can reveal.Barr, a competition specialist and a legal director with the OFT, has worked with the regulator for the last 10 years.
2 minute read

International Edition

BAE hunts for senior talent ahead of legal review

Aerospace and defence giant BAE Systems is set to expand its in-house legal team as part of an extensive overhaul of its legal function that will ultimately see external advisers reviewed. The department, led by general counsel Philip Bramwell, has already made a series of hires - with Clyde & Co lawyer Jo Talbot joining this week to head dispute resolution and risk management across the group. Talbot's appointment marks the half-way point in Bramwell's three-year restructuring of the legal team, which began when he joined from telecoms company O2 in January 2007. A series of further hires are also expected over the next few months.
2 minute read

International Edition

Energy giant United Utilities merges in-house teams in legal restructuring

United Utilities general counsel Tom Keevil has overhauled the energy giant's legal function and made a number of senior internal appointments within the team. As part of the revamp Keevil has merged the FTSE 100 company's distinct regulatory and non-regulatory legal teams into a single unit, with four teams put in place to deal with commercial, litigation, property and environmental matters.
2 minute read

International Edition

In-house Lawyer: All systems go

BAE Systems' ambitious group general counsel Philip Bramwell has only been in his role for 18 months but is already well into a major restructuring of the defence and aerospace giant's legal function.
8 minute read

International Edition

GlaxoSmithKline signs up Sidley partner as new GC

Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has completed its hunt for a new general counsel with Sidley Austin life science partner Daniel Troy set to take the role. Troy, who will also take up the position of senior vice president, is set to join the company on 2 September.
2 minute read

International Edition

GE Real Estate names new GC for Europe

General Electric (GE) Real Estate has appointed Marianna Nitsch as general counsel of its European arm. Nitsch, who was formerly the legal head of the company's French division, took up the post at the beginning of July following the promotion of predecessor Theirry Leleu to the role of European managing director of GE Real Estate's Global Investment Management platform.
2 minute read

International Edition

In-house lawyers confident advisers still offer value despite record turnover and PEP levels

Senior in-house lawyers are confident they are still getting value from their legal advisers, despite last year's financial performance, which took many firms to record highs in terms of both turnover and profits per equity partner (PEP). General counsel claim the increases in revenues at the UK's leading law firms will not necessarily translate into a hike in fees for clients. Their response comes despite the fact that magic circle firms such as Clifford Chance, Linklaters, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Allen & Overy all reported turnover of more than £1bn this year.
3 minute read

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