The Legal 500 UK Awards 2015 > 2015 In-House Winners

JPMorgan Chase, the USA banking giant, has recently undergone a strategic expansion of its legal division in order to overcome the increased regulations it is facing. The expansion included hiring renowned in-house lawyers such as John Tribolati, headhunted from his previous role at Goldman Sachs. The heavyweight legal team have been successful in leading the company through a series of clashes with regulators over the last few months. They are accredited for their instrumental role in the reputational management of the company and their efforts in coordinating multiple responses to investigations and regulatory penalties.

Matt Newman displays 11 years of technical and project management experience in the field of Human Resources. He began his career as an employment lawyer at magic circle firm Linklaters, after which he switched to an in-house position with RBS. During his role as group head of employment law and human resources regulatory affairs at RBS, Newman demonstrated a wide array of knowledge in management of technologies to increase HR efficiency in processes and reliable methodologies for measuring employee engagement and customer satisfaction. Newman recently changed roles to director of employee relations, reward and dispute resolution for the UK’s postal service provider, Royal Mail, in May 2015. Earlier this year the government sold half of its remaining 30% stake with the postal service, 1% of which will be gifted to employees in the company, in addition to the 10% received at the start of the sell-off in 2013. Newman is at the forefront of handling the legal notions associated with the reward.

One of the world’s leading international professional recruitment consultancies, operating across 40 countries with 155 global offices, the PageGroup necessitates a legal department that stands out for its effort in employment law. The legal team is a diverse workforce with a creative mix of people headed by recently appointed Jorge Roche, director of legal and business affairs (UK, North America, and ROW). All-pervading in their policy on diverse employee environments the PageGroup deserve to be acknowledged for their legal support and exertions in their recent initiative Pride@Page, which aims to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employees. This was launched after the success of the 2012 Woman@Page initiative, which improves gender balance at all levels as well as helping the success rate of those returning from maternity leave. This year the group were awarded the Outstanding Employee Engagement Strategy award at the 2015 HR Excellence Awards. They are also the only recruitment company to have committed to the Stonewall’s Global Diversity Champions programme.

Claire Carless has been the UK general counsel and company secretary for the leading engineering and technology company, Siemens, since 2012. Carless’ career has had a constant connection with the energy industry, in both private and in-house roles. Her first in-house role was with National Power Plc as legal manager to the international division advising on all corporate commercial and financing aspects of power projects. In 2000, Carless then moved to Vodafone where her final role was as a commercial legal director of the group. Now at Siemens, Carless heads an 80-strong team and a team of six compliance experts in the UK. The team covers four business sectors: Energy, Healthcare, Industry and Infrastructure & Cities. Carless is praised for her legal assistance during Siemens’ new wind turbine boom; early in the year Scottish Power requested over 100 machines for the East Anglia One project and more recently Dong Energy chose Siemens as their number one supplier of turbines for the Hornsea Project One wind farm.

Shell, is a global group of energy and petrochemical companies operating in the UK, with a diverse set of legal needs. Michael Coates, head of legal UK and associate general counsel for downstream is now leading the team to pioneering new heights. The legal department is currently facing one of the biggest M&A deals of the year valued at £46 billion in the acquisition of the BG Group, with Slaughter and May and Freshfields playing key roles. This is a global deal, but one that includes the UK team closely. In addition, Shell’s robust approach to pricing with their ‘appropriate fee arrangements’ (AFAs) has brought a new dimension to the legal workings of litigation around environmental product liability claims. These fee arrangements are at the forefront of the next panel review scheduled for 2016 and if successful will be adopted by the UK team. The team has also successfully assembled an unusual joint venture agreement to sell gas and electricity in Germany supplied by First Utility, but under Shell’s branding which holds a strong presence in the country.

Jonny Ginns joined INEOS in 2006 as group general counsel having had a diverse work experience. His skill set ranges from M&A, joint ventures, litigation and finance to employee benefits. These skills are all essential to the nature of INEOS, who have joint ventures in place across the world with companies such as PretoChina, BASF, Total and Carlyle Private Equity. In May 2014 the European Commission gave clearance for a definitive joint venture agreement between INEOS and Solvay. INEOS has grown to become a leading player in the industry with 20 standalone businesses within the group, with a presence in 16 countries they are global manufacturers of petrochemicals. The company is looking to invest up to £640 million in share gas exploration in the UK, they currently own 11 licences and are bidding for more in the near future. A strong legal department is indispensable to allow the company to continue to expand, and Ginns’ knowledge of the sector and his robust leadership are integral to this success.

Kingfisher, Europe’s largest home improvement retail group with companies such as B&Q and Screwfix under its management, is “greening” the do-it-yourself (DIY) scene. Kingfisher’s ambitions are to transform all their stores and customer households to zero carbon or net generators of energy to help combat the UK’s carbon emissions. They currently have 50 targets in place for their company, which cover the Net Positive priorities (timber, energy, innovation and communities) and three other areas that cover employees, suppliers and partners and environment. Clare Wardle, group general counsel and company secretary, and her legal team have been instrumental in providing the sustainability department with all legal assistance needed to implement these game-changing targets, making Kingfisher one of the greenest companies in the UK.

Seedrs Limited is a leading UK-based online equity and crowdfunding financial platform focused on investment into technology companies. Rapid growth, due to the regulatory mania in the banking sector, has led to an increased number of investors and media coverage; the legal department have been pivotal in the company’s growth. Karen Kerrigan is the chief legal officer for the company as well as director of the UK Crowdfunding Association, which goes hand in hand with her role at Seedrs. In 2012, under Kerrigan’s legal expertise, Seedrs’ was the first of its kind to receive regulatory approval from the Financial Conduct Authority. As Seedrs is a first of its kind and is attracting attention across many industries, Kerrigan has shown an ability to overcome new challenges formed by the concept of crowdfunding, as well as a capability to rapidly learn of different products and industries that campaign for funding with Seedrs. The company’s success has led to an expansion to Europe, with Kerrigan drafting the legal work needed for the partnership with ING Belgium who are partnering with KissKissBankBank, a France-based crowdfunding platform, to provide clientele with fast-track options and a diverse source of funding.

Hayfin Capital Management has played an increasingly important role in the lending market, post financial crisis. As banks have become further scrutinised and highly regulated, alternative lenders such as Hayfin have moved to fill in the lending-gap for companies. This has meant a number of firsts for Hayfin, which brought with it new legal complexities and challenges. Taking for example the raising of more than €2 billion from institutional investors to offer senior loans to medium-sized European companies, making it the largest such fund to date. The legal team at Hayfin, headed by David Rushford, general counsel, have been at the forefront of dealing with these new complexities as well as managing the legal challenges shaped by the company’s potential changes in ownership activity; having prepared for potential sale and managed subsequent changes in holding stakes by current investors.

Now legal director of Novartis UK and Ireland, Ben Holgate Holgate has dedicated a large portion of his career to the healthcare sector, having spent 12 years at Wyeth before joining Novartis five years ago. In his current role Holgate is faced with multi-facetted and complex legal situations that are remote to the healthcare industry, ranging from high equity stakes to individual claims. Complex legal scenarios are not new to him, with many years of experience he brings strong leadership and a robust grasp of the regions’ healthcare law, allowing him to battle the legal challenges to Novartis’ commercial activities. Under Holgate’s leadership, the company was able to sign an exclusive agreement promoting two Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) drugs in the UK, with Pfizer in charge of marketing and Novartis of all other matters. The team has managed to keep other respiratory products unaffected from the agreement, a nimble piece of legal footwork.

The Spire Health Care Group was created after 25 hospitals were ousted from Bupa Hospitals in 2007 during the buyout by private equity firm, Cinven. It has since grown its own presence and added a number of hospitals to its original 25. Daniel Toner, general counsel for the group, heads the legal department that has made this growth a reality. The group is in the process of building new hospitals in both Manchester and Nottingham, with strong support from the in-house legal team. The team have been commended for their efforts to quickly process a vast number of documents and contracts associated with the work. In 2014, Spire was floated on the London Stock Exchange, however in June Cinven announced it would sell part of the company to the South African listed Mediclinic in a £432 million deal, another aspect that the team will have to factor into their workload. To add to the complexity of the deal, a merger of Al Noor with Mediclinic will result in Al Noor playing a role in Spire Group through its minority stake, adding further complexity. With an estimated one-third of the group’s revenue generated from carrying out work on behalf of the NHS, the department, in conjunction to all other legal undertakings, now prepares itself for the predicted slowdown in the flow of cases into the private sector, inflicted by the NHS budget cuts.

Neil Hodges joined Zurich Insurance Group, Europe’s third-largest insurer, as the UK general counsel in 2007. As soon as he was appointed, Hodges hit the ground running by restructuring the legal function to have a more flattened approach. This year the group reported payments of over £97 million in protection claims alone, this in itself presents the legal department with constant paper work that could lead to litigation, such as the team’s recent win in legal costs over a fundamental dishonesty appeal, awarded by the Newcastle Country Court. The end of last year saw the group appoint CBRE Global Investors to increase their exposure to UK real estate allocations by up to 5.5% through direct acquisitions. At the same time Zurich is pushing for the government to provide consumers with a sustainable pension solution. As the leader of legal in the UK, Hodges is admired for his ability to juggle numerous legal undertakings to allow the company to grow in all areas from commercial to marketing.

Aviva is now one of UK’s leading workplace insurance providers, after the acquisition of Friends Life enabled the group to launch a new Protection proposition that offers a full suite package of workplace services and products. The legal team made the acquisition of Friends Life for £5.2 billion, marking it as one of the biggest UK insurance deals in recent times. Aviva UK Life is the product of the acquisition, 60% of which is owned by the Aviva Group and on its own Aviva UK Life equites to a FTSE 50 company. Kirsty Cooper, group general counsel for Aviva, and her team have overcome every curve ball that the business’s commercial undertakings have thrown at them. Most acknowledged was the team’s ability to maintain an excellent legal function during the company’s internal re-structure and reduction in headcount. The Aviva legal team have been praised for being dynamic, promoting innovation and for their admirable ability to predict future risks in the sector. Moreover the team is applauded for their long-term relationships with external legal advisers.

Since 2013, Ritva Sotamaa has served as chief legal officer of Unilever. Prior to joining Unilever Sotamaa worked in the healthcare industry as the general counsel for Siemens Healthcare and for GE Healthcare. In 2014 Sotamaa pioneered the first panel review for the company and has made massive strides in developing the relationship between the organisation and external legal advisors on matters concerning contracts, commercial, construction and IP rights. Unilever has retained the IP panel and is planning to launch a number of regional panels following initial success. As an organisation dealing with 400 brands in over 190 countries the management of IP rights does not come easily, it needs constant attention and proactive management. Sotamaa keeps all legal workings in check having created a strong legal team, with 25 lawyers with over 10 years of experience forming the headquarters team and with a further 500-strong legal function spread across 50 countries. She has recently launched a company-wide legal academy, available on-line, designed to build and enhance her lawyers’ skills. Sotamaa presents an unmatchable ability to manage a large-scale team while ensuring that the legal department creates a stronger environment for Unilever’s business integrity and operations.

Supporting healthcare professionals in over 100 countries and as one of the largest producers of orthopedic reconstruction products, sports medicine, advanced wound management and clinical products, Smith & Nephew’s business necessitates a strong legal department that can meet and manage all intellectual property rights across borders. Chief legal officer, Jack Campo manages the legal department who have earned recognition internally and externally for their efforts in IP rights situated in a competitive and niche industry. Earlier this year the legal team prevailed over a patent dispute filled in the US that had been on-going for 11 years against Arthrex; the court ruled that $85 million in damages and $6.8 million in supplement damages should be paid by Arthrex. Moreover the London based company are set to acquire Zimmer’s Unicondylar Knee System from the US market after successful purchase of existing inventory and IP rights for the US.

Having joined in 2009 when Heathrow Airport Holding was known as British Airports Authority (BAA), Carol Hui is now the general counsel and executive director heading a team of 12 lawyers and four secondees. Hui has been at the forefront of Heathrow Airports’ submission to build a third runway, which brings along with it many disputes with competitors and interested parties. Within her first three years of joining, Hui was heavily involved in litigation surrounding the breakup of the company and continued to work closely with external advisors on the sale of Glasgow, Aberdeen and Southampton Airports. Over the last two years Heathrow Airport has seen the opening of the brand new Queen Terminal 2 and the closure of Terminal 1. When putting these actions into perspective with over 80 airlines flying directly to over 180 destinations and the billions of passengers travelling through, Hui’s experience in litigation has been essential to enabling the UK’s premier international airport to function without coming to a legally-caused standstill.

Sotheby’s, a global art business and auctioneer in operation since 1744, deals in worldwide sales exhibitions from wine to diamonds to art. The Sotheby’s legal team recently dismissed a lawsuit made against them concerning the painting of The Cardsharps by Caravaggio. Functioning in an industry that has high-stakes and is based on ensuring the authenticity of products brings with it many litigation dilemmas that the legal team handle on a daily basis, at a global level, with minimum negative publicity.

Joe Blum, partner and general counsel of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a company committed to investing in infrastructure assets, has worked on multiple cross-border transactions. He joined the company in 2007 after 21 years at Latham & Watkins and has since been responsible for their legal and regulatory matters at a global level, including the company’s supervision of outside counsel on matters associated with transactions and litigation. Blum has also been involved in the negotiations and structuring of the company’s investment fund while ensuring compliance with all regulatory bodies. The bulk of Blum’s experience is vested in private practice, where he represented sponsors and financial institutions on cross-border project development, financing, privatisations and joint ventures. With over 21 years of experience, Blum’s impressive experience allows the commercial aspirations of GIP to be converted into a reality with expert legal grounding.

The legal team at Bridgepoint is headed by Charles Barter, general counsel and chief legal and compliance officer. Having devoted 10 years to private equity with Travers Smith prior to joining Bridgepoint, Barter is a private equity star in his own merit. The legal team that Barter heads at Bridgepoint have made their own creditworthy achievements by keeping stride with the company’s fast paced buyouts of market leading businesses valued between €200 million and €1 billion. Looking into recent ventures, the legal department warrants recognition for their efforts in the acquisition of ASK Italian and Zizzi restaurants from competing equity house Cinven, and for a major investment deal with Expert Market. Bridgepoint is poised to buy the Appleby Fiduciary and Administration Business from the Appleby Group, while at the same time are in talks to sell the Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC) for up to £700 million. The legal department is credited for their ability to juggle multiple projects in a professional and commendable time management speed.

Ceri Brid has been the head of legal services for the University since 2014, having joined in 2013 as legal advisor. Before this she served as a lawyer for the City and County of Swansea for 10 years, a large devotion of her career to local public law. Bird’s knowledge of local law coupled with property, contracts, commercial, employment, planning and education expertise makes her an integral player in all legal activities of Swansea University. Her past experience as lawyer for the County allows her to overcome the legal barricades needed for all of Swansea’s development plans. She is currently assisting Swansea University as they attempt to realise their goal to be in the top 200 ranking, ensuring that legal necessities are overcome. The University has newly experienced growth in both infrastructure, education programs and student population, which has in addition allowed the area around the campus to capitalise on its achievements bringing new development to Swansea. Moreover, Tata Steel and Swansea University have signed an agreement to develop and retain graduate talent in the region.

Nottinghamshire County Council, whose legal division is headed by Jayne Francis-Ward, has led the consortium arrangements for an unusual approach to external advice. The East Midland LawShare integrates a group of councils and law firms as a cost effective method for external services. It also allows focus on specialist legal advice needed during council work, covering a broad range of legal knowledge. It has taken off to include councils outside of the East Midland region and has delivered significant savings since its inception in 2006. The Nottingham County Council legal team make the Council’s plans into a reality for the better of the county and its people; current talks include the sale of five farms owned by the council. So far the team has had a great year winning many awards praising them for their work in the public sector and their efforts in family law.

Alastair Asher, general counsel at The Co-operative Group, as well as other legal challenges, has oversight of NOMA, a property redevelopment project conducted in joint venture with Hermes Real Estate, located in Manchester. NOMA is a £800 million, 20-acre, office, retail and residential development backed by the Manchester City Council. In his current role, Asher has more of an oversight role, but has a 40-strong legal team to support him with the intricacy of the legal work. After 34 years at Allen & Overy, Asher abruptly took to The Co-operative during its financial crisis in June 2013, leaving the firm on good terms and helping The Co-operative Group deal with the black hole left in the bank’s finances. Asher quickly acclimatised to his new role as a business executive, leaving behind his private practice role. The legal team reports directly into him and he focuses the management board’s decisions through his legal lens, attained through an abundance of experience in a diversity of areas, including real estate.

Legal & General have had a promising year investing in many large-scale real estate ventures, starting 2015 with a £370 million purchase of property from Cordea Savills in partnership with the Dutch pension fund manager, PGGM, and the more recent dedication of £400 million to the regeneration deal of the Cardiff Central Square. Current efforts securing a 50% stake in MediaCityUK, a Manchester-based new-build valued at £503 million, with advice from Eversheds, is underway. Moreover, the company has vouched to invest in assets that have a positive social impact; they teamed up with Patron Capital to target less mainstream property sectors in order to do this. Needless to say the legal department has been pivotal when arranging the legal technicalities involved in investment and procurement of property. Geoffrey Timms, the group’s general counsel, has been leading the team through their new undertakings. Regardless of the smaller size of the team when compared to teams in rival companies, they have been successful in enabling Legal & General to make a mark on the real estate industry. Additionally the team is acknowledged for maintaining long term relationships with their external advisers who are used during heavyweight M&A and litigation cases.

Colin Garwood, respected throughout the industry, mentor figure to many and regarded as an expert on all matters tax-related, is the head of group tax at InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG). Garwood has displayed his knowledge of the tax industry through many vectors such as speaking at conferences, writing articles and providing various feedback in other forums, as well as his outstanding internal legal work with IHG. Having completed his accountancy qualifications, Garwood began his career at Arthur Andersen until his move to IHG. He orchestrates the response to all tax matters in the hotelier’s 4,900 hotels located in nearly 100 territories. He negotiates tax deeds following the company’s commercial ventures, such as the recently acquired boutique hotel, Kimpton. Along with his team, he deals with all tax matters in all jurisdictions that the company chooses to operate in. Garwood has over 25 years of extensive tax experience in the US, Chinese and European jurisdictions, also having developed a specialism in the Controlled Foreign Companies (CFC) rules. He played a pivotal role where new rules were drafted with his participation in the CFC interim improvements and the CFC intellectual property working group.

Prudential is a multinational retail financial service with majority of their operations in Asia, USA and UK. Kieran Devlin is their head of tax, responsible for all tax-related matters. Devlin ensures that the group compiles with tax requirements in all territories, and maintains good relations with numerous Fiscal Authorities. The legal tax team at Prudential are currently involved in discussions with the EU on law regarding the taxation and treatment of portfolio dividends for holdings of less than 10 percent of shares. The team, over recent years, have focused their efforts on cross-border financing and corporate activities while they have been acknowledged for their protection of the company and its customers, post-financial crisis. Many in the tax sphere are impressed with the legal team’s effort in litigation and their focus on issues, such as the availability of compound interest on tax, that allow for the benefit of their own commercial undertakings as well as the benefit of others working in the tax industry.

Michael Marecki, general counsel and company secretary at Aston Martin Lagonda, has dedicated his 25 year-long career to the automotive industry. Since 1990 Marecki has worked with many world renowned brands such as the Ford Motor Company, in the US and Europe, and with Land Rover, during which time the two prestigious British trademarks merged to form Jaguar Land Rover. Marecki continued to head the new company after this merge as director of legal affairs. Now with the James Bond endorsed carmaker, Aston Martin, Marecki’s many years of experience in automotive technology allow him to manage the difficulties in IP protection as various innovations in car parts are sent around the world to be externally manufactured in a highly competitive niche environment. Aston Martin has recently launched its new prototype car, have completed a new 15,800sqft development center in Warwickshire and have in addition, committed £200 million to fund for product expansion. The British carmaker are also expanding their research into electric sports cars, for which their IP needs rigorous protection by the legal team.

The legal team at Google provide a pillar of support to one of the world’s most pioneering companies, which often leads them to undefined legal complexities that are constantly changing. Overseeing Google’s legal affairs for the UK and Ireland for the past eight years, Emma Jelley, senior regional counsel, heads the legal team for the region. The team have recently had to deal with the upsurge in data and tax laws with other such legislation in the pipeline, such as addressing the EU data transfer deal with the USA. Moreover, the legal team has to overcome the differences between the UK and Ireland, where laws differentiate when data protection breaches are compared. This poses an extra work load for the department on top of their daily on-goings which are mammoth in themselves.

In 2010 two heavyweight telecoms companies Orange and T-Mobile merged to form EE, where James Blendis currently acts as the general counsel and company secretary. Blendis was previously general counsel and head of marketing legal services for T-Mobile for six years, during which time he led the company through the merger and integration into EE. Having dedicated a bulk of his career to the telecoms industry, Blendis found himself in the middle of the hacking scandal where he represented the company giving guidance on the features of phone security and hacking. Blendis’ work portrays high-profile projects associated with telecoms and an ability to streamline any large legal department while ensuring responsiveness and lower budget profiles. With current talks of BT aiming to acquire EE for £12.5 billion, there is no doubt that Blendis’ experience and knowledge will play an integral role.

Mobile network provider Three currently has an estimated 8.8 million customers with roam-free prices in over 17 countries worldwide. Its parent company, Hutchison Whampoa, is currently in the process of gaining permission from the European Commission to acquire O2 from its parent company, Telefónica. Stephen Lerner has been general counsel and director of regulatory affairs at Three since 2003, where he heads the 75-strong legal team. The team is praised for their initiatives to alter restrictive polices surrounding the UK mobile network market such as termination rates for customers as well as issues on spectrum allocation, their number one priority being the customer’s needs.

Maria da Cunha joined British Airways in January 2002 as a competition lawyer and has held many positions throughout her time with the airline, leading to her current role as director of people and legal. She has commercial, legal and operational experience in the airline industry bringing together legal responsibility, HR, risk and compliance and government affairs to support the company’s commercial growth. Taking into consideration da Cunha’s role as director of people, her efforts in the launch of the first aviation apprenticeship scheme merits recognition alongside her time spent with trade unions in regard to cabin crew disputes. With a large part of her career vested with British Airways, she was part of the legal team during their international expansion and financial downfall during the acquisition by now parent company International Airlines Group (IAG).

Transport for London (TfL) has been making front page headlines due to recent tube strikes instigated by a request for higher pay during the proposed night services on the London underground and the increased competition in the cab industry around London. The legal team at TfL, headed by Howard Carter, have been playing the middle man between black-cab drivers and the popular Uber service, which allows customers to hail a taxi via their app. The TFL legal team have often played the role of mediator between varying transportation bodies, they are also currently in the process of handling disputes from the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA) against the construction of the Embankment Cycle Superhighway which will allow safe routes for cyclists. The legal team handles many cases at once, displaying diplomatic mediation between various associations while ensuring the safety of the London commuters.