Dual-qualified in both Japan (2000) and New York (2006), Yoshiaki Sakurai’s legal career began with Nishimura & Asahi, where he practiced wide variety of areas including Corporate, M&A, Litigation...

A graduate of the Gould School of Law at the University of Southern California, Hiromi Shiraishi has held positions with established law firms in both the United States and Japan,...

Please note that Nuray has now moved on to a new role from the time the research took place.

Team size: 26 Major legal advisers: Addleshaw Goddard, Dentons, Eversheds Sutherland Network Rail has attracted attention for ripping up the rule book on legal panel design to try to deliver...

Team size: 14 Major legal advisers: Bindmans, Bird & Bird, Lewis Silkin, RPC, Travers Smith Grainne Brankin, GC of the 100-year-old UK national standards body, is leading its reformed approach...

Number of years practice: 38 Principal practice areas: M&A, corporate finance Bar admissions: New York Languages spoken: English, Spanish Noted for his experience in the life sciences, banking and insurance...

‘Craig Emery has led a team through significant restructure and change, with a strong focus on the legal function supporting the strategic vision of the business into the future’.

Grainne McLaughlin has a formidable track record in private practice, as an in-house counsel and in the public and private sectors. McLaughlin trained with William Fry and worked in their...

Álvaro Larraín Fierro has been a lawyer in the legal department of Banco del Estado de Chile, a public Chilean bank, since January 2012. Last year was an important one...

Francisca Larraín is an experienced corporate lawyer with a special focus on banking and finance, M&A, project finance and business organisations areas. She has been praised by nominators for her...

Chile’s largest water utility, Aguas Andinas, supplies over an estimated eight million people in the country and therefore requires a best-in-class legal service to reflect its social importance. Fortunately the...

Andrés Eyzaguirre Larraín, general counsel and compliance officer at Nestlé Chile, is at the forefront of the in-house legal market in Chile and a highly skilled lawyer. At Nestlé he...

Number of years practice: 37 Principal practice areas: M&A, corporate finance Bar admissions: New York Languages spoken: English and Spanish Noted for his experience in the life sciences, banking and...

Based in: London Years of practice: 20 Languages spoken: English, French and Arabic Leading Herbert Smith Freehills’ international arbitration group in London, Craig Tevendale is known amongst peers as a...

Based in: Paris and Casablanca Principal practice areas: Dispute resolution, commercial litigation, international arbitration Admissions: Paris Noted by peers, legal directories and the industry press for his projects work in...

The legal and compliance team at Swiss Federal Railways (known as SBB) has led numerous complex commercial settlements and international transactions which have gained global recognition. The team is currently...

Led by head of legal and compliance, Nadja Ceregato, the legal team at Swiss cooperative bank Raiffeisen, has taken a guiding role in the businesses’ international law and intellectual property...

One of the three largest transportation companies in the world, the importance of Russian Railway’s (RZD) operation to the Russian Federation as a whole cannot be overstated. With reported annual...

Tuula Rainto has extensive knowledge and experience with an in-house career that spans over 20 years. After working for companies in a variety of sectors, as well as a six...

Over the last two years the legal department at the Qatar Railways Company has expanded to include specialised lawyers in the maintenance and operations of railway systems. Qatar Rail was...

The Batelco Group (Bahrain Telecommunications Company), has grown from its initial regional presence to operate in14 different jurisdictions. The legal team at Batelco has also grown to a 16-strong diversified...

Established in 2006, Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company actively manages and grows a portfolio of commercial assets. The growth of the company has prompted the addition of four new members to...

Supported by a legal team of four, the Bahrain Airport Company (BAC) is responsible for the development and management of Bahrain International Airport. The recently installed legal team, directed by...

The legal team at Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) can look back on the past year as a particularly successful one. With ‘almost all’ outstanding and long-standing litigation and dispute matters resolved,...

Almarai – meaning ‘green pastures’ in Arabic – is the largest integrated dairy foods company in the world. The company has operations across the Gulf region including dairy farms, food...

Former general counsel to Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE), Mark Craig led Oman Oil Company’s €1.76bn Oxea Sarl acquisition. The company’s largest international acquisition to date, it was also the first...

Holding the position as general counsel of Esso’s Italian subsidiary for almost 20 years, Raimondo Rinaldi takes pride in his legal department being recognised as ‘critical to flawless operations’ in...

Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) is the Irish national public service broadcaster and provides Ireland’s national television and radio services. The company faces numerous legal challenges stemming from their various entities,...

‘In terms of challenges, it’s about being able to deal with the issues which come across your desk – for example crisis management’, Padraic Roche says. ‘As head of legal...

An industry expert, María Eugenia Aldama Garaizabal was responsible for the legal management of GE Capital Real Estate, the real estate investment unit of the American conglomerate General Electric, in...

Rainer Kuhn is highly regarded in the market for setting up from scratch a ‘very efficient and competent team with a clear structure and segregation of duties’. Ceramic goods manufacturer...

Groupe Limagrain is an important component of the French agricultural landscape, and provides the overall structure for a group of companies that boast impressive statistics in their various fields, with...

Most of Franck Raimbault’s legal career has been dedicated to Air France, the French flag carrier airline. He joined the company headquarters in 1995 after his role as a researcher...

TrainOSE is a Greek railway company which currently operates all passenger and freight trains on OSE lines in the country. TrainOSE was acquired in September 2017 by the Italian national...

Urban Rail Transport was founded in June 2011, and incorporated three rail companies that had existed up to that point: AMEL (a metro system operator), ISAP (an urban railway), and...

Easybrain is an exciting new mobile game developer responsible for App Store and Google Play chart-topping games including Sudoku.com and Pixel Art. It has offices in both Belarus and Cyprus....

Almost since the beginning of his legal career, Aníbal Prieto Larrain has been involved in energy deals and the construction projects of energy related facilities. Starting out as a private...

Consorcio Financiero is a leading financial services group in Chile, engaged in a wide range of activities that manages a total of $13bn in assets. In charge of the legal...

Canadian National Railway Company (CN) is a major player in the shipping and transport sector in Canada and the US, shipping freight over 20,000 route-miles of track between the Atlantic...

The in-house legal department at Canada Pacific Railway (CP), one of the largest railway companies in North America, is expertly led by chief legal officer and corporate secretary Jeffrey J....

The multinational conglomerate Siemens has a significant presence in Canada with 4,500 employees and annual revenue of CAD$3bn. Richard Brait has successfully lead the legal and compliance groups for the...

Highly recommended for its cohesion and meritocratic work culture, the legal team at the core of the Brazilian telecommunications company Raizen has recently provided assistance on some high profile transactions....

Cetip is one of the biggest companies within Brazil’s financial system, and despite a relatively rocky period for the sector in the country, Reinaldo Morais Filho continues to prove his...

‘Craig has led and continues to lead a fantastic legal team at ANZ’, opines one private practice source. Heading 32 lawyers supporting New Zealand’s largest financial institution, Craig Mulholland is...

As vice president, general counsel and company secretary, Craig Cawood works closely with several different arms of the global brand’s national business. He is responsible for all legal matters in...

Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão (SBT) is one of the largest television networks in Brazil with a whole variety of programming including news, children’s shows, soap operas, game shows, movies and...

Bringing over a decade of private practice and telecoms experience, Sudhanshu Rai has served as AkzoNobel’s head legal for India, Thailand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh since May 2016 handling...

Austrian banking group Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) is proud of its 30 year presence in the Central and Eastern European market, considering the region as its home market with subsidiary...

The Ukrainian legal team of Philip Morris International (PMI) has impressed nominating sources for its performance under the expert direction of Natalya Bondarenko, director of corporate affairs, since 2016. The...

Founded in 1998, Naftogaz of Ukraine is the national oil and gas company of Ukraine and is involved with the extraction, transportation, and refinement of natural gas and crude oil....

With a several-decade presence in the Ukrainian market, Henkel’s subsidiary in Ukraine has established itself as a national market leader in the manufacture of soap, detergents, cleaning, polishing products, perfumes...

Lorraine Parrott is passionate about challenging the perception that lawyers are barriers to business and is a strong advocate for promoting their value proposition. With an expertise in motor vehicle...

Craig Durham was appointed as group general counsel and company secretary of Redflex in February 2015, and was afforded the lead legal position at the vehicle monitoring and enforcement services...

The China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) is China’s largest construction company operating numerous projects across the world. The state owned entity is dual listed on the Hong Kong and Shanghai...

Before Khalid Alaseeri assumed the general counsel position at the Arabian dairy manufacturing company Almarai, the company’s legal team had a hierarchal structure of organisation with layers below the general...

The legal department at Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company – the sovereign wealth fund of Bahrain – has undergone a major structural overhaul of its previously undocumented processes, in addition to...

Owning 14 television channels and six radio stations, Rai – Radiotelevisione Italiana is the largest television company in Italy. It is an Italian state owned public service broadcaster managed by...

Raiffeisen is a systematically important universal bank in Switzerland, with a focus on providing a range of products and services to large corporations, private individuals and multiple distribution channels. The...

Raimondo Rinaldi has been the general counsel of Esso Italiana since 1997, and from 1998 to 2008 he also managed the coordination of legal services to ExxonMobil affiliates in the...

After taking on the challenge of converting the country’s airports into modern, efficient, and operational models according to international standards, Interairports manages and operates Honduras’ four international air terminals located...

Jorge Zemborain is described as ‘an outstanding lawyer . . . smart, committed, extremely efficient [and] a great team leader’ by one nominator. Since 2010 he has overseen legal operations...

Pan-American Life Insurance Group is US-based group of international insurance and reinsurance companies with branches and affiliates Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, and 13 Caribbean...

Since 2012, Jaime Borja Lascurain has been legal director for Latin America at customer experience and call centre technology provider Genesys, overseeing everything from intellectual property to litigation and compliance...

Founded in 1934 and headquartered in Santiago, Larraín Vial currently ranks as one of the biggest financial intermediation and advisory firms in Latin America. The company has launched offices in...

A corporate lawyer of repute, Ahiram Sarai Barbosa Celis has a track record of providing excellent legal and business advice in a number of roles. She currently ‘reviews all contracts...

Network Rail GC Stuart Kelly’s second stint at the UK railway infrastructure owner, and subsequent promotion to its top legal job in early 2017, has come with what he describes...

Franck Raimbault’s labour law expertise has manifested itself both academically and professionally at the highest levels. Academically, he has gained a PhD focusing specifically on labour law and has operated...

Transnet Freight Rail (TFR), the largest operating division of Transnet, forms part of the backbone of the South African economy via its freight services, innovation and investment in strategic infrastructure....

A solution-oriented and innovative lawyer characterised by her strategic approach to business and her ‘outside the box’ method of thinking, Mirirai Washaya receives praise by a source for her ‘strong...

The huge expansion of airline operations in the Middle East, especially the GCC states, has been one of the most obvious success stories of the region’s economic plan over the...

The Oman Investment Fund is sovereign wealth fund that was established in 2006, and provides medium to long-term investments, globally and domestically across several market sectors in order to diversify...

Number of years practice: 35 Law school attended: Harvard Law School Languages spoken: English, Portuguese and Spanish Principal practice areas: M&A Admissions: New York With well over three decades of...