United Kingdom 2018: The Team Elite
| Sky
Sky
General counsel | Tel Aviv University
General counsel Switzerland | McDonald's Suisse Restaurants
Senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary | Georgia Power Company
Group legal lead – general counsel | Proximus
Igor Makedonsky is a lawyer active in the telecommunications sector since 1990. After a first experience as European law specialist in the legal department of Belgacom, he decided to join...
| Sky Ireland
Executive manager legal and company secretariat operations | IAG
Corporate vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary | NICE
Head of legal, international markets | Teva Pharmaceuticals
Rinat Shiran-Rasky is the head of legal, international markets at Teva Pharmaceuticals, leading a diverse team of more than thirty in-house lawyers and developing them to become legal guardians, strategic...
Vice president legal | EDF Renewables Israel
Orit Manor Kaspersky is a seasoned and accomplished general counsel with robust business and legal expertise. Orit is a leading general counsel in the renewable energy field, managing a global...
Senior vice president, general counsel and chief ethics and compliance officer | Southern Company Gas
Human resources director | G4S Security Services Chile
Director group legal – general counsel | Proximus
Head of Legal & business affairs manager | Sony Music Entertainment Denmark A/S
Senior vice president, general counsel and secretary | Amazon.com
Executive vice president and general counsel | Xcel Energy
Senior vice president, general counsel and secretary | Goodyear Tire & Rubber
Partner | Proskauer Rose LLP
Number of years practice: 20 Principal practice areas: M&A, private equity Bar admissions: New York Languages spoken: English, Spanish Born in Colombia, Daniel Ganitsky is a partner in the M&A...
Partner | Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP
Number of years practice: 19 Principal practice areas: Project development and finance, International finance and M&A, Energy, Infrastructure and Mining sectors Bar admissions: New York State, Mexico Languages spoken: English,...
Legal director Russia and Eastern European Hub | Bacardi
Head of legal | Sanofi Ukraine
What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years? The previous two years appeared to be extremely active in terms...
Legal and labour risk prevention director | The Adecco Group Chile
Initially recruited by The Adecco Group Chile in 2015 Magdalena Strahovsky Villanueva quickly demonstrated her ability in the in-house legal department which led to promotions, first as chief of the...
Senior vice president and general counsel | Major League Baseball Properties
With the estimated cost of piracy and counterfeiting projected by some estimates to reach into the trillions of dollars by the early 2020s, Major League Baseball’s (MLB) globally popular sporting...
General counsel | Rosebud Mining
General counsel at Rosebud Mining, the third largest coal producer in Pennsylvania, Matthew Mazefsky has served in this role since June 2013. Working for a company that has 750 employees...
Partner | Proskauer Rose LLP
Number of years practice: 19 Principal practice areas: M&A, private equity Bar admissions: New York Languages spoken: English and Spanish Daniel Ganitsky is a partner in the M&A and Latin...
Partner | Norton Rose Fulbright
Number of years practice: 19 Principal practice areas: International finance, M&A, project development and finance Bar admissions: Mexico, New York Languages spoken: English, Portuguese and Spanish (native) Trilingual in English,...
Head of employment law | RBS
Neil Rosolinsky has demonstrated a number of ways in which in-house legal teams can make savings for their company. His first port of call upon taking on his role was...
Senior vice-president and general counsel | Major League Baseball Properties
It was Ethan Orlinsky’s passion for baseball that led him down the path of patents and trademark law. Prior to taking on the hard-won position at his dream organization, he’d...
Vice-president and associate general counsel | PulteGroup
The impact of the recession has seen homebuilder Pulte’s workforce reduce from over 16,000 to just over 3500. But not only has its legal team successfully worked to avoid litigation,...
Group General Counsel | Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
Since starting his role as group general counsel at Actelion – a leading biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative drugs – Marian has contributed to a...
Legal & business affairs manager | Sony Music Entertainment Denmark A/S
Working for over seven years as legal and business affairs manager for Sony Music Entertainment Denmark, makes Tine Skytte Holm the longest serving senior officer for the Group’s Danish entity....
General Counsel, head of compliance and company secretary | Nobina AB
Since joining Nobina AB as general counsel, Martin Pagrotsky has played a central role in moving the company away from a costly dependency on law firms. The changes Pagrotsky has...
| Skywind Group
Skywind Group, founded in 2012, is a well-established global pioneer of cutting-edge games content and white label support and infrastructure. Skywind is made up of three main divisions; management systems,...
| Husky Energy
The in-house legal team at Husky Energy has been led by senior vice president, general counsel and secretary James Girgulis QC since 2012, and has thrived under his leadership. The...
| SKYCITY Entertainment
SKYCITY Entertainment was established in 1996 as the owner of the SKYCITY Auckland complex and in 1998, the company took over regional operations from the gaming operator Harrah’s Entertainment. Today...
Director group legal, general counsel | Proximus
Igor Makedonsky has served as a lawyer active in the telecommunications sector since 1990. After an initial experience as a legal counsel and European law specialist in the legal department...
| Detsky Mir
Opened in 1957, Detsky Mir is a well-recognised children’s retailer with over 525 stores in Russia and Kazakhstan. It currently ranks as the largest children’s goods retailer in Russia and...
Head of operations, legal and governance | AMP
In February 2018, Anna Golovsky assumed the position of head of operations, legal and governance for Australian financial services business AMP, demonstrating the acknowledgement on behalf of the business of...
| SKY Aviation Leasing International
Launched in October 2015, SKY Leasing has experienced tremendous growth, rising to a prominent position in both the Irish and US markets. Headquartered in Dublin, SKY strengthened its international development...
General counsel, chief compliance officer and company secretary | Nobina
Nobina is the Nordic region’s largest and most experienced public transport provider and largest bus company. Martin Pagrotsky joined Nobina in 2006 as general counsel, and added head of compliance...
| Sky Italia
Sky Italia, an Italian digital satellite television platform owned by pan-European broadcaster Sky, has had a big impact on a local market that has for a number of years been...
Vice president of legal affairs | Rostelecom
Rostelecom is one of the largest national telecommunications companies in Russia and Europe with millions of subscribers and users on its network. After a successful 20 year private practice career...
| Skyscanner
Travel metasearch engine Skyscanner’s credentials as one of the UK’s most successful tech start-ups were underscored in November 2016 when it was acquired by Chinese online travel company Ctrip for...
Partner | Chadbourne & Parke
Number of years practice: 16 Law school attended: Universidad Iberoamericana, New York University School of Law Languages spoken: English, Hebrew, Portuguese and Spanish (native) Principal practice areas: International Finance, M&A,...
The legal team at communications giant Sky, led in the UK and Ireland by GC Vicky Sandry, prides itself on keeping the majority of its work in-house. The rationale is that it allows the team maximum room for development, while also adding value. However, this approach is not always possible, especially when considering that 2017 was bookended by an £18.5bn takeover bid by 21st Century Fox and a £22.1bn approach from broadcasting giant Comcast. On both occasions, Sky needed to turn to external counsel, enlisting Herbert Smith Freehills head of corporate Stephen Wilkinson. Wilkinson comments: ‘The legal function has shown its ability to change with the demands of the business and the industry in a way that many others have not. There are a number of individuals there who are leaders in their fields.’ Wilkinson highlighted Claire Canning, Sky’s director of legal for content and commercial, as one such lawyer. Likewise, Clare Mansell-Jones, senior legal counsel in business development, was described as ‘very thorough and astute’. One of the key reasons for the legal team’s ability to adapt quickly comes through Sky’s ‘development through diversification’ initiative. In the past 18 months, roughly 25% of Sky’s lawyers have transitioned roles internally. These new roles allow lawyers to work in different areas or specialisms, either via secondments or by permanently moving. Keeping up with its peers, Sky has recently established a new role of director of legal for operations and innovation. Last October, former director of legal for retail, customer operations, intellectual property and data protection, Hayley Stallard, took up the role. Since then, Stallard has been building out her team and has created an ‘innovation steering group’ – a crossdepartmental group that aims to share strategies of best practice and innovation. Sandry says: ‘As a team, we continually innovate to make sure we are working effectively, strategically and sustainably. We have a vision to be the best inhouse legal team in the country, and we continue to be forwardlooking and review how we work to achieve this.’ Sandry, and Sky as a whole, have also been committed to supporting the progression of women in their careers to ensure they take up senior positions. Sandry comments: ‘As a legal team we are proud to have a strong gender balance with over 50% of leadership roles held by women. We established the initiative to ensure there is a level playing field for all women to reach their potential.’
