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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.’
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.
