• Head of legal services: Nick Grant.
• Team headcount: 18 lawyers

Collaborative working is at the heart of the Sainsbury’s attitude towards external counsel, with head of legal services Nick Grant being an advocate for building strong links with the outside partners that he terms as a ‘legal community’.

According to one law firm partner: ‘The idea is that its law firms, instead of just competing with each other, co-operate together and with Sainsbury’s to mean
that two and two equals five.’

Another admiring external adviser comments: ‘Sainsbury’s has one of the hardest working in-house teams I know, which has delivered some massive projects for the business, and does so with enthusiasm, great team spirit and a good sense of humour.’

Grant’s team certainly has a full in-tray, working for the UK’s second largest supermarket chain with revenues of almost £24bn and 161,000 staff. The team covers a wide range of disciplines, including commercial litigation, construction, employment and intellectual property. Big mandates for the team over the last year include the high-profile joint venture with Dansk Supermarked to create the new Netto grocery chain in the UK and a High Court challenge against a Tesco ad campaign which claimed its own-label goods were cheaper.

In 2014, the in-house department conducted its third panel review, which saw reappointments for Addleshaw Goddard; Bond Dickinson; CMS Cameron McKenna; Croner; Dentons; DWF; Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co; Linklaters; Shepherd and Wedderburn; and Winckworth Sherwood.
The panel review focused on costs management and pressed advisers to work collaboratively. The process was run by Clare Russell and Paul Jenkinson from the legal team, in partnership with Paul Sykes from its procurement team.

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• Regional general counsel, western Europe: Benoit Belhomme.
• Group legal director and general counsel: Neil Withington.
• Team headcount: 300 lawyers

Operating in one of the most litigious and heavily regulated industries, it is unsurprising that the London-headquartered British American Tobacco (BAT) is cited as having one of the most seasoned and capable teams in the business.

The team has been shaped by corporate lawyer Benoit Belhomme, who joined the company from the Paris office of Clifford Chance (CC) in 1992 to build up a substantive in-house function in Europe. Twenty-three years later and the corporate’s western Europe regional legal team comprises 58 lawyers, including 13 heads of legal to cover 42 markets with their respective teams. There is also a regional legal hub based in London. Covering a broad range of legal and compliance issues on a daily basis, the London team covers litigation; regulation including marketing restrictions and legislation, and excise laws; high value commercial transactions; intellectual property; and competition.
The business last year generated £3.6bn in western Europe (global revenue totalled £15.3bn in 2013) alongside £1.2bn operating profit, and working in a controversial industry means the team needs to be agile to ‘balance between risk management and business partnering’, says Belhomme.

‘This team is dynamic and able to respond to the high demand and pressures generated by the constantly changing regulatory environment,’ says Belhomme. ‘The profile of our lawyers requires commercial savviness, high interpersonal skills coupled with first class legal skills.’ Heavyweight names to watch include Christina Wagner, who served as head of legal in the northern European cluster before being appointed to head of legal and corporate affairs for global duty free in Switzerland.

CC private equity head Jonny Myers singles out the team, and references the company’s recent dispute with HM Revenue & Customs, which led to BAT being fined £650,000 for oversupplying cigarettes to Belgium, as evidence of the team’s ability to handle sensitive issues effectively. ‘Ben dealt with that issue with aplomb – calmly, sensibly, and got on with the rest of the day job. He gives his team the right balance, and the exposure to do their stuff without feeling cramped.’

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• Director of legal services and company secretary: Paul Lister.
• Team headcount: 45 lawyers

Associated British Foods (ABF)’s profile has been achieved despite it running a lean team for a £13bn multinational. The team consists of 45 lawyers across 47 countries worldwide involved in a wide range of activities from retail to manufacturing. Its director of legal services, Paul Lister, comments: ‘I like to keep a tight team, because the tighter you are, the more opportunity you’ve got for internal growth.’

Daniel Hudson, a disputes partner at Herbert Smith Freehills, is impressed: ‘This well-organised and committed team has a broad understanding of the relevant commercial and other issues for ABF’s various global businesses as well as a sound grasp of the legal issues in play.’

In 2014 the team, which has household names such as Primark and Twinings in its remit, has taken innovative steps towards cost reduction, undertaking a project that analyses the department’s spend by country, subject matter, instructing counsel and law firm globally, and establishes where savings are best made. Major upcoming mandates for the team include taking Primark to the US market with the opening of a high-profile store in central Boston at the end of 2015.

Lister’s style of management is admired by his peers in the retail industry. Mark Amsden, general counsel (GC) and company secretary of supermarket chain Morrisons, says: ‘Paul Lister is a great bloke – he is really sensible, a good leader and empowers his team really well.’

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