Legal Business

Clydes misses out as Eversheds and Burness Paull take away places on Yum! panel

Eversheds and Burness Paull have won places on Yum! Brands slimmed down legal panel, with Clyde & Co missing out on reappointment.

Sarah Nelson Smith, general counsel (GC) (pictured) for the company behind KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, has trimmed its legal panel from nine in its latest panel review. Squire Patton Boggs, Whiting & Purches and Wright Hassall have both retained their places on the legal panel, with Yum! Brands introducing TLT to the list.

Alongside Clyde & Co, Howard Kennedy, Collins Dryland & Thorowgood, which advised on real estate work, and Leeds firm Woods Whur which had advised on licensing work, have not been reappointed to the panel.

Panel firms have been assigned for a two year period, the same time frame as the last Yum! Brands panel which was appointed in 2014.

GC Nelson Smith oversees more than 1,500 stores in the UK with a team of just three lawyers and has led on several initiatives for the company, including the recent trial of acquiring licenses to sell alcohol from a number of Pizza Hut delivery stores. She joined Yum! Brands in 2011, having been trained at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and having also worked at US firm Baker Botts.

In other recent panel appointments, Pinsent Masons won a place on FTSE 100 firm Land Securities’ legal panel, while Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has come off the roster following a review and Eversheds, Reed Smith, Dentons and K&L Gates have landed spots on a seven-firm global panel created by US car rental giant Avis.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk