About

Team size: 39
Major law firms used: DLA Piper, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Osborne Clarke, Pinsent Masons

Jeremy Barton, GC of Big Four firm KPMG, is one of the leading lights of the in-house community, offering regular insights on innovation and inclusion. On top of this, he has had to contend with a pressing 2018 for KPMG, with the firm heavily under the regulatory spotlight.

Among other investigations, in January 2018 it was revealed that KPMG was being probed by the Financial Reporting Council regarding an audit of now-liquidated construction firm Carillion. It is not the first and will not be the last piece of regulatory scrutiny KPMG will have to handle. Barton says: ‘It’s front and centre. My team is hugely focused on regulatory matters we are experiencing at the moment. We’ve settled a couple of important cases. It’s been a lot of effort.’

One of those settlements was a £3.2m fine paid to the FRC in June last year, over misconduct in the auditing of scandal-hit professional services firm Quindell. However, he disagrees that being under the constant magnifying glass of regulation is a distraction: ‘You could say that dealing with different problems is what we want to be doing! We don’t want the problems of course, but could you really call them a distraction?’

He has also managed to dedicate time in 2018 to re-assessing external legal advice. He uses Integreon and Lawyers On Demand for outsourcing and temp work, but is giving serious thought to employing a consortia of law firms to match his needs. Barton identifies a growing trend of a Magic Circle firm, a mid-tier firm and a New Law provider combining and pitching to clients as a team, and describes it as an attractive prospect. He has also been making changes internally, implementing a new flexible working policy that allows greater scope for lawyers to work from home, to further entice private practice lawyers into the in-house profession. He insists: ‘We have no problem attracting recruits.’

According to Eversheds Sutherland executive partner Ian Gray, Barton’s efforts have not gone unnoticed: ‘He has had a very challenging year due to regulatory change and is the most high-profile GC of all the Big Four. He continues to be very quick to identify positive developments in organising legal services and is equally as quick to identify negative developments.’