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’.
Adrian Marsh – ING Direct
Adrian Marsh
Head of legal
ING UK
As UK legal head for Dutch bank ING, Adrian Marsh has sat at the epicentre of the industry’s divestment trend; as a condition of ING’s receipt of state aid following the credit crisis, the EU required that it dispose of its insurance and investment management operations.
Leonie Fleming – RBS Group
Leonie Fleming
General counsel for corporate Banking, global restructuring group and Ulster Bank
RBS Group
One law banking partner says that Leonie Fleming ‘falls into the “very influential” bracket due to her position, but also the “up and coming bracket”, because I feel she has further to go at RBS’. There’s no doubt that she has won praise for her adroit handling of complex regulatory issues during a difficult few years for the bank.
Jon Alexander – Lloyds Banking Group
Jon Alexander
Head of legal, lending support, commercial banking
Lloyds Banking Group
As head of legal at one of Britain’s ‘big four’ banks, Jon Alexander at Lloyds Banking Group already enjoys a high profile within banking circles, but he has been particularly sought after during the past few months. As one banking partner recently put it: ‘He is one of the most powerful in-house lawyers as he is a decisive influence on the numerous “pass-through panels” of Lloyds Banking Group, which will be decided on over the next few months.’
Norton Rose Fulbright aims at Global Elite
The worst-kept secret in global law finally became official in November. Norton Rose and Fulbright & Jaworski announced their 3,800-lawyer tie-up in June 2013, creating a $1.9bn firm comfortably inside the top ten largest in the world. It’s been a long time coming. We first spoke of merger rumours between the two firms in 2008 and the market has been awash with speculation ever since. Continue reading “Norton Rose Fulbright aims at Global Elite”
Landmark three-way merger aims to end Dentons’ Europe woes
At press time, partners at SNR Denton, Salans and Canadian firm Fraser Milner Casgrain (FMC) were poised to vote through a $1bn, three-way merger using a Swiss Verein model.
A source within SNR Denton said that the union was basically a ‘done deal’ with partners from all firms having met on 13 November to review the business plan behind the proposed merger. SNR Denton and Salans have been in talks for a while and have refused to comment on merger speculation. The addition of FMC to the union emerged in November. Continue reading “Landmark three-way merger aims to end Dentons’ Europe woes”
Banks could face backlash on legal panel reviews
With the latest round of bank panel reviews in full swing, early indications show signs of a backlash from law firms as banks place increasing demands on panel candidates at the same time as driving down costs.
In October, The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) announced the results of its long-running panel review. By reducing its number of sub-panels from 13 to five, it has significantly lowered the number of law firms on the panel from around 100 previously to between 55 and 60 now. Meanwhile, former panel firms Slaughter and May, Olswang and Mayer Brown didn’t pitch to join the panel this time around.
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Korea legal market shows signs of saturation
With the recent influx of foreign firms into Seoul showing no signs of stopping, questions are being raised as to whether the market has reached saturation point and which firms will win the race for Korea’s most prestigious clients.
Paul Hastings and Covington & Burling became the most recent firms to open new offices in South Korea, both at the beginning of November. Since ratification of foreign trade agreements (FTAs) between Korea and the EU in July 2011 and the US in February 2012, 17 firms from the LB Global 100 have either opened an office, applied for a licence or have expressed an interest in opening in Seoul.
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Magrath launches in Singapore
November saw London-based Magrath become the first corporate immigration specialist to open a standalone presence in Singapore; Ben Sheldrick and Mark Chowdhry will spearhead the firm’s practice in the city state.
The launch of Magrath Global reflects the eastwards shift of several of the firm’s multinational clients, eager to capitalise on more buoyant markets. ‘Clients have been proactive in asking for this expansion,’ explained Sheldrick. ‘It has been driven by their growing focus on the region.’