Alliance UniChem general counsel and company secretary Marco Pagni beat Boots' company secretary Michael Oliver to head the companies' merged legal function following their tie-up last summer.

Since the completion of the £8bn merger, Pagni, along with the rest of the Alliance Boots executive team, has been on what is best described as a gruelling schedule. During the past six months Pagni has helped to develop a groupwide code of conduct and overhauled the small but now perfectly formed legal function.

The move saw the new roles created for Boots' head of legal David Foster and Alliance UniChem group counsel Eddie Lawson. The former is now the general counsel for the retail division, while the latter has assumed the role of general counsel for wholesale and commercial affairs.

Pagni's next major task is to put in place Alliance Boots' first-ever legal panel. The review of external advisers is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2007.