Schlumberger general counsel wins top spot at Atos

The UK general counsel of SchlumbergerSema James Loughrey has scooped the top UK legal role at Atos Origin after Atos completed its acquisition of the IT services company.

French company Atos completed its €1.3bn (£888.7m) acquisition of Sema from Schlumberger last week and has merged Sema’s UK operations with Atos KPMG Consulting.

Atos’s previous UK counsel Christine Hickey has been transferred to a corporate M&A role. Hickey previously worked at KPMG Consulting, before it too was bought by Atos, and in the legal department at BBC Technologies.

Loughrey has been appointed UK head of legal/
general counsel and will lead a combined team of 14, of which nine were with him at Sema. He will report to the managing director and financial director in the UK.

Linklaters advised Schlumberger on the Atos merger.
The deal was a coup for the firm given that Schlumberger’s regular adviser was Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which advised on the 2001 Sema acquisition. Clifford Chance advised Sema, while Macfarlanes advised Atos.

The deal creates Europe’s largest-listed IT services company, with a turnover of €5bn (£3.42bn).