Andrew Winterton – easyJet

Andrew Winterton Head of legal and compliance easyJet   Andrew Winterton’s team advises on a host of contentious and non-contentious matters, ranging from M&A and competition to contract and consumer law. He manages the panel of UK-based legal advisers but also uses local firms in other jurisdictions, forming mini panels in countries where easyJet has …

Andrew Bardot – International Group of P&I Clubs

Andrew Bardot Secretary and executive officer International Group of P&I Clubs   As executive officer of International Group of P&I Clubs since 2006, Andrew Bardot is secretary of a body that insures 90% of the world’s oceangoing fleet. One private practitioner describes him as ‘one of the top private practitioners looking at things from the …

Nick Grant – Sainsbury’s

Nick Grant Head of legal services Sainsbury’s   Nick Grant created the Sainsbury’s Legal Community in 2011, which involves multiple firms collaborating to provide advice. Thirteen firms carry out 99% of Sainsbury’s externally sourced legal work, including Linklaters, Addleshaw Goddard, SNR Denton and Bond Dickinson.

Robert Ivens – Marks & Spencer Group

Robert Ivens Head of legal Marks & Spencer Group   Robert Ivens qualified as a solicitor back in 1983. Two years later he joined Marks & Spencer Group and has been there ever since. The iconic retailer hit headlines in 2004 when Ivens helped fight off a £9.1bn bid to acquire it by multi-billionaire businessman …

Simon Barratt – Whitbread

Simon Barratt General counsel Whitbread   With 21 years’ experience at Whitbread, Simon Barratt has been directly involved in some game-changing deals at the multinational hotel and restaurant company. One of the biggest was probably the de-merger and sale of 3,000 pubs in 2001 in a transaction worth £1.6bn that returned £1.1bn to its shareholders. …

Paul Lister – Associated British Foods

Paul Lister Director of legal services and company secretary Associated British Foods   Described as ‘disarmingly charming, astute and always gets the commercial and legal picture’, Paul Lister runs a tight team of 40 lawyers spread across 47 countries worldwide, involved in a wide range of activities from retail to manufacturing. Associated British Foods’ brands …

Margaret Casely-Hayford – John Lewis Partnership

Margaret Casely–Hayford Company secretary and director of legal services John Lewis Partnership   Margaret Casely–Hayford wins praise from private practitioners for her evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, thinking. During her six years at the partnership, she introduced a more cost-efficient legal services model and effective governance and compliance framework for the business.

Leon Shelley – Westfield Shoppingtowns

Leon Shelley European general counsel and company secretary Westfield Shoppingtowns     Leon Shelley’s first move out of private practice in 2000 as a banker at UBS Warburg was not well timed: he left just as the tech bubble burst. He returned to private practice before joining Westfield Shoppingtowns in 2005 as its first UK …

Jonathan Adelman – Ladbrokes

Jonathan Adelman General counsel and company secretary Ladbrokes   When Jonathan Adelman joined Ladbrokes in 2008, there was no internal legal team and a high external spend. In just four years, he transformed the gaming company’s in-house offering. The previous legal panel that was saturated with around 100 firms now has less than a dozen, …