NDA panel review on ice in anticipation of new legal head

Robert Higgins of engineering and design consultancy Atkins will take up the post from September 2009. He will replace interim head of legal Roger Clayson, who will remain at the NDA as a property lawyer.

Clayson had proposed slimming down the ­number of advisers and merging two of the NDA’s three panels (The Lawyer, 23 February) by September.

The NDA is responsible for decommissioning the UK’s civil public sector nuclear sites, including the £17bn winding-down of Sellafield.

Its current advisers are Brodies, Burges Salmon, Burness, Cartmell Shepherd, DLA Piper, Field Fisher Waterhouse, Herbert Smith, HFT Gough & Co Solicitors and Norton Rose.

Higgins was unavailable for comment.