Eversheds lures head of legal from client Nissan

Eversheds has poached the legal manager and company secretary from client Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK (NMUK).

Paul Cato has joined Eversheds’ Newcastle office. He will split his time between fee-earning and expanding the firm’s newly-launched ‘Services For In-House Counsel’ programme, which was launched at The Lawyer’s European Legal Summit in Barcelona last November.

This is the second high-profile general counsel hire that Eversheds has made this year. In January it announced that it was taking on Asda’s general counsel Denise Jagger, who will also be working on the in-house counsel programme when she joins the firm in April.

Commenting on his move, Cato said: “I’ve worked closely with Eversheds over the years and I was very interested in joining them.”
Cato was the only in-house lawyer in NMUK’s Sunderland plant, although the car manufacturer also has another legal manager, Hari Nada, based in Rickmansworth. Both positions require the holders to report to general counsel Gabrielle Luca in Paris.

Eversheds had been principal adviser to NMUK, although the company does use some other advisers.

NMUK is still recruiting to replace Cato.