Calling time – Nationwide’s innovative GC Liz Kelly to leave after panel review

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Having worked her way up Nationwide‘s ranks to group general counsel, Liz Kelly is to leave the building society at the end of the financial year to spend more time with her family.

Kelly was appointed as general counsel in 2009 and has since pulled together what was a fractured legal department, creating a risk-based blueprint for areas where it needed to grow and building it up to around 50 lawyers, including seven litigators.

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Comment: More for more – growing pains and questions as in-house comes of age

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Confident. That’s the mood as Legal Business conducts its second annual poll of in-house counsel. For all the talk of the ‘more for less’ agenda, our special illustrates that there is robust demand for legal services at most sizeable companies and that the growth story of corporate legal teams continues.

More than two thirds of responding in-house legal teams have seen growth over the last five years. Law Society figures underline the wider extent of that growth with the in-house profession growing by 137% between 2001 and 2011. Law firms continue to feel the pinch in part because in-house teams have become determined to retain matters internally.

Another headline finding: law firms have to a considerable extent listened to client demands on value and service; over 90% of clients believe their advisers offer good or fair value, while 81% believe their advisers are appropriately staffing their matters.

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Bind and drive: Freshfields’ Tim Jones to join England Rugby 2015 as GC

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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer corporate partner and former City head Tim Jones has been hired as general counsel to England Rugby 2015 ahead of next year’s Rugby World Cup.

Established by the Rugby Football Union, whose current legal and governance director is Karena Vleck, England Rugby 2015 will employ the corporate heavyweight three days a week, beginning on 1 November. Jones, however, will also continue to work on a part-time basis for the Magic Circle firm, and carry on with client matters.

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Vodafone develops Indian LPO as former Linklaters lawyer takes over as UK external affairs director

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As Vodafone replaces outgoing UK corporate and external affairs director Justine Campbell with group legal director for corporate and commercial, Helen Lamprell, the telecoms giant has been focusing on developing a new relationship with the legal process outsourcing (LPO) arm of Indian law firm Qui Prior Law Associates (QP).

Vodafone in March signed up with QP, which is run by senior in-house lawyer of 20 years Rajiv Sarin, who has worked in senior positions in companies such as Coca-Cola, Unilever and HCL-Hewlett Packard, to initially take on work including basic contract review. Continue reading “Vodafone develops Indian LPO as former Linklaters lawyer takes over as UK external affairs director”

Sector switch: Vodafone’s corporate affairs director takes over as GC of British Gas

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Vodafone UK’s corporate and external affairs director Justine Campbell has switched from telecoms to energy, taking on the general counsel (GC) role at British Gas after a revamp of its senior legal team. She will join the company in December after having handed her notice in last month.

The GC title was phased out at British Gas following Melanie Rowland’s departure for Edwards Group last year, since when legal director Jane Forster has headed the legal and compliance function. Continue reading “Sector switch: Vodafone’s corporate affairs director takes over as GC of British Gas”

Building a career structure at 02 and why IQs are rated higher than experience

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The in-house legal profession grew by 137% between 2001 and 2011 and with that growth has come new issues of succession and sustainability for legal teams; issues that are already being addressed at 02.

While law firms undoubtedly rely too much on the pyramid model, in-house teams have traditionally been too flat, reliant on recruiting costly experienced lawyers and often able to offer them little in the way of career progression. Continue reading “Building a career structure at 02 and why IQs are rated higher than experience”

The in-house survey: Buy-side stories

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In
our second annual in-house survey, corporate legal teams are continuing to grow amid strong demand for their counsel. How high can general counsel build their empires?

And the growth story continues. Legal Business’s second annual in-house survey confirms again that, despite the prolonged economic headwinds afflicting the UK and Western economies, in a risky and turbulent commercial environment, corporate legal teams continue to expand.

Take one finding from our research: more than two thirds of in-house lawyers report that their teams have expanded over the last five years, with 43% seeing increases of over 10%. The remainder said their team has stayed static.

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The in-house survey: Through their paces

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Increasingly assertive clients are making advisers jump through more hoops to secure lucrative work. Legal Business assesses if law firms are rising to the challenge.

While the prolonged struggle for understanding between in-house counsel and their external providers has seen general counsel (GCs) lose many small battles with law firms over the years, the signs are there that clients are increasingly winning the war. After pressing for years to get value for money through sensible service delivery and flexible pricing, in-house teams are reporting greater goodwill towards their external legal providers this year, perhaps because the threat of reduced panel slots has become a reality.

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The in-house survey: Time and money

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This year, we asked in-house counsel to name the best law firms across three core yardsticks. Amid pressure on budgets, we chart the advisers whose time is worth clients’ money

Asking law firms to rate their peers objectively is like nailing jelly to a wall — they are often either evasive or delusional. Researchers at The Legal 500 seek peer feedback as part of the process when ranking firms, but nothing beats considered feedback from the clients themselves, which is why we took the opportunity to ask a large in-house audience to single out individual firms for the quality of their service as part of our survey this year.

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