Unsettled Lloyds legal team reports to finance

The legal team at Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) now reports to the bank’s finance team after the group’s latest reorganisation, which also saw the departure of chief people, legal and strategy officer and ex-Linklaters managing partner Simon Davies, after less than two years.

The move has shifted responsibility for the legal and strategy teams to LBG’s chief financial officer George Culmer, with group general counsel Kate Cheetham reporting directly to him.

The changes, which were implemented from 4 September 2017, will also see Cheetham attend the group’s executive committee. António Horta Osório, LBG’s group chief executive, said the changes were fundamental to prepare the group for its upcoming strategic plan for the 2018-20 period.

Continue reading “Significant matters – Autumn 2017”

Do you know your cash-burn phase from your TLDNR? Welcome to the buccaneering, hierarchy-lite world of the fast-growth, tech-driven ‘disruptors’, the kind of business that a growing number of lawyers aspire to work in or advise.

Continue reading “GC 2.0”

Speaking at the Westminster Legal Policy Forum recently, renowned industry futurologist Richard Susskind accused the UK’s law schools of being stuck in the 1970s, preparing graduates to undertake work that will become increasingly uncommon while failing to train aspiring solicitors in the new technologies that will replace much of the work lawyers now do.

Continue reading “Education, education, education”

In October 2017, solicitors will make their first declaration that they have ‘reflected on and addressed any identified learning and development needs’. Continuing professional development (CPD) is the latest aspect of solicitors’ lives to convert to an outcomes-focused approach, under the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)’s continuing competence regime. Continue reading “Over to you: assessing your training need in the age of ‘continuing competence’”

Imagine the worst: within the last 72 hours, your company has been hit by a major crisis. There may have been serious damage to the community in which you operate. Your customers may have suffered, people’s livelihoods may have been destroyed, the environment may be irretrievably damaged. Some of your employees and contractors may be injured, or worse. Your investors will be livid, and the board looking to assign blame. By the end of the first week, chances are your organisation will be facing dozens of lawsuits, some set to become class actions over time.

Continue reading “Beware the Black Swan”

Even for City lawyers used to increasingly heavy-handed tactics in panel reviews from banking groups, it proved something of a shock. News earlier this year that Deutsche Bank had notified pitching firms of its unwillingness to pay for trainees and newly-qualified lawyers during its last adviser review sent a jolt through the UK legal market. The practice of writing off the time of junior lawyers has been common for years in the US, reflecting in part higher relative salaries, charge-out rates and a propensity to clock up more tangential work as billable hours stateside.

Continue reading “Whose dime?”

On 19 May, Iran went to the polls for what many believed would be a tightly-fought election. By the next morning it was clear that the analysts’ predictions had been wide of the mark. Incumbent president Hassan Rouhani, leader of the Moderation and Development Party, secured a landslide victory over his nearest rival, Ebrahim Raisi, chair of the Popular Front of Islamic Revolution Forces. Shortly after the results were announced, Rouhani appeared on state television to say the election had shown Iran was committed to improving relations with the rest of the world. To investors and businesses that have been eyeing the country for years, it was a positive sign, but hopes of an open market have been dashed before. Sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear programme were lifted in early 2016, but businesses have so far been frustrated in the ongoing difficulties they face in the market.

Continue reading “The long, long game”

‘It has happened to me where you serve a client, have a great book of business, and then Ernst & Young [EY] is lucky enough to win the audit work for that client,’ says EY global legal head Cornelius Grossmann, reflecting on the vagaries and rewards of providing legal services in a Big Four giant.

Continue reading “Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Four?”

Is the general counsel the ringmaster managing risk effectively within their organisation, or a stage prompt waiting in the wings? These were the main discussion points of a recent panel debate before an audience of more than 40 senior in-house lawyers gathered together at Eight Members Club in Moorgate.

Continue reading “Get in the ring”