The barrister turned codebreaker helping tech start-ups break the mould
Legal tech company Mattereum’s GC helps start-ups with his cryptography skills and draws on his Bar background for disputes matters.
How the FT’s legal team helped unveil the Presidents Club scandal
When the FT broke the story about the Presidents Club charity event, its lawyers were there to advise from the start.
E-signatures company GC: ‘My legal advisers are my friends’
E-signatures company DocuSign is growing fast, as is the remit of genial GC Reggie Davis.
GC2B: Managing external and internal legal teams in a global world
At The Lawyer‘s recent General Counsel Strategy Summit, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BLCP) hosted a round table on the topic ‘managing external and internal legal teams in a global world’, talking about the shaping of legal resources to business objectives, structures and diversity. BCLP partners Jonathan Morris & Rémy Blain led nine senior in-house lawyers […]
FTSE 250 GCs: gearing up on data to prove legal team’s worth
As GCs begin to quantify a legal team’s value to its business, The Lawyer’s roundtable finds that the use of data is key to the process in more ways than one
Kraft Heinz’s Victoria White: slashing workload by upskilling colleagues
The legal VP at ketchup maker Kraft Heinz has turned her team into a smooth-running machine
Clifford Chance partner takes top legal job at blockchain developer
Clifford Chance corporate finance partner Alex Erasmus is to join a blockchain software company later this year as its new chief legal officer. London-based Erasmus will join the executive committee of Block.one in Hong Kong. Block.one is the software publisher behind open-source blockchain protocol EOSIO, which was launched in June 2018 and provides secure and […]
Software giant Mozilla hires new GC from Twitter
Software company Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox browser, has brought in a new general counsel from social media giant Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters. Amy Keating will join Mozilla in early September after six years as Twitter’s deputy general counsel. She replaces Jishnu Menon, who left for Netflix in May. The move will be Keating’s latest […]
Coca-Cola takes scythe to panel with over 70 firms cut
Bottling giant Coca-Cola European Partners has drastically reduced the size of its legal roster, selecting nearly 30 advisers from a panel of over 100. The panel is the first to be carried out under the leadership of general counsel Clare Wardle, who joined from Kingfisher in 2016. She joined the company a year after it […]
Heathrow to unveil new panel as battle looms over third runway
A host of firms are awaiting Heathrow Airport’s decision on its panel firms, with the construction of its controversial £14bn third runway set to reel in rich pickings for the chosen providers. Heathrow is currently in the early stages of a review of its core legal panel, which will cover general commercial work relating to contracts, […]
GVC legal head makes post-merger move to Tate & Lyle
Tate & Lyle has appointed a new general counsel as current GC Robert Gibber steps down after nearly 30 years at the helm of the prominent British ingredients brand. Lindsay Beardsell will take on the role of executive vice president and general counsel at Tate & Lyle from 17 September 2018. Consisting of a team of […]
BT legal veteran to take on new role at biomedical centre
BT’s former group general counsel Dan Fitz is to take up a new role at The Francis Crick Institute, a London-based biomedical research centre. The move comes after Fitz handed over the reins of BT’s legal team to the former GC of Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABInBev) Sabine Chalmers. She took over in April, while Fitz has […]
Clydes replaced by insurance rival on London boroughs panel
Five firms have won spots on the freshly reviewed Insurance London Consortium (ILC) panel, servicing work to seven of the capital city’s boroughs until 2023. BLM, Browne Jacobson, DAC Beachcroft, DWF and Plexus Law will share the £7.5m-valued panel for the next five years with Clyde & Co the only major casualty from the last […]
Firms await fate as Rolls-Royce nears panel decision
Rolls-Royce has invited firms to bid for a place on its global legal panel, five years after it last reshuffled its roster, The Lawyer can reveal. The Lawyer understands that firms were first invited to submit their bids in March, with the deadline fast approaching. The panel process has been kept highly confidential, with firms required to […]
Fourteen firms win top roles on Pearson’s revamped roster
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith Freehills and Goodwin Procter have all won panel spots on Pearson’s legal roster.
Morrisons completes phase one of new two-step panel review
Wm Morrisons has appointed a number of firms to its roster, The Lawyer understands.
Barclays heralds ‘new era’ with final panel review
Marking a significant shift in the way it works with legal suppliers, Barclays has completed its last ever formal review of its law firms worldwide, cutting its roster down from 140 to 100 firms. The new panel will be in place for three years, subject to performance, until 20 June 2021, before Barclays embarks on […]
Barclays summons firms to ‘panel day’ ahead of final decision
Barclays has invited 22 firms to a panel day in July, ahead of the final announcement of its last ever formal panel review.
Lawyers shouldn’t play safe, they should take the lead
What does the term “progressive” mean to in-house lawyers? GCs explain how they build their in-house legal teams.
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Business ethics and the modern GC: How to navigate public scrutiny
Should in-house lawyers do the legal thing or the ethical thing? – there can be a subtle difference. Lawyers from UK companies tell how they balance business ethics, high public expectations and legal exactitude. Lisa Mayhew, BLP: You all work in very different businesses in multiple jurisdictions, so there are varying legislative, social and cultural issues. […]
GC2B event: How to build a progressive in-house team
The turning of a new calendar year sees a fresh set of challenges on the horizon for busy GC teams.
Succession planning for GCs – recruitment, career progression and managing mature teams
How can GCs attract the appropriate talent and keep the lawyers in their teams motivated? Panellists at the GC2B roundtable provide insight as well as practical ideas on managing teams in-house. Participants Alex Williamson, head of FRM legal, Man Group Sally-Ann James, general counsel, Metro Bank Ian Jameson, managing director and general counsel EMEA, Sumitomo […]
GC2B event: The role of GC in managing business ethics and integrity
There is mounting evidence that ethical businesses have the edge, but doing the right thing isn’t always as simple as doing what is legal. How should GCs manage business ethics? The role of the GC has come of age over the last decade. While the issues sitting in your inbox are more diverse, complex and […]
Litigation too bespoke to pin down on price? HSF didn’t think so
HSF has adapted the fixed fees approach used for transactional work to the much less predictable world of disputes
Pinsents and Everton FC: advice from a law firm, with no lawyers required
While the provision of legal advice is central to any law firm, many are branching out into other areas. One recent project taken on by Pinsent Masons for football club Everton was notable because it had little to no involvement from lawyers. Instead, it was managed from start to finish by the firm’s dedicated legal […]
DLA Piper’s offices overhaul: If you’re going open-plan for costs, you’re doing it wrong
DLA Piper’s recent office overhauls in Australia, Manchester and next London are not about cramming more people in.
BLM’s tech revolution: Why we restructured the firm
BLM is striving to become more efficient by investing in technology and pushing through some difficult internal restructures
Travers Smith’s Dunkirk spirit during an 18-month office overhaul
Travers Smith has not moved offices. It has not abandoned its treasured room-sharing system for open plan. But someone walking into 10 Snow Hill, where Travers has been based since 1990, would be forgiven for thinking they had lost their way. The firm has recently completed a total refurbishment of its offices, all while keeping […]
Business services case study: How Ince went agile
Changing the policies at a traditional firm brought quick dividends.
Overseas companies and UK property – all change in 2021
By Maria Connolly At the end of July, the Draft Registration of Overseas Entities Bill was published. The intention is that, from 2021, overseas entities wanting to deal in certain UK property will have to register in the overseas entities register (OER). Why will overseas entities have to register?
Hackitt review: Response suggests further extension of the regime
By Adrian Mansbridge As outlined in our previous articles covering what lies ahead for high rise regulation and the proposed ban on flammable cladding the legislative programme to implement the recommendations of the Hackitt review and to address broader concerns is already underway. However, as anticipated, political concerns have already led to these proposals being “beefed up”…
Use of behavioural biometrics brings privacy issues under GDPR
By Alex Towers With cybertheft and data breaches becoming an increasingly common occurrence, the need to rapidly and accurately identify fraud has driven the development of behavioural biometrics as a means to target automated attacks and suspicious transactions. However, for the technology to function, companies must amass libraries of biometric personal data to construct profiles…
Supreme Court rules a ‘right to litigate’ cannot be assigned to a third party
By Rebecca MacCann What happens if you assign your right to litigate to a person or company that is unconnected to the event that creates the right to litigate? In the recent Supreme Court case of SPV Osus Ltd v HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Ireland) Limited & Ors [2018] IESC 44, the Supreme Court held […]
Portugal: Fund management 2018
By Pedro Simões Coelho, Ricardo Seabra Moura and Carlos Filipe Couto How is fund management regulated in your jurisdiction? Which authorities have primary responsibility for regulating funds, fund managers and those marketing funds?
Commercial Court discharges $3bn freezing order in relation to Angolan sovereign wealth fund
On 16 August 2018, Mr Justice Popplewell discharged a $3 billion proprietary and freezing injunction (“WFO”) against the Defendants, Mr José Dos Santos, Mr Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais (“Mr Bastos”), and the Quantum Global group of companies. This is a very important judgment on the requirements for freezing orders, especially the duty of full and […]
Kazakhstan: China’s Belt and Road initiative and opportunities for Islamic finance
By Shaimerden Chikanayev Kazakhstan has high ambitions in China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI) as it is geographically an ideal junction between China and the west. There may, however, be some roadblocks for the BRI’s projects in Kazakhstan. It is therefore important to examine past experiences in order to be able to predict what legal […]
Arbitration at the Astana International Financial Center: What it can offer to Kazakhstan business
By Bakhyt Tukulov In early July this year we witnessed the opening of the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC). We have seen a large number of reports in the media on the Court and Arbitration at the AIFC, but little has been said specifically on what exactly they can offer to Kazakhstani businesses. We observe increasing […]
Cayman Islands: A contractual term solid as a Rock
In a review of a recent judgment of the United Kingdom Supreme Court, which overturned longstanding precedent on No Oral Modification clauses, partner Ben Hobden and associate Spencer Vickers of Conyers Dill & Pearman in the Cayman Islands and the decision will provide welcome certainty on contracts…
M&A activity in Ireland valued at €70.9bn in first half of 2018
The first six months of 2018 have been notably buoyant for Ireland’s mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market. Dealmakers were kept busy with a pipeline of transactions, in a continuation of the active market that was evident last year…
Retail Risk Report 2018: Digital disruption and regulatory changes
By Kerry Gwyther 2018 has been a particularly challenging year for retailers so far, combining tough trading conditions with digital disruption and major legal and regulatory changes. Our Retail Risk Report, now in its fourth year, is a single point of reference to help retailers understand the legal and regulatory changes taking place in 2018 […]
When can a force majeure clause in contracts be relied on?
By Tom George, Daniel Wood and Cathy Moore In times of economic and/or political uncertainty, parties to construction contracts may consider whether they have a right to rely on force majeure provisions as a justification for temporarily or permanently failing to perform substantive obligations. We review the recent decision in Seadrill Ghana Operations Ltd v Tullow Ghana […]
When things go bad: managing the serial complainer
By Simon Fennell In this article we share some top tips for effective performance management of the employee who challenges at each step, making that process as difficult as possible…
Brexit “no deal” – implications for UK companies
By Alice Gardner The only certainty we currently have with Brexit is that the UK will cease to be a member of the EU on 30 March 2019 if the UK government does not finalise a withdrawal agreement with other member states (or agree an extension of time with the European Council) by midnight on […]
Watch out for GDPR-related claims – it’s not all about fines…
In the run-up to implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on 25 May 2018, much of the focus was on the eye-watering level of fines which data protection regulators can impose, among a variety of other enforcement tools at their disposal, for infringements of the new legislation: up to 2 per cent […]
Breaking down the handbook: Dignity at work policy
By Katie Craven In this instalment of our Breaking Down the Handbook series we look at dignity at work policies, in particular why employers should have them, what they should contain, and how they should be applied in the workplace. What is dignity at work policy?