Dare first moved to the country in 2012 to work with Hiswara Bunjamin & Tandjung, the Indonesian associate firm of legacy Herbert Smith.
The tie-up will see Rahayu work closely with corporate partner Dare. Singapore-based corporate partner Brian Gordon will also be involved with the establishment of the office.
HFW’s global revenue in 2016/17 jumped by 16 per cent from £143.1m in 2015/16 to £165.7m in a new record in the firm’s history. It was the second year of revenue growth since 2014/15, when turnover fell 3 per cent.
DAC Beachcroft has promoted four of its lawyers to partner after a November round favouring UK and Ireland-based lawyers.
Two partners, Adrian Cottam and Prakash Kerai, were made up in London with Caroline Cherry in Bristol and Rowena McCormack in Dublin completing the line up.
This takes the number of new partners made up by DAC Beachcroft this year to 13.
Cottam is now a partner in the firm’s claims solutions team, while Kerai sits in corporate.
Cherry has been made partner in professional and commercial risk after joining as a legal secretary in 2004.
Litigation partner McCormack rounds off the new partners, having joined the firm in 2012 from Matheson.
This is the second partner promotions announcement from DAC Beachcroft this year. It also made up nine lawyers to partner in May this year.
39 Essex Chambers has emerged as the most active set for the third quarter of this year, according to data carried out by The Lawyer.
The Lawyer’s Litigation Tracker reveals that the set was the busiest of all chambers from the period of 1 July to 30 September, as defined by number of cases and by case days.
The set represented clients in 39 cases totalling 55 days, involving 29 barristers. Of those barristers, banking silk Hodge Malek QC was the busiest, working on seven cases lasting 11 days.
Malek acted for Pugachev’s ex-partner Alexandra Tolstoy, who was defending the trust for herself and three children. He took instruction from Devonshires Solicitors.
Other cases taken on by the set include three professional discipline claims for which it acted for the General Medical Council and a case in the Court of Appeal that decided that doctors and relatives can agree between themselves whether it is in the best interests of a patient to withhold or withdraw medical treatment.
In the last 12 months, the set received the most instructions from Devonshires Solicitors, followed by Bircham Dyson Bell, Irwin Mitchell and Walker Morris, among others.
The second most active set was Blackstone Chambers, which represented clients in 35 cases totalling 92 days.
Five barristers from the set – Kieron Beal QC, James Eadie QC, Ivan Hare QC and juniors Peter Head and Tristan Jones – worked on three cases that reached judgment.
Notable cases for the commercial set include the landmark employment tribunal ruling, in which the Supreme Court ruled that employment tribunal fees were unlawful. Unison instructed Blackstone Chambers’ Dinah Rose QC and Matrix Chambers’ Shantha David, Karon Monaghan, Bronwyn McKenna, Matthew Purchase and Iain Steele.
These findings are based on The Lawyer’s Q3 Litigation Tracker reportl, which is available to purchase from Monday. The report is based on over 450 recorded judgments in the Litigation Tracker database and identifies the most active firms, chambers and barristers in the last quarter.
Gowling WLG has once again been recognised as a leading firm in many of its practice areas in the latest Chambers UK guide.
Among the international firm’s 47 rankings, Gowling WLG achieved two standalone band one rankings for its general Intellectual Property (Midlands) and Pensions (Midlands) practices. In total, the firm achieved 16 band one rankings, of which two were UK-wide.
Kinstellar is included in the 2017 edition of the GIR 100—an annual guide that ranks the world’s top 100 law firms able to handle sophisticated cross-border, government-led, and internal investigations.
The recent Guernsey Construction Awards, sponsored by Ogier, saw members of Guernsey’s business community joining together to recognise and celebrate best practice in construction, engineering and property services on the Island.
The awards were attended by Ogier’s Guernsey property tea
Ogier has more ranked individuals recognised in the Chambers directory than any other Jersey firm and the firm remains top ranked in Corporate, Banking and Finance, Private Client and Trusts and Property work.
Kathleen Riordan, Senior Executive Assistant at Schillings, has been shortlisted in the Legal EA of the Year category at this year’s PA of the Year Awards.
Now in their sixth year and regarded as the definitive awards for those working in the personal assistant and executive assistant sector, the awards exist to highlight and champion the brilliant work being undertaken every day by PAs and EAs across London.
GetYourGuide, the leading online marketplace for travel activities, has announced a $75m series D financing round led by Battery Ventures. The company’s existing investors KKR, Spark Capital, Highland Capital Partners, Nokia Growth and Sunstone Capital joined Battery in its investment.
Walder Wyss advised GetYourGuide on the transaction. The team was led by Florian Gunz Niedermann (Corporate/M&A, Partner) and further included Fabienne Anner(Corporate/M&A, Associate) and Michael Kündig(Corporate/M&A, Associate).
Ogier’s Guernsey private client and trusts and property teams have been promoted in the rankings of directory Chambers and Partners.
The rankings follow a year of strategic growth for Ogier’s Guernsey team which has seen the arrival of two new partners and three Counsel in the last 12 months.
Linklaters is advising challenger bank Aldermore on its potential £1.1bn sale to DLA Piper client FirstRand.
Corporate partner Iain Wagstaff is leading the Linklaters team for Aldermore, supported by associate Alex Lehtinen.
South Africa-headquartered FirstRand has turned to DLA Piper, whose team is understood to be led by UK head of corporate Charles Cook.
On the financial side, Ashurst banking partner Tim Rennie and corporate partner Karen Davies are advising FirstRand’s adviser Credit Suisse in relation to the offer.
Aldermore revealed it had received an offer from FirstRand this morning as part of its interim management statement for Q3 2017.
The bank, which listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2015, said its new lending figures had grown to £2.4bn, driving loan book growth of £0.9bn to £8.4bn.
FirstRand is South Africa’s largest financial services institution and is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
Background to the deal
Linklaters has been Aldermore’s key adviser since 2015 when corporate partner Wagstaff won the competitive pitch process for the initial public offering. It marked the first time the firm had been instructed by Aldermore, although private equity partner Evans had an existing relationship with its majority shareholder AnaCap.
It was the second time Aldermore has announced its intention to float on the LSE, after its first attempt was pulled in October 2014. Herbert Smith Freehills advised the underwriters Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank on the listing.
DLA Piper is understood to hold the FirstRand relationship from South Africa, with corporate director Johannes Gouws acting on corporate deals from Johannesburg for the bank. Over the summer DLA Piper also launched a tax practice in the region, hiring FirstRand tax specialist Andrew Lewis as a director.
The Lawyer’s longest-serving employee is Tulkinghorn, who has been writing his diary column – on and off – since 1994. His first ever column, on 24 May that year, included a question of sexual deviancy and the first in a long-running series, legal lookalike, that continues to this day.
1997: Tulkinghorn soon emerged as a scourge of the powerful. When the Law Society President Tony Girling has the temerity to accuse The Lawyer of #fakenews, he responded in typically facetious fashion…
1999: Tulk’s contacts book is legendary and despite a somewhat old-fashioned attitude as befits his venerable age and station, he can mix it with the young and trendy if needed. Hot shot association football player and ‘Spice Boy’ Robbie Fowler was just one of his casual acquaintances back in the day…
Tulk has been exposing the sexual peccadillos of the profession’s movers and shakers since long before the current scandals broke, most memorably on this occasion in the long hot summer of 2002. He still gets the sweats every time he has a drink with a Clifford Chance partner…
2003: Forget the Anthea Turner and Grant Bowie wedding – famously sponsored by OK! magazine.The Lawyer secured a prime position at the nuptials of David Pannick QC, now Lord Pannick, and his bride, Reid Minty Lawyer Nathalie Trager-Lewis.
In 2005, with research for The Lawyer’s annual report into firm finances concluded, Tulk came up with a groundbreaking new metric – Profits Per Child.
Got a legal lookalike or a story of your own for Tulkinghorn? Drop him a line.
The insurance district was the most expensive part of the City of London for law firms to be based last year.
Data from The Lawyer’s Workspace Trends report, which was released yesterday (6 November) showed that the average cost per sq ft for firms based in EC3 was £113.26. This was the highest cost in the City last year.
The figure is skewed by particularly high costs per sq ft paid by Holman Fenwick Willan and if this firm is removed from the equation, the average EC3 cost drops to £79.86 per sq ft. This is still one of the highest average costs in the UK.
WC2, on the opposite edge of the City, is also particularly expensive. The average cost for firms based in this postcode area last year was £90.57 per sq ft.
Elsewhere in the City, the average cost per sq ft in EC2 – from St Paul’s to Liverpool Street, and the base for a large number of firms providing data on their occupancy costs this year – was £86.50.
The legal heartland of EC4, which borders the City and Westminster and includes Fleet Street, Chancery Lane and Old Bailey, was one of the cheaper areas for firms to be based last year with an average cost of £73.81 per sq ft for the 14 firms based there.
This group does not include Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which did not supply data. Last year Freshfields agreed a new lease which will see it move out of its Fleet Street premises in EC4 to 100 Bishopsgate, EC2, in 2021.
Across London the average cost per sq ft paid by firms last year was £69.34, almost £27 per sq ft more than the average across the rest of the UK. The average cost for firms in EC3, SW3 and SE1 was substantially below the average for the rest of the capital.
The role of law firm GC – once a quirky, overlooked role – is growing in prominence. At a breakfast briefing last month, The Lawyer and Cayley Coughtrie gathered a group of them together to discuss what it means to be a law firm’s ‘trusted advisor’.
Hosts: Chris Cayley, director, Cayley Coughtrie and Rich Simmons, careers editor, The Lawyer
Sarah O’Neill, GC, Addleshaw Goddard
Annette Fritze-Shanks, global head of risk, Allen & Overy
Charmian May, deputy GC, Ashurst
Jonathan Westwell, GC, Baker McKenzie
Chris Perrin, executive partner/GC , Clifford Chance
Stephen Hermer, GC, CMS
Tanja Podinic, UK compliance counsel, Dentons UKMEA
Derek Ellery, GC, DWF
Debbie Jukes, GC, Eversheds Sutherland
Gareth Roberts, GC, Herbert Smith Freehills
Jo Riddick, GC, Macfarlanes
Sarah de Gay, GC and head of compliance, Slaughter and May
The role of a law firm GC is one that has grown up over the last decade or so – do you think it is properly understood?
Sarah de Gay: In a corporate organisation, being a GC would usually signal that you are the most senior lawyer within that organisation, but in a law firm the senior and other partners clearly have that role.
Chris Perrin: I think the role of the GC is now pretty much accepted among law firms. When I was given the title, I was nervous about how it would go down with the partners but in fact there never was an issue. Now, I think eyebrows would be raised if a large firm didn’t have a GC.
I was lucky in the sense that the GC role came fairly soon after our merger – the firm was changing so much and people accepted that we had to do things differently. So it was easy for me, but I think other firms have struggled with that.
Jo Riddick: I think the perception of the role and the perceived benefits have changed over the years. I can remember someone saying to me that risk management was the administrative tail wagging the fee-earning dog, and I think there is more acceptance now of the benefits, particularly if you do have a consultative approach and people can come and see you.
Stephen Hermer: The challenges are very different for someone who’s come into the firm, rather than someone who’s been there for 20 or 30 years and then takes on the role. For the role to work, people need to have confidence in you – and that’s a much easier task for someone who’s already there. If you’re just starting at a new place it becomes a different exercise.
Perrin: I would have hated to come to my role from outside – I think it would have been very difficult. And over the years I’ve done it, I’ve added to what I cover. For somebody coming in from the outside, it would be almost impossible for them to come in and take the whole lot on in one go.
Chris Cayley: I’d be interested to know whether you think there are any disadvantages to having been involved in the firm for so long, and whether there are any benefits to coming in from the outside?
Perrin: I’m sure there are many ideas you could benefit from, and a new approach to risk management in particular. But I just think it is so important that you have credibility in the eyes of your partners – which you much more naturally have if you’re grown up in the firm, especially if you’re effectively asked to do the job. For the most part, if you need a fresh perspective from outside you can get that from more junior recruits.
Sarah de Gay
De Gay: It’s about business empathy as well. If you don’t understand what it’s like to be a junior fee-earner in your firm on a day-to day basis I think it’s quite difficult.
Annette Fritze-Shanks: Yes, it’s about credibility again: “I’m a lawyer, I’ve been a fee-earner, I’ve been where you are, become a partner and gone through that process.” All of that gives you a bit more cache with people who you are trying to influence, be they partners, fee-earners or members of support teams.
Hermer: I think in practice many firms will want a long-time partner as GC – but all of that said, we all see among our clients the ability to hire CEOs from different industries. At Olswang we hired a GC who came in from outside the firm, hadn’t been a partner at a law firm and did a fantastic job and built a good relationship with the partners. I think it’s difficult but it’s not impossible.
Riddick: I think it’s also about your background and what you can bring to the role, and that is potentially more important than just having been at a firm for a long time. I had a litigation background, then I went to the Middle East where Sharia law meant that the opportunities for litigating weren’t that good. I became a corporate partner instead and that background has been really useful.
Should the role be a prominent one within the firm? How visible should you be?
Sarah O’Neill, Derek Ellery
Derek Ellery: It’s one of those roles that if you’re working satisfactorily you can operate under the radar. I don’t really seek to publicise it; I don’t see the need. Most lawyers are happy to know that it’s happening – all people need to know is who you are and how to get to you. You can give people all the information in the world and it’s amazing how often they won’t bother reading it and will come to you just to have you read chapter and verse of it. That has been my experience.
Hermer: There is always a group of partners at a firm who are very keen to get a second opinion and use you as a sounding board and are happy to come to you in a confessor way.
Jonathan Westwell: I think it rather depends what the role is. It can range enormously at different firms – whether you’re part of the executive team of the firm or the statesman. I think the profile depends on what you’re actually supposed to be doing.
Sarah O’Neill: I think with the broader GC role there is the opportunity to step back and add value where you can in all sorts of different areas – finding more about the strategies going on, the innovations taking place within the firm, and getting know people. I do feel like raising profile and visibility is one of the things I need to do at the firm to enable people to tell me what it going on. Especially if you’re combining the COLP role, you really need to have that conduit of open communication. My greatest fear is not knowing what is going on in the firm, not having that visibility and not being able to take appropriate measures as a result. I need to get involved in things that aren’t traditionally seen as a professional practice risk.
Westwell: It’s a case of ‘be careful what you wish for’, because profile is great, but sometimes you get asked about small tasks which can be very distracting.
How much is the role shaped by the partnership and how much by the personality and desires of the individual GC?
Gareth Roberts: I think the role is shaped by the person who does it. The firm chooses a person and then the role adapts to the person.
Westwell: There’s a real risk that actually this role can grow in any shape or way. It is a three-way conversation between you, management and the partnership about what the GC takes on. When I first stepped into the role, people asked me if they really needed someone doing this. Now it’s about what we shouldn’t do.
Debbie Jukes: I would agree with that. I ask my team what they are doing, because we’re not there to answer every single query that someone can’t be bothered to look up.
Do you think the GC should sit on the board or remain independent from senior management?
Ellery: I would say no. I wouldn’t feel comfortable wearing two hats. Yes, you should be there and be required to give advice and general counsel as the title suggests, but I think you should keep yourself separate from the client you’re giving advice to.
Perrin: I think our view is the complete opposite and one of the reasons is because we want to make sure that the risk factor is taken into account in absolutely everything we do as a management team. I think either way works.
O’Neill: I think it’s very useful to be at board meetings to find out what’s going on and to make sure your advice is strategically aligned but I don’t think that having a vote helps with maintaining the independence and objectivity of the advice so it’s good to have a hybrid. I attend the board as a company secretary as well so I switch between the two.
Riddick: Law firms structure their management boards differently as well. I’m a member of the exec, which means that I meet every week with the heads of HR, finance, and the managing partner but there’s a separate policy committee of which I’m not a member. To maintain my independence from that is quite valuable. But I suspect we’ve got as many different management structures as we have people in the room.
What kind of person is going to suit this role? How do you pitch it as a desirable career option?
Perrin: It depends on what the role means in the firm. In terms of Clifford Chance, it’s a fantastic role and I’ve never regretted doing it. The person that takes it on needs to be in their late 40s and do it for the rest of their career. It’s not something you do for five years and then go back to fee earning, or do as a semi-retirement job. Ideally it should be a litigator, because part of the job is the claims and insurance side and being a litigator helps.
Tanja Podinic: It’s interesting. I was in construction litigation and moved into compliance and risk. Maybe in ten or 20 years time the situation will change and a GC within a law firm will come up through the ranks as a risk and compliance lawyer, because there are so many lawyers now who are just doing risk and compliance straight out of law school. I think it would be challenging to earn the trust and respect of the partnership having not brought in the money.
Jukes: I have quite a few lawyers in my team who are five to seven years qualified, are doing a great job and I’m thinking ‘How does that career path work for them?’ As we’ve discussed, there’s a natural desire to bring in a partner who everyone respects, but that does raise the question of what happens to all of these talented and committed people.
Perrin: Promoting those people may ultimately be a better structure because someone transitioning from being a fee-earning partner to the role may have no experience in risk management, compared with somebody who has grown up in that process and who may be a much better candidate.
Roberts: I agree with that. Firms have responsibility to spot those people and should do what they can to broaden their experience.
Hermer: It depends on whether firms see risk management as a central component of the GC role. There are some firms where there is a separation. I could theoretically see a situation where risk forms a separate role to the GC role and I suspect that is not a model many law firms will embrace.
Perrin: It also depends on whether conflict management is part of the role, which it is in our case. It needs someone with the authority to say ‘You’re not going to act on this’ and for partners to accept it. Someone who hasn’t been a fee-earner may struggle to do that.
Charmian May: I do think people are going to see some of these roles as very desirable and there’s going to be more of a fight to be General Counsel compared to in the past, when it was probably a tap on the shoulder and someone saying ‘how about it?’ or people growing into it organically. It will become much more of a strategic appointment as we go forward.
Cayley: I wonder if we’ll see a law firm GC become a CEO in the future or even senior partner?
Riddick: I could see GCs moving to CEO role because they already have a holistic role.
Ellery: My sense is that most wouldn’t desire it. I used to be a managing partner and the personalities of those who strive for the CEO role are different compared with the types of people we are.
Perrin: I don’t think a firm would want it either – you create another problem with the GC becoming CEO, because you’ve then got to replace the GC.
What are your thoughts or hopes about how the GC role will develop in the coming years?
Ellery: Most firms now are always looking at costs and efficiency and there will be a need for the GC to be a support to central services. I think there will be a constant need to strive for efficiency and to combine with colleagues in IT to make sure we are offering a holistic service.
Perrin: I think teams will grow. Comparatively speaking, our teams are tiny. I remember asking for one extra person in my compliance team; at the same time HSBC was recruiting 700 people to their compliance team!
Kinstellar has successfully advised CBRE Global Investors on the acquisition of a logistics/light industrial portfolio in Plzeň, Bohemia, from Stage Capital in an off-market transaction. The roughly 151,000sq m portfolio consists of four existing assets built between 2007 and 2017 along with additional development land with planning permission for another.
All assets are fully flexible, state-of-the-art logistics, warehousing, light industrial and production facilities.
The Kinstellar team was led by Klára Štěpánková (Partner and head of the firm-wide real estate sector) and included Rudolf Schichor (Associate), Martin Holub and Michal Matouš (Junior Associates).
The 2018 edition of the Chambers UK Bar has delivered a Band 1 ranking to ten of No5’s practice areas, with further Band 1 rankings for 13 senior barristers and 23 junior barristers.
The Band 1 practice areas on the Midlands Circuit are Clinical Negligence, Company, Crime, Employment, Environment, Family/Matrimonial, Health & Safety, Immigration, Personal Injury and Planning.
Walker Morris has appointed Stuart Ponting as a partner in its Regulatory & Compliance Team. Stuart is a senior appointment to the team and will bring extensive experience in this specialist area.
Telecoms giant Vodafone Group has begun a review of its seven-strong legal panel, the company’s first in three years.
The panel was last reviewed in 2014 and saw it name DLA Piper, legacy Eversheds, Linklaters, Norton Rose Fulbright, Osborne Clarke, legacy Olswang and Slaughter and May to the roster. Legacy Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co lost its spot on the panel at the last review.
This will be Vodafone Group’s third review under group general counsel & company secretary Rosemary Martin. In Martin’s first review, she reduced the number of panel firms Vodafone Group used by two-thirds slashing the number from 30 to 10.
At the last review, it was understood that Linklaters was Vodafone Group’s main adviser despite Vodafone instructing Slaughters as Verizon announced it would be buying Vodafone’s 45 per cent stake in Verizon Wireless for $130bn (£98.9bn).
A spokesperson for Vodafone said: “Vodafone has started a planned three yearly review of the legal panel which supports its Group, Group Enterprise and UK legal teams.
“The review will not necessarily change the composition of the panel but will assess whether Vodafone has the right mix of support for its current business needs.
“The review is expected to be concluded by the end of the calendar year.”
Panellists at In-house Counsel as Business Partner
Many firms are branding themselves as innovation leaders, but a survey of the over 100 in-house attendees at the conference showed that roughly 70 per cent weren’t sure what technology solutions their panel firms were using. In this sense, it looks like the branding exercise is not reaching firms’ clients.
The term ‘innovation’ gets thrown around so much now that it can be difficult to separate the truly innovative individuals and teams from those who pay it lip service, general counsel claim.
Innovation can take many forms but, when all’s said and done, what does it mean?
“Innovation,” said panellist and National Grid global head of legal operations Mo Ajaz, “is doing your job, but doing it better.”
Rather than offering a shiny new piece of AI, GCs prefer their external counsel to invest in their relationship. GCs claim that while private practice lawyers and panel firms profess to understand their needs, they actually had very little understanding of how their businesses operate.
Dr Nicola Millard
In the first day’s keynote speech, BT head of customer insight & futures Dr Nicola Millard said that to see what the future of collaboration truly looked like, more GCs should take the time to watch 12-year-old children play Minecraft. It’s a facetious point, but children playing Minecraft today could be lawyers tomorrow. Online collaboration, which is present in games like Minecraft, is happening in vastly different ways in the world of technology and the legal profession has some way to go to catch up to it.
Evolution, not revolution
Only 17 per cent of in-house lawyers felt as though they were ahead of the curve when compared to the other functions within their companies. However, there will be no ‘eureka’ moment; no one is seeking to reinvent the wheel.
What panellists reaffirmed was the importance of incremental steps that in-house teams can take, particularly when it comes to smaller projects.
BT head of legal for the Americas Justin Castillo said: “Discrete projects are the way we can solve problems as a model for the future.”
“In small problems, we find incremental gains.”
His feelings were echoed by panellists throughout the day as GCs revealed how they are slowly altering the legal function through small projects to make big gains in the long term.
“We’re always trying to foster a culture of collaboration,” said Dixons Carphone general counsel and company secretary Nigel Patterson. “But we need to get better at using technology and at data management.”
This may be a more realistic prospect at Dixons Carphone, which generated revenues of over £10bn last year, rather than for smaller businesses. What advice could the panel give to a GC working at an SME?
“Lucky you,” Wolseley general counsel Vanessa French said. “I say that jokingly, but in some ways, you can be better connected to your board and the important keystones within the company. That can mean a lot.”
Firms that will survive & thrive are those who “realise the game is not to squeeze the last drop out of the in-house orange.” #ihbp17 ????
While GCs are increasingly looking to tech when they decide panel firms, cost is still a prevalent issue.
NHS Birmingham CrossCity head of corporate and legal affairs Alison Joyce revealed that her decisions on legal spend are “99 per cent weighted on cost”. Joyce’s cost-conscious panel arrangements mean that she has her firms working to a strict and fixed hourly rate, and has done for some time now.
Budgetary constraints from executives result in diminished legal teams being required to do more of their work in-house with slashed resources. Even in the age of New Law, where freelance lawyers are available from a range of suppliers, a poll revealed that over two-thirds of panels either weren’t currently using or had never used one of these suppliers.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that procurement-led panel decisions are of mounting importance in this atmosphere, but it’s interesting to note how omnipresent they have become.
Sat on the panel with Joyce was Smiths Group business information sevices general counsel Vanya Bromfield, Barclays operations & technology general counsel Rob Dinning and Société Générale London and head of corporate finance general counsel Sarah Linstead. All four of them said that, at every stage of the process, procurement are heavily involved when it comes to deciding the best firms to sit on their company’s panels.
“In committee meetings, do senior stakeholders call you by your name, or do they just refer to you as ‘legal’?”
Joanne Theodoulou, Neil Laventure, Amol Prabhu, Kent Dreadon
How can in-house lawyers be strategic advisers to their business – and respected as such?
That was the question that opened the second day of The Lawyer‘s In-house Counsel as Business Partner conference, with Mind’s Joanne Theodoulou putting the questions to a panel of GSK Consumer Healthcare Europe head of legal Neil Laventure, Barclays’ head of emerging markets (legal) Amol Prabhu and Telefonica’s director of legal affairs Kent Dreadon.
A poll of the in-house counsel in the audience showed the large extent to which in-house lawyers are not yet recognised as true strategic advisers by the board.
Prabhu argued that it is vitally important to be at the table when high-level discussions are taking place – and that if you are, you need to be viewed as an individual, not just defined by your job function.
Whether you are referred to by name or just thought of as ‘the legal department’, he said, is a good indicator of where your organisation is culturally when it comes to how lawyers are perceived. “Do people come to your for wisdom, outside of committee meetings? Do they bounce stuff off you?” he asked. “That is a good acid test of the way you are regarded.”
Building the trust and confidence of your board takes time, acknowledged Dreadon and unless you are very lucky, it is unlikely that you will walk into an organisation where you will be immediately looked upon as a key strategic advisor. Dreadon talked about the importance of moving into and taking ownership of the “quasi-legal space” that exists just beyond a GC’s traditional remit.
“We are trained to have deep knowledge of our area and it’s easy to stay there in our comfort zone – but it is stretching outside that area that will win you the respect of the business,” he said. “Brexit, regulatory change, the push towards compliance: these are all quasi-legal areas that a great opportunity for lawyers to lead.”
“Lawyers are in a unique position within their business,” added Pradhu. “In many organisations the individuals round the table are driven by their own politics, and different parts of the business can be quite siloed. The lawyers have a view of the business as a whole and by their nature are good at seeing the other side of an argument. This can make them invaluable strategic advisors.”
Key takeaways
Becoming a strategic adviser takes time. You will need to build relationships over a period of months and years.
It’s not all about you: you will need to build a team of capable, driven people. That will mean hiring talent and spending time to develop the lawyers who are already beneath you.
Culture starts at the top and you will need the support of the CEO. Think about putting dotted lines in place between your lawyers and senior stakeholders to help them get closer to the decisions.
Make the effort to take possession of the quasi-legal space outside your immediate remit to win influence and respect.
The importance of being commercial is often stated; the importance of ethics less so. Lawyers should show leadership when it comes to being the moral conscience of the business.
Assume nothing, question everything. People often speak very eloquently but do they actually know what they are talking about? Have the courage to question the data and assumptions that are being made.
