Tabatha Mossman
Pharma and Commercial Counsel, Roche Products
Mossman is a relative newcomer to the in-house legal field, having joined Roche in April 2013. The general corporate commercial solicitor had limited previous experience in pharma but has ‘hit the ground running from day one’ and has received three internal awards at Roche for her contributions to date, having volunteered for major internal projects within Roche UK.
Described as ‘exceptionally bright, pragmatic, friendly and approachable with a commercial and practical approach’, former Speechly Bircham lawyer Mossman is also said by one observer to ‘effectively juggle work commitments and home life, with two children under the age of six’.
Catherine Stromdale
Global and European Category Counsel – Hair, Unilever
Formerly legal counsel for UK and Ireland, Stromdale was promoted in December to her current role where she has a wide commercial remit covering anything from antitrust to intellectual property to general contractual issues with suppliers and customers.
Qualified in 2005, Stromdale had her first experience of Unilever while on secondment from Wragge & Co in 2009 before joining permanently in March 2010.
A very strong negotiator, Stromdale’s real strength is her managerial skills. ‘She has an innate ability to get to the heart of the issue for the client and manage the process so that the client feels completely comfortable,’ says one head of antitrust and competition at a leading US law firm.
‘She sees the issues clearly and knows who to get to take care of them, she’s able to make decisions very quickly and there’s no faffing. She has absolute credibility and integrity and the business completely trusts her.’
Legal Operations Consumer Healthcare, GlaxoSmithKline
Described by a senior partner at one Magic Circle firm as ‘very smart, clear thinking, commercial and personable’, Laventure ran the £1.35bn sale of Ribena and Lucozade for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Leading an in-house team that included in-house counsel Katie Turney and Antony Boyce, Laventure worked closely alongside a high-level Allen & Overy team led by Ed Barnett and Andrew Ballheimer.
Other public domain deals led by the ex-Slaughter and May associate include GSK’s 2010 £162m acquisition of leading sports nutrition company Maxinutrition from Darwin Private Equity, in which Slaughters acted, led by corporate and commercial partner David Johnson.
Bernadette Murphy
Senior Lawyer, BMI Healthcare
Murphy has shown outstanding ability and judgement in BMI’s engagement with the UK competition authorities. She has fronted BMI’s representation in two mergers and has performed as a superb interface between the business and external advisers on the market investigation.
One antitrust counsel at a top 50 US law firm says a career highlight is ‘undoubtedly Bernadette’s critical role in obtaining BMI’s ground-breaking win against the Competition Commission in the Competition Appeal Tribunal in October [2013]’.
Legal Director for Bupa Global Market Unit, Bupa
Described by one well-established GC as ‘the youngest, most complete in-house lawyer I’ve come across’, Dudley drives Bupa’s business to succeed but stays within its risk appetite.
Bupa Global has customers in 190 countries, some of which are highly regulated jurisdictions. Dudley is on the executive board of the business and regarded internally as a leader on all major transactions and of the business itself. She brings a passion for talent management and bringing on other young lawyers.
As well as being unsurprisingly bright, Dudley is extremely personable and the GC adds: ‘She is able to articulate legal issues in a way that the business understands and she has enormous stature for her years.’
Ewan Nettleton
Senior Patent Counsel, Oncology, Novartis Pharma
Novartis Pharma’s legal team received a number of nominations, attesting to its high regard among life sciences advisers, though the company’s strongly-tipped head of patent litigation Jürgen Dressel was too experienced for the purposes of this report. Nettleton is another Novartis counsel cited as a standout performer. The former Bristows solicitor is a very bright, dedicated lawyer who demands the best from local counsel and ensures that they have considered every issue carefully and fully.
Viewed as an emerging authority on the charged issue of globalisation and harmonisation of regulatory frameworks that has led to a new wave of legal concerns for the life sciences industry, Nettleton is an innovative and challenging lawyer who, according to one partner, ‘encourages local counsel to be creative and consider whether existing practice can be improved or challenged’.
Legal Counsel, Shire
Linklaters-trained Pearson is described by one supporter from a leading US law firm as ‘a seasoned competition lawyer with impressive analytical skills and a very astute commercial mind. He is also extremely nice to work with, very clear in his instructions and a considerate team leader’.
Having joined Shire in October 2009, Pearson previously worked at Shearman & Sterling’s offices in Europe and the US as a competition lawyer for five years.
At the time of going to press, Pearson was working on Shire’s planned $4.2bn acquisition of US rival ViroPharma, which was announced in November 2013 and will require antitrust approval in the US and the UK.