Tag: In-house

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Vodafone UK head of legal Karen Thorpe on winning LB’s In-House Team of the Year and Vodafone’s ‘once in a lifetime’ merger with Three

With work including the proposed merger of Vodafone and Three’s UK businesses – a deal that would create the largest mobile operator in the UK; the successful defence of the £1bn Phones 4u litigation – the culmination of a decade’s worth of work for Vodafone’s legal team; and the launch of a major in-house transformation project, it’s fair to say that Vodafone’s lawyers have been keeping themselves busy.

Legal Business caught up with Vodafone UK’s head of legal, Karen Thorpe (pictured, sixth from left), to discuss an award-winning year.

Congratulations on winning Legal Business In-House Team of the Year! Has it been an exceptional year?

Well, we’ve been working on the proposed merger with Three which is a once in a lifetime opportunity for a legal team, we’ve also had the Phones 4u case which is a significant piece of litigation, we’ve supported contracts, propositions and new product development as well as Vodafone’s wider purpose initiatives (such as everyone.connected), and we’ve been really driving change across the team through innovation and efficiency initiatives. It has been a really big year in terms of work that we’ve been involved in. And if we receive approval for the merger, we’ll have another significant year coming up.

What’s the best thing about being an in-house lawyer?

Firstly, the team that we��ve got at Vodafone. It really is such a supportive environment with a great team culture. Besides that, the best thing is the challenging nature of the work and the fact that you are part of the business. You’re not just a lawyer advising on a transaction – you are at the heart of it from the start.

If there is such a thing as a typical day for you, what does it look like?

A typical day is basically I never get anything done on my to-do list! Joking aside, a large part of my time is working with my broader team and making sure that we’ve got the right resources and support for projects, and that we are managing and evaluating risk appropriately. Also really driving the team in terms of efficiency and transformation to ensure we can support the business as effectively as possible.

A decade’s work went into the Phones 4u litigation, did you enjoy working on the case?

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Being part of such a case is fascinating for everyone involved, including the lawyers from both the UK and Group teams who have worked on this long-running matter. Yes, it’s challenging for the business, but it’s very interesting as a lawyer to see how these things work. Now that the decision has been appealed, we will be continuing to work on this one.

An 11-week trial involving over 40 witnesses must have taken some coordination. Talk me through the build-up to the trial.

I think it’s all the preparation in terms of making sure that we had the right people, that we had all their evidence and that the witnesses were as prepared and comfortable as possible. Even for senior executives, going into a courtroom is not a particularly pleasant experience.

At its busiest, how many in-house lawyers were working on the proposed merger with Three?

I would say between 15 and 20 in-house lawyers across different disciplines have been involved so far at various points and to various degrees. This is across both my UK team and lawyers within the Group team as well. Obviously, as well as doing that, we still have to do the day job and deliver on everything else that Vodafone wants to do. So, yes, it’s a challenge, but a good one.

What are the main challenges in a transaction like this?

I would say managing the volume of work and the number of stakeholders that need to be involved. From an in-house perspective, it’s just bringing that all together with excellent communication and teamwork.

Assuming the merger is approved in December, what would the in-house team look like for the newly combined company?

We haven’t got that far yet. But I’m excited about the possibility of a team that will be able to deliver on an even bigger basis than we do today. We will be evolving and working on new ideas and new strategies. That’s partly why I’ve stayed in technology and telecoms for so long – it always changes; there’s always something new.

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This article first appeared on Legal Business.

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In-house: RPC and DWF among four new firms on Dixons Carphone’s expanded roster

Retailer Dixons Carphone has added four firms to a revised legal roster, with DWF, RPC, Bristows and Carson McDowell winning spots.

The panel will run for four years following the expiration of its previous arrangement in March, which was the result of a 2016 review. The new additions join ten firms Dixons Carphone has kept panel relationships with, including Addleshaw Goddard, Clyde & Co, DAC Beachcroft, DLA Piper, Doyle Clayton, Fieldfisher, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Pinsent Masons, Shoosmiths, and Worthingtons.

The 14 firms will work across commercial, corporate, employment, litigation, regulatory, property and IP work. General counsel Nigel Paterson, who featured in the GC Powerlist 2019, told Legal Business the winning firms were assessed against technical expertise, financial value, retail market understanding and their abilities to offer added-value services.

‘We have maintained existing relationships with the firms we’ve worked with for many years, while also bringing on board the expertise of four firms,’ he added.

Paterson has responsibility for 47 lawyers across employment, corporate and commercial legal teams in London, Athens and Oslo.  He joined Dixons Carphone a year after the £3.8bn merger between Dixons and Carphone Warehouse in 2014, which brought household names including Currys and PC World under one umbrella. A former senior lawyer at BT for over 14 years, he replaced interim joint-GC team of Helen Grantham and Tim Morris.

Dixons Carphone has been riding a turbulent couple of years of poor trading on the high street, and in 2018 announced the closure of 92 of its 700 stores.

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This article first appeared onLegal Business.

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In-house: Trustpilot bags former Skyscanner legal chief as Gowling scores sole Commonwealth Games mandate

Adding to recent high-profile in-house appointments, former Skyscanner legal chief Carolyn Jameson (pictured) has been appointed chief legal and policy officer at consumer review website Trustpilot, while Gowling WLG has become sole legal adviser to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

GC Powerlist-regular Jameson, who earlier in the year announced her departure from high-profile travel metasearch engine Skyscanner after six years, will oversee global legal and public affairs at Trustpilot from the UK and Denmark.

She also joins the company’s executive leadership team, reporting to chief executive Peter Holten Mühlmann, and replaces former general counsel (GC) Kasper Heine. Jameson ran a legal team of 12 at Skyscanner and was involved in its £1.4bn acquisition by Chinese online travel giant ctrip.com in 2016.

Jameson said: ‘I am hugely excited to be joining Trustpilot at a time when it is continuing to grow more important every day.’

Muhlmann added: ‘[Jameson’s] experience in helping brands navigate the issue of trust online makes her a fantastic addition to the team. As Trustpilot continues to grow and continue its ambition to bring consumers and businesses together, Jameson’s expertise will only help improve the experiences of everyone using the platform.’

Her move to Trustpilot follows former Worldpay GC Ruwan de Soyza decamping to FTSE 100 technology company Halma earlier in the month. Jameson, meanwhile, was replaced at Skyscanner by former Deliveroo legal head Rob Miller.

Elsewhere, Gowling has won a competitive tender to be exclusive legal advisers to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games for the next three years.

A team from the firm will advise on a range of legal matters, including brand reputation and disputes management, led by partner and Commonwealth board member Michael Luckman, alongside the event’s chief legal officer Caroline McGrory.

Commonwealth event chief executive Ian Reid said it already works closely with Gowling: ‘This is a very exciting time as we’ve just passed our three years to go milestone and our profile and workload is really starting to increase.’

Gowling chief executive David Fennell added: ‘This appointment builds on our strong track record of advising on major projects across the public and private sectors’.

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