NTL has hired two new in-house lawyers to strengthen its internal M&A and finance capability.
The company has hired Scott Dresser and Ruchi Kaushal as assistant general counsel in the London office, reporting directly to general counsel Bryan Hall
Dresser joined from US reinsurance company White Mountains Re Group, prior to which he was at Morgan Lewis & Bockius in New York. Dresser’s role at NTL will be focused on M&A, corporate strategy and development matters, of which he has 15 years of legal experience.
Kaushal joins from Shearman & Sterling‘s London office, where she has worked for seven years. She specialises in finance, M&A and general corporate matters.
Kaushal said: “It’s a great team of people. I wanted to expand my skills set and it was time to move on and learn more about commercial operations.”
Kaushal will focus on US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) compliance matters, as well as high-yield debt finance.
The hires increase in-house department numbers to 33 lawyers and staff.
The team has seen number of changes since the company’s £3.4bn merger with Telewest and the subsequent £962m takeover of Virgin Mobile.
NTL has a brand licence with Virgin and intends to rebrand the business as Virgin early next year.
Since the merger and takeover, Virgin Mobile general counsel Paul Cowlishaw and Telewest legal chief Stephen Cook have departed the new company, while NTL general counsel Hall and UK legal director Robert Mackenzie held on to their roles.
Following the shake-up of NTL’s legal department, the company appointed Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson as its primary adviser and retained Travers Smith and Ashurst as secondary advisers.
