Thirty-five of the UK’s top in-house lawyers have been recognised in Legal 500’s first ever UK GC Powerlist Hall of Fame.
The award recognises the high profile GCs who have been consistently setting the pace in the in-house legal market, resulting in multiple inclusions in Legal 500’s flagship UK Powerlist research, which is published annually.
The new Hall of Fame includes some of the best known UK GCs working across a range of industries, including financial services, private capital, defence and retail.
Financial services is particularly well represented, with more than a quarter of the list sitting within the sector, including HSBC CLO Bob Hoyt, outgoing Barclays GC Stephen Shapiro, global head of services legal at Citi Sharon Blackman and CLO of Lloyds Banking Group, Kate Cheetham.
Big names in the energy/utilities and food industries include BP group GC Michael Sosso, E.ON UK GC Kirin Kalsi, and Compass Group GC Alison Yapp.
GCs at FTSE 100 companies make up 63% of the list, including James Ford at British multinational pharma and biotech company GSK, newly appointed GC at defence giant Rolls Royce, Maria Varsellona, and legal heads at leading UK supermarkets Sainsburys and M&S, Nick Grant and Nick Folland.
Other names to note in the Hall of Fame include Carlyle’s Heather Mitchell, BT’s Sabine Chalmers, Chris Fowler, COO at Rio Tinto and Ed Gelsthorpe of BAE Systems.
Women make up slightly more than half of the list, holding 18 of the 35 places.
Recent work highlights helping those on the list secure their spots include UBS EMEA GC Simon Croxford’s role on the historic merger of UBS and Credit Suisse, brokered by the Swiss government in 2023, and group GC at Vodafone Maaike de Bie’s role steering the legal team through its £15bn merger with mobile network Three, which completed mid-2025.
The Hall of Fame was initially launched at a celebratory dinner at Legal Business’s Enterprise GC event last month, which was sponsored by Lexis Nexis.
The most recent UK GC Powerlist was announced on 9 October 2025.
