About

Team size: 150
Major law firms used: Allens, Ashurst, Herbert Smith Freehills, Linklaters, Norton Rose Fulbright, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, Sullivan & Cromwell

A high-profile bribery investigation in Africa and litigation with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding allegations of fraud for overstating the value of Mozambique coal assets have dominated the workload of Rio Tinto group general counsel (GC) Philip Richards since his appointment in early 2017.

Richards, formerly a corporate partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, succeeded legal and regulatory affairs group executive Debra Valentine, whose contract was terminated by the $40bn global mining giant alongside senior executive Alan Davies. A few months later, the Serious Fraud Office opened an investigation into suspected corruption at Rio Tinto’s activities in Guinea. Then, in October 2017, the SEC charged the company and two former executives with fraud for inflating the value of coal assets acquired for $3.7bn and sold a few years later for $50m. The company has also faced ongoing scrutiny in Mongolia from the country’s anti-corruption authority.

Less high-profile but just as interesting have been moves the company has made in technology, resulting in a joint venture with US aluminium supplier Alcoa and global technology leader Apple to develop a new aluminium-making process that eliminates greenhouse gases.

‘The thing we are completely focused on now is the environment: we’ve set ourselves some really aggressive targets,’ Richards comments. ‘We have an absolute business necessity to grip this, and have a better approach and story to tell. That is really changing the way we think about projects.’

Richards’ team is divided between 100 lawyers, a 40-strong ethics and integrity team, and ten people in company secretarial, all dotted around the world. The legal team is broadly divided along its five main product groups – iron ore; copper and diamonds; aluminium; energy and minerals; growth and innovation – with a new team recently introduced into Singapore to cover commercial. The GC also plans to implement a formal legal panel this year, encouraging the use of smaller firms for simpler tasks.

‘Big firms are not very disciplined about saying: “That’s not really for us.” That doesn’t do them any favours when they do relatively straightforward stuff and then struggle to charge their premium rate for it. My vision is to have a handful of top-line firms and then a much broader cross section of regional or even local firms who can handle the cheaper stuff.’