About

Team size: 19
Major law firms used: Bristows, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, DLA Piper, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Pinsent Masons

Dan Guildford, GC of The Financial Times (FT), featured in last year’s GC Powerlist after the high-profile Presidents Club scandal. An undercover FT reporter exposed the seedy side of the black-tie, men-only fundraising event, bringing a slew of legal considerations with it. The legal ramifications of non-disclosure agreements were brought to the public’s attention.

A year on, Guildford and his team are just as busy. Concluding what was previously a rite of passage for FT lawyers, an archaic trade mark dispute in India, was a major win for the legal chief. Guildford says: ‘After more than 20 years, we reached an agreement to end our trade mark dispute in India, meaning that both parties can now move forward.’

Since being acquired in 2015 by Japan’s largest media company, Nikkei, the FT has been in expansive form. M&A deals for Longitude Research, a provider of thought-leadership research and scoutAsia, a subscription-based data and news service for Asian companies, topped the list. But, like many others, last year was more characterised by regulation than buyouts, with GDPR looming heavily over the FT business. Guildford insists it is key for it not to become an issue siloed solely towards lawyers: ‘GDPR has been huge. The way we approached that was to make sure the whole team was involved, not just one or two people. It provided some outstanding opportunities to get the whole team involved in the business.’

But arguably Guildford’s most notable achievements at the FT are his social mobility efforts. Alongside senior legal counsel and 2018’s Legal Business Rising Star of the Year Kendra James, Guildford has implemented a summer placement programme for university-level students from diverse backgrounds.

As of summer 2019, the FT will be teaming up with partner law firm Pinsent Masons, with students spending half a day at the FT’s offices. The whole FT legal team will give workshops on being an in-house lawyer at a news-reporting organisation. For Guildford, it is a ‘win-win-win’: ‘The students get the experience of seeing life in private practice and in-house, our team enjoy the opportunity to share their experience and we get to develop our relationship with Pinsent Masons.’