Legal Business Blogs

Going in-house: Jardine Matheson hires Linklaters’ Parr as general counsel

It’s one in one out for London-listed conglomerate Jardine Matheson, owner of upmarket UK car dealership Jardine Motors, as the group replaces its retiring general counsel Giles White with his past Linklaters colleague and the firm’s former head of corporate, Jeremy Parr.

With White, who was managing partner of Linklaters’ Asia practice before being hired by Jardine Matheson in 2009, stepping down in July 2015, the group returned to the Magic Circle firm for his replacement.

Parr became global head of corporate at Linklaters in 2010 and has been the firm’s senior relationship partner for Jardine Matheson for the past five years. He is also relationship partner for BP, Lloyds Banking Group, Novartis, Unilever, RSA and Greene King.

He is set to leave after 30 years at the firm including five years based in Hong Kong, where a large proportion of Jardine Matheson’s operations are located. His association with Jardine – which has interests in HongKong Land, Dairy Farm, Mandarin Oriental, Jardine Motors and Astra – dates back to his time in Hong Kong in the 1990s.

Parr joined Linklaters in 1984 as a trainee, splitting his time between London and New York, and has also spent time in Tokyo. He served two three-year terms on the international board and was replaced as head of corporate earlier this year by Asia corporate chief Matthew Middleditch.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk