About

Supermarket giant Tesco are supported in Ireland by a team of legal experts led by Sarah Gallagher, legal director of Tesco Ireland since August 2012. Supporting the Irish arm of the Tesco business, the team of four lawyers and a further mix of non-legal personnel, support the strategic direction of the company in a fluctuating marketplace. In close contact with all levels of the business including Tesco Ireland’s Leadership Team, with whom there is day to day contact, one source cites an ‘open culture’ within the business facilitating legal being ‘approachable’, often allowing them to resolve issues at the earliest possible stage. Throwing up a number of challenges related to how Tesco in Ireland do business with their suppliers, the 2016 Irish Grocery Regulations have been the most impactful external issues for the legal team to deal with in the recent past. Imposing ‘significant obligations’ for Tesco Ireland that don’t exist for their colleagues in the UK, Gallagher and team were forced to lead a ‘granular analysis’ of the business in order to ensure compliance and to develop solutions to safeguard the business against these new regulations. Despite the process being ‘considerable’ in scope, the end result was the team ‘significantly improving internal business processes’, successfully showing their ability to identify and adapt while dealing with compliance and risk mitigation issues across governance, record keeping and overall structure leading to outcome that was called ‘incredibly beneficial’ for the company. In a distinctive move differentiating themselves from competitors, and with an eye to developing future talent to sustain the business for years to come, Tesco Ireland recently introduced a trainee solicitor secondee programme in partnership with A&L Goodbody.