Team size: 32

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Last year the team supported on the multi-billion-pound acquisition of Western Power Distribution and the related sale of Narragansett Electric Company in The US. The highlights this year include working on the proposed sale of a majority stake in National Grid’s Gas Transmission and Metering business, where the team provided support both on the transaction and in structuring the business for sale.

Following the Government and Ofgem’s decision to create a Future System Operator, the team has worked closely with the business, government and Ofgem to help shape the development of the Future System Operator.

November 2021 saw the publication of the CMA’s final determinations in relation to National Grid’s RIIO-2 price control appeals. We advised on both Ofgem’s proposed licence change proposals required to implement the price controls and the appeal of aspects of those proposals to the CMA.

The world’s longest subsea interconnector, North Sea Link, was completed in September 2021, connecting the UK with Norway. The team played a key role in the delivery of this project, providing legal input across a range of disciplines.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most? Which have you found most useful in your legal team?

Technology can play a role in allowing us to be strategic advisors to the businesses we support by driving efficiencies in matter and law firm management, helping the business self-serve in appropriate areas and through increased automation of standard contracts.

We have recently launched a self-service portal for the global procurement team which is helping free up internal lawyer time. This includes an innovative instruction workflow, an automation tool to self-generate contracts and FAQs. We expect opportunities for use of these sorts of models to continue to grow.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners?

Understanding the businesses we support, their priorities and key challenges is critical to us being able to provide strategic, tailored legal advice focused on insights and delivering real value. That is the foundation of a strong relationship based on trust where the business clearly understands the value we bring.

To support that, we operate a business partner model with each of the businesses having a senior single lawyer in the legal team dedicated to ensuring we understand their needs and can tailor our support to deliver their objectives. In most of our businesses we have a senior lawyer sitting on the business’ executive committee.

Justine Campbell