Since joining Energis in November 2002, legal counsel Nick Cooper has been conducting a review of the company’s legal advisers. The review has concluded with the appointment of Macfarlanes and DLA.
Macfarlanes will be the company’s key corporate adviser, with DLA helping out on more routine business and operational issues.
Macfarlanes previously advised new chairman and Conservative MP Archie Norman when a group of banks bailed out the ailing telco in the middle of last year.
The Macfarlanes relationship goes back to Norman’s days as chairman of Asda, when Cooper was his corporate counsel. Cooper also instructed the firm in his last role as corporate counsel at pub chain JD Wetherspoon. Senior and corporate partner Robert Sutton is Macfarlanes’ client relationship partner.
Clifford Chance advised Energis for four years, up to and including the company’s complex restructuring, but when the new management was assembled at the end of last year, the firm was ditched.
Cooper is in the process of rebuilding the legal team. The company has won new contracts with Tesco and the BBC and has renewed its biggest contract with Freeserve.
