...as BP-Amoco loses solicitor after merger

A leading in-house energy lawyer has quit BP-Amoco following the multinational merger.

Anna Soroko, who is taking up a new senior post at Eastern Electricity, predicts more lawyers will follow suit.

She was asked to relocate from her London office to Aberdeen following last year's u67.5bn merger of BP and Amoco - the world's biggest. Instead, she found herself another job.

The energy market is extremely volatile at the moment. The BP-Amoco legal panel was slashed at the turn of the year because of the merger.

Soroko says: "I didn't want to move to Aberdeen. There is going to be a lot of movement with mergers and takeovers. All the law firms are looking at hiring at a senior level."

Soroko turned her back on the opportunity to return to private practice because, with nine years' experience, she felt she had more to offer on the commercial side.

She says: "I was in the middle of several interview processes when I decided I wanted to continue practising in-house."

Edward Lean, group solicitor at Eastern Group, the parent company of Eastern Electricity, says: "We are lucky to have got her because I know that we were competing with some of the largest City firms."

Lean says Soroko's appointment will free him from corporate finance and corporate acquisition work when Soroko joins in August.

Lean is especially pleased at Soroko's dual qualification, allowing her to practise UK and US law.

Eastern Group is part of Texas-based US grid network Texas Utilities.

Before joining BP, Soroko practised at Texas firm Vinson & Elkins.

A BP-Amoco spokesman refused to comment on the move and Peter Bevan, head of legal at the company, was not available for comment.