Maria Da Cunha is already a lawyer with BA and will take over as legal director on 1 April. Her ambit includes responsibility for external legal advisers.
Da Cunha trained as a barrister but later joined Lovells as a corporate lawyer. She left for Lloyd's of London in 1996 and joined BA just over two years ago as a competition lawyer.
“Stephen has left me with an extremely well-run department,” said Da Cunha. “I have no plans to do anything rash.”
Da Cunha was involved in BA's failed negotiations with American Airlines. Slaughter and May and Sullivan & Cromwell were also instructed.
Since Walsh's departure there are 18 in-house lawyers at BA.
The Leader Column
Any law firm worth its salt nowadays prides itself on its brand. Of course, half the time they are deluded. Countless partners in all sorts of different firms bang on that their brand is all about being commercial, innovative and – I say, here’s a new one – client-focused. (Memo to those partners: please don’t […]