Suzanne Wise
General counsel and company secretary
Network Rail
Suzanne Wise joined Network Rail as general counsel earlier in January 2012.
François Graux – International Power
François Graux
General counsel and company secretary
International Power
After eight years with SUEZ, there is no doubt that François Graux has earned his stripes. He has steered the company through mergers with Gaz de France in 2008 and then 2012’s tie-up with International Power, which saw it become part of the world’s largest independent utility company.
Sarah Booth – Hammerson
Sarah Booth
General counsel and company secretary
Hammerson
Described as ‘straightforward to deal with’, Sarah Booth doesn’t have much back up at Hammerson. In fact, she is the entire resource – the only lawyer in a company of roughly 300 people. She is proof of the importance of having good relationships with general counsel because these days she doesn’t have the time to handle all the work in-house, something she always used to do before.
Katherine Laurenson – Real estate
Katherine Laurenson
Senior solicitor
Legal & General Property
Katherine Laurenson is a self-confessed ‘deal junkie’ and has carved out a particular niche advising on all aspects of fund structuring for Legal & General Property. It currently has over £10bn of assets under management, making it one of the UK’s largest institutional property fund managers.
Vivienne King – The Crown Estate
Vivienne King
Director of legal and company secretary
The Crown Estate
The Crown Estate is a UK property business, governed by an Act of Parliament, that funnels all of its profits into HM Treasury, totalling around £2bn over the past ten years. Vivienne King has been in the top legal job at The Crown Estate since 2007.
Lesley Wan – Lloyds Banking Group
Lesley Wan
Corporate real estate legal counsel
Lloyds Banking Group
One of the City’s most high-profile general counsel, Lesley Wan has led the real estate legal team at Lloyds Banking Group for six years.
Andrew Walsh – Qatari Diar
Andrew Walsh
General counsel
Qatari Diar
Projects and construction partner Andrew Walsh joined Qatari Diar as acting general counsel from Speechly Bircham, where he was a partner. He was on secondment to Qatari Diar when he was offered the in-house role permanently in March 2011.
Ulrike Schwarz-Runer – Grosvenor
Ulrike Schwarz-Runer
General counsel
Grosvenor
Ulrike Schwarz-Runer joined Grosvenor as general counsel in 2010 and is currently overseeing some major changes within her legal department, particularly mooting the possibility of having a formal law firm panel.
Elizabeth Blease – SEGRO
Elizabeth Blease
General counsel and company secretary
SEGRO
Elizabeth Blease has been general counsel of industrial property owner and developer SEGRO since 2008.
Nicolas Taylor – Jones Lang LaSalle
Nicolas Taylor
General counsel
Jones Lang LaSalle
Nicolas Taylor has been general counsel at Jones Lang LaSalle for eight years and manages a team of 20 lawyers across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and praises the ‘fantastic team culture’ at the real estate services company.
Hugh Ford – Real estate
Hugh Ford
General counsel
Capital Shopping Centres
Hugh Ford has a small in-house team at Capital Shopping Centres – just one other lawyer and a secondee. But this means he loves the variety of his job, the ‘never quite knowing what issue is going to come across your desk next’.
Roger James – Viacom
Roger James
Senior vice president and general counsel
Viacom
Roger James has enjoyed a meteoric rise at MTV (now part of Viacom) that has seen him move from a junior position in the UK legal team to overseeing business and managing legal affairs teams based in London, New York and Miami.
Adrian de Souza – Land Securities
Adrian de Souza
General counsel
Land Securities
As a relative newcomer to the property world, for general counsel Adrian de Souza the past few years have been all about finding his feet in the business he joined back in 2010. De Souza was tasked with cutting down the number of firms that Land Securities regularly works with. He has successfully reduced the number from 25 firms to eight, although the company used to have around 100 firms on its roster.
Mark Harding – Barclays
Mark Harding
Group general counsel
Barclays
Few general counsel attract the levels of respect from fellow in-house lawyers that Mark Harding, group general counsel at Barclays, commands. He was the first chairman of the GC100, which elevated his profile among his in-house counterparts, and he remains active in the organisation. He firmly believes that the in-house community has a duty to work together to reform the relationship between the client and private practice firms.
Stuart Levey – HSBC Holdings
Stuart Levey
Chief legal officer and group managing director
HSBC Holdings
Stuart Levey joined HSBC in London in January 2012. His hire was a key part of HSBC’s efforts to restructure, reform, and bring on board new leadership to implement HSBC’s new global business strategy and respond most effectively to high-profile investigations in the US.
Sajid Hussein – Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Sajid Hussein
EMEA general counsel
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Sajid Hussein’s experience at Bank of America Merrill Lynch has certainly prepared him for exciting challenges. When he joined Bank of America in 2005, he couldn’t have known that within three years he would be working on one of the biggest deals of his life.
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David Greenwald – Goldman Sachs
David Greenwald
Deputy general counsel and international general counsel
Goldman Sachs
‘In-house counsel are now acting more and more as critical advisers to the businesses that they cover,’ says David Greenwald, who has been deeply involved in helping his bank recover from the credit crunch. ‘They understand the business itself, the law applicable to it, the company’s culture and hot buttons so they can provide comprehensive advice.’
Karen Linney – JPMorgan Chase
Karen Linney
EMEA general counsel
JPMorgan Chase
Described as ‘a safe pair of hands in a turbulent market’, Karen Linney is fair but expects value from external counsel.
Maria Leistner – Credit Suisse
Maria Leistner
Managing director and EMEA general counsel
Credit Suisse
Maria Leistner joined Credit Suisse in 2004, when it reorganised its operations into a ‘one bank’ model to ensure collaboration between its private banking, investment banking and asset management divisions.
Emma Slatter – Deutsche Bank
Emma Slatter
General counsel for UK and western Europe
Deutsche Bank
Although Emma Slatter was only appointed GC for UK and Western Europe in May 2010, one banking partner describes her as spearheading a ‘leading in-house team that is at the forefront of innovative transactional support, regulatory-driven initiatives and external counsel management’.