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International Edition

In-house lawyers warn of knock-on effects of private practice pay-hikes

In-house counsel have hit out at "unsustainable" rises in salaries for private practice lawyers, arguing that they will lead to an unwelcome increase in charge-out rates. Their fears come after Legal Week research last week revealed that three-quarters of partners at leading City firms said they think fees will increase over the coming year, with nearly a fifth claiming clients should prepare themselves for above-inflation rises.
2 minute read

International Edition

Eversheds wins appointment as sole adviser to international energy group

National law firm Eversheds has been appointed as the sole provider of legal services to Belgium-based energy company Sovereign Oilfield Group. The top 10 UK firm landed the role for Sovereign after a tender process that also involved one other major international firm and three Belgian independents.
2 minute read

International Edition

CC litigator seals Siemens in-house move

Telecoms giant Siemens has appointed Clifford Chance (CC) partner Anke Sessler as its new chief counsel of litigation. Sessler will take up her new post on 1 September after spending 10 years as a litigation and dispute resolution partner at CC's Frankfurt office.
2 minute read

International Edition

RPC partner goes in-house to Associated

Reynolds Porter Chamberlain's (RPC's) head of media litigation is leaving the firm to take up a legal post with client Associated Newspapers. Liz Hartley will leave RPC in September after spending 10 years with the firm. She will take up her new role as a group legal adviser with Associated Newspapers, publisher of titles including the Daily Mail, Evening Standard, Metro and London Lite, in January 2009.
2 minute read

International Edition

In-house Lawyer: Shrinking world, growing threats

It is always hard to separate myth from reality when it comes to litigation, as dire predictions regarding high-cost legal battles often turn out to be overblown or just plain wrong.But, glancing at recent research on the litigation agenda of general counsel, it is clear that two genuine concerns dominate in the current business environment - the increasingly aggressive march of regulators in Western economies and the risk of getting caught up in disputes in unpredictable emerging markets.According to a recent Lovells report, 'The Shrinking World', 45% of in-house lawyers view regulatory disputes as medium-to-high risk, despite the fact that regulation currently accounts for a relatively small proportion of contentious legal activity facing major companies.
6 minute read

International Edition

DLA Piper's '$60m' litigator goes in-house with Pfizer role

DLA Piper's star co-head of mass tort and class actions Amy Schulman has left the firm to join Pfizer as general counsel and senior vice president, it was announced today (28 May). Schulman is renowned as one of the US's top litigators after a Harvard Business School case study in 2006 claimed that she was responsible for a $60m (£30.9m) book of business. Schulman is also believed to have been DLA Piper's highest-paid partner in 2006, earning $5.75m (£2.96m) according to Legal Week's US sister title The American Lawyer.
2 minute read

International Edition

UBS tasks in-house trio with GC cover

UBS has appointed a trio of in-house staff to fill Peter Kurer's general counsel role while the bank looks for a replacement for Kurer, who was named chairman last month. Global head of compliance Neil Stocks, group legal head and general counsel for the corporate centre Bernard Schmid and David Aufhauser, global general counsel for investment banking and general counsel of UBS Americas, will act as co-general counsels until the bank chooses a replacement.
2 minute read

International Edition

Property portfolio Segro creates GC role

Property development company Segro has hired Elizabeth Blease for the newly-created position of general counsel and company secretary. Blease joined the firm this month for a three-year spell as company secretary from landscape product manufacturer Marshalls. Segro decided to create the general counsel position following the retirement of Segro's former company secretary, John Probert, from the firm.
1 minute read

International Edition

In-house Lawyer: The power of one

Step into Trevor Faure's corner office at Tyco International's London base and read the writing on the wall. Quite literally. Half of the wall space in Faure's office and the adjoining conference room is covered with floor-to-ceiling whiteboards. He has plenty of space, therefore, to outline the makeup of Tyco International's 40-strong legal team in Europe or brainstorm the latest management theory to catch his attention (currently, neurolinguistic psychology). But if Faure, Tyco's general counsel for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, were to use his whiteboards to diagram his company's outside counsel relationships, it would be a fairly simple picture. At the beginning of 2007, Faure radically overhauled Tyco's legal function and handed Eversheds the vast majority of the company's external work in Europe. Now, after 18 months and another review, Faure has not only renewed the Eversheds contract but fine-tuned it, building in a new range of targets and incentives aimed at bringing the law firm into tighter alignment with its client's goals. It is not surprising, perhaps, that a lawyer who is interested in theories for better engineering human behaviour would have little patience for the established, cosy law firm/client relationships that have long characterised Europe's legal market.
11 minute read

International Edition

Switalski's F&C claim upheld by appeals body

F&C Asset Management has failed in its bid to have a multimillion-pound sex discrimination claim by former legal head Gillian Switalski overturned. Switalski took the company to the Central London Employment Tribunal earlier this year, where her claims of sexual discrimination, harassment and victimisation were upheld.
2 minute read

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