General counsel of the Investment Bank and Capital Release Unit | Deutsche Bank
Alex Scott-Gall successfully built a new capital release unit with no headcount increase and ensured a sensitive updating of legal risk was completed for the investment bank in a turbulent...
General counsel EMEA | Lightsource BP
I have been hugely impressed with Alexandra DeSouza of Lightsource BP. DeSouza has been grappling with the perennial issue of how to make the best use of internal resources across...
Head of legal | WM Morrison Supermarkets
Alison Charnock was effective with feeding the nation in the most difficult of times has been a central plank of the country’s success over the last 12-15 months. Charnock and...
General counsel and company secretary | British Airways
Team size: 23 What are the most important transactions, litigations or other major projects that you have been involved in during the last year? There has been a lot going...
General counsel and director of M&A | SIG
Andrew Watkins was the sole in-house legal resource working on the 2020 restructuring of the SIG group’s financing facilities. Watkins is a committed, experienced general counsel, and his pragmatism, skills...
General counsel | News UK
Legal team size: 25 What are the most important transactions, litigations or other major projects that you have been involved in during the last year? The successful defence of the...
General counsel and company secretary | ASOS
Team size: Approximately 35 Major legal advisers: Slaughter & May, Lewis Silkin, DLA Piper How did you assist the employees of the company get through that really difficult period of...
Head of digital services | Fujitsu UK
Team size: Global team of 40. The global Legal, Commercial and Compliance function is over 250 What are the most important transactions, litigations or other major projects that you have...
Chief of staff and general counsel | Heathrow Airport
Team size: Around 20 Major legal advisers: Freshfields, BCLP, Pinsent Masons, Eversheds, Towerhouse Consulting, Owen White, Allen & Overy What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have...
Associate general counsel | Facebook
Major legal advisers: Osborne Clarke, RPC, White & Case, Covington What are the most important transactions, litigations or other major projects that you have been involved in during the last...
Group general counsel | London Stock Exchange Group
Team size: Approximately 200 What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last year? I was a principal in the planning and...
General counsel | Deliveroo
What are the most important transactions, litigations or other major projects that you have been involved in during the last year? Some of the most important milestones from last year...
General counsel and company secretary | BritVic
Team size: 13 lawyers, eight others Major legal advisers: Linklaters, Addleshaw Goddard, Lewis Silkin, Macfarlanes, Trethowans, Arthur Cox, CMS, Keystone Law, Lefosse What are the most important transactions and litigations...
General counsel and company secretary | Coca-Cola European Partners
Team size: 90+ Major legal advisers: Slaughter and May, CMS, Ius Laboris What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last year?...
General counsel (regions) | Network Rail
Team size: 30 lawyers Can you tell us about the O-Shaped Lawyer initiative? I have been leading this initiative over the last three years and it has gained significant momentum...
Group general counsel | Harrods
Team size: Ten What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last year? It was launching the Harrods Beauty business and Harrods...
General counsel and company secretary | Wise
Team size: 18 Major legal advisers: Linklaters, Slaughter & May, Bird & Bird, Foot Anstey, Haug Partners, DLA Piper, Mattos Filo. What are the most important transactions and litigations that...
General counsel | Abellio
Major legal advisers: Stephenson Harwood, Burges Salmon What are the most important transactions, litigations or other major projects that you have been involved in during the last year? Abellio is...
Group general counsel | Kingfisher
Team size: 60 What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last year? The disposal of Kingfisher’s business in Russia, Castorama Russia,...
Head of legal | Ecotricity
Team size: Six Major legal advisers: TLT, Dentons, Kilburn & Strode, Lux Nova What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last...
Europe chief officer, legal and regulatory | Visa
Emma Slatter oversees and aligns all legal, regulatory, compliance and government engagement matters for Visa in the UK and Europe in the fast-evolving payments landscape. She has recruited market leading...
Head of group legal and compliance | SDL
Team size: 10 Major legal advisers: Carr & Ferrell, DLA Piper, Dentons and Sullivan & Worcester What are the most important transactions, litigations or other major projects that you have...
Chief risk officer, global general counsel for investments and head of EMEA | The Carlyle Group
Team size: 15 What were the most important transactions and litigations that you’ve been involved with, during the last year? Rather than an individual transaction, it has to be how...
UK general counsel | HSBC
Team size: 53, with additional support from HSBC group legal teams and contractors and secondees What are the most important transactions, litigations or other major projects that you have been...
Group general counsel, company secretary | EG Group
Imraan Patel and the In house team at Euro Garages are immensely driven, dedicated and entrepreneurial. Alongside expanding into new jurisdictions Patel has been involved in notable acquisitions, all the...
Chief counsel | Financial Services Compensation Scheme
Team size: 15 Major legal advisers: Addleshaw Goddard, Bevan Brittan, Burges Salmon, Burness Paull, Clifford Chance, Dentons and Eversheds Sutherland What are the most important transactions, litigations, or other major...
General counsel and member of the executive management committee | Insight Investments
General counsel | KPMG
Team size: 70 Major legal advisers: Linklaters, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Orrick, Herbert Smith Freehills, Eversheds Sutherland, DLA Piper What have been the most important transactions and litigations that you’ve been...
General counsel | Liverpool Football Club
Jonathan Bamber and the Liverpool Football & Athletic Club (LFC) inhouse team have had to deal with the significant impact of Covid-19 on LFC’s business and indeed the football industry...
General counsel and company secretary | Virgin Atlantic
The airline industry is one which appears to have been particularly negatively affected by anti-Covid measures. What were some of the first things you did to safeguard the business? There...
Former general counsel and company secretary | Notonthehighstreet
Team size: Three Major legal advisers: Osborne Clark, Keystone What would you say are the most important transactions and litigations that you’ve been involved in, in the last year? The...
Group general counsel and company secretary | Lloyds
Team size: Approx 350 excluding secondees What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last year? The first thing to mention would...
Senior vice president, head of legal services UKIEEMEA | DHL
Team size: 60 What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last year? The negotiation of contracts associated with the setting up...
General counsel | E.On UK
Kirin Kalsi has been everything we could have hoped for. She has been very positive, always ensuring she was available for call, and has given really valuable advice to us....
Company secretary, general counsel and chief people officer | Funding Circle
Team size: 22 What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last year? The most important transaction the team has been involved...
General counsel and company secretary | easyJet
Team size: Just under 100 What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last year? A combination of investigations, litigations, a judicial...
General counsel UK | CBRE Investment Management
Team size: Three Major legal advisers: Jones Day, BCLP, Linklaters, Clifford Chance, CMS, Penningtons Manches Cooper What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in...
Group general counsel and chief risk and governance officer | Royal Mail
Team size: 40 in the UK Major legal advisers: Addleshaw Goddard, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, Herbert Smith, DAC Beachcroft, Weightmans, Dentons, Slaughter and May, Macfarlanes What are the most important...
General counsel | Nationwide Building Society
Team size: 55 What were the main changes to your working life during the initial Covid lockdown? Overall, a lot more contact with others. I used to have once weekly...
General counsel | Rolls-Royce
Team size: 500 overall with around 40 lawyers What are the most important transactions, litigations or other major projects that you have been involved in during the last year? The...
General counsel UK and Ireland | Nestlé
Team size: 14 What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last year? Firstly, a joint venture called PODBACK recently announced by...
Vice president and associate general counsel, Mobility Technologies | Vontier
What were the main steps you took to protect the business once it became clear we were in the midst of an unprecedented challenge? During these unprecedented times the business...
Group general counsel | Smiths Group
Team size: 65, excluding Group HSE team What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last year? The legal team played its...
Former general counsel and chief corporate affairs officer | Virgin Media
Group general counsel and company secretary | Lombard International
Team size: 50 Major legal advisers: Allen & Overy, Baker McKenzie, DLA Piper & Linklaters What were the main difficulties your company faced during the initial Covid-19 lockdown? The Covid-19...
General counsel EMEA | Via Transportation
Team size: Six Major legal advisers: Burges Salmon, DLA Piper, Fried Frank, Ropes & Gray, Taylor Wessing What are the most important transactions, litigations or other major projects that you...
Vice president legal EMEA | GSK
Team size: 30 Major legal advisers: Slaughter and May, Allen & Overy, CMS, Addleshaw Goddard What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during...
General counsel and director, regulatory affairs and group company secretary | Trainline
Team size: 14 Major legal advisers: Baker McKenzie, White & Case, Freshfields, Deloitte, Gide Loyrette Nouel, Jeantet What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved...
General counsel and company secretary | Marks and Spencer
Team size: 18 Major legal advisers: Allen & Overy; Dentons; Bird & Bird; Stobbs What are the most important transactions, litigations or other major projects that you have been involved...
General counsel and company secretary | Dixons Carphone
Team size: 52 comprising legal, company secretariat, financial services compliance, business standards and risk management and insurance Major legal advisers (United Kingdom): Addleshaw Goddard, Bristows, Clyde & Co, DAC Beachcroft,...
General counsel and head of corporate affairs | Cubico Invest
Team size: 15 What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last year? Over the past year, I have been involved in...
Director of legal services and company secretary | Associated British Foods
Team size: 75-80 Major legal advisers: Allen & Overy, Addleshaw Goddard, CMS, Herbert Smith Freehills, Macfarlanes What are the most important transactions, litigations or other major projects that you have...
Group general counsel | BAE Systems
Team size: Over 300 What are the most important transactions, litigations or other major projects that you have been involved in during the last year? At its height, the Covid...
Group general counsel | TP ICAP
How did you adapt to the initial shock of the Covid-19 lockdown? The standout thing for me was how our individual staff members responded to it. You can build as...
General counsel | The Phoenix Group
Team size: approximately 70 lawyers, company secretaries and administration staff Major legal advisers: Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; CMS; Linklaters; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; Hogan Lovells; Clyde & Co; Pinsents;...
General counsel and director of policy | what3words
Team size: Three Major legal advisers: Lewis Silkin, CMS, Ashfords What are the most important transactions, litigations or other major projects that you have been involved in during the last...
General counsel UK and Ireland | Centrica
Raj Roy is a focused lawyer who commands respect. He has engendered a culture of achievement at Centrica, where lawyers are encouraged to take ownership, seek opportunity and be courageous....
Chief legal officer and group secretary | Unilever
Team size: 430 What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last year? Undoubtedly, the unification of Unilever’s dual-headed legal structure. It...
General counsel and company secretary | Costcutter Supermarkets Group
What are the most important transactions, litigations or other major projects that you have been involved in during the last year? Responding to the pandemic and preparing for Brexit aside,...
General counsel and company secretary | The Crown Estate
Team size: 20 Major legal advisers: Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, Hogan Lovells, CMS, Burges Salmon, Womble Bond Dickinson, Town Legal What are the most important transactions and litigations that you...
General counsel | LendInvest
Team size: Three legal and three compliance What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last year? We managed to close our...
Group general counsel | BT
Team size: 289 Major legal advisers: UK Panel firms are Addleshaw Goddard, Allen & Overy, BCLP, Bird & Bird, Covington & Burling, CMS, DAC Beachcroft, DWF, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Lewis...
General counsel | City Football Group
Team size: 30 (20 lawyers and ten non-legal professionals) Major legal advisers: Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Clifford Chance, Paul Hastings, Pinsent Masons, Gateley, Squire Patton Boggs, Centrefield What are the most...
General counsel, investment bank and EMEA | UBS
Team size: 160 for Investment Bank What are the most important transactions, litigations or other major projects that you have been involved in during the last year? It is difficult...
General counsel United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands | Siemens Energy
Team size: approximately 25 What are the most important transactions, litigations or other major projects that you have been involved in during the last year? During the last year we...
General counsel and executive director for the legal directorate | Bank of England
Team size: 180 What were the main steps you took to protect the business once it became clear we were in the midst of an unprecedented challenge? The pace at...
General counsel | Daily Mail and General Trust
Team size: Fewer than 25 Major legal advisers: Slaughter & May, Baker McKenzie, Reed Smith, Bird & Bird, Squire Patton Boggs, Lewis Silkin What are the most important transactions and...
General counsel and director of regulatory affairs | Three
Team size: 75 (including 25 lawyers) Major legal advisers: Constantine Cannon, Baker McKenzie, Shoosmiths, Lewis Silken, Linklaters, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer What are the most important transactions and litigations that you...
General counsel EMEA, APAC and Industrial | Hexcel Corporation
Team size: Four Major legal advisers: DLA Piper and K&L Gates What are the most important transactions, litigations or other major projects that you have been involved in during the...
General counsel | Glendower Capital
Tom Hodge has developed in-house processes to aggregate deal and fundraising data and map market trends to seek competitive advantage in transactions and fundraising. He has also developed procedures for...
For over 30 years, The Legal 500 has been analysing the capabilities of law firms across the world. In this series, The Legal 500, in collaboration with Legal Business, GC Magazine and The In-house Lawyer, is turning its attention to the in-house function, and recognising those corporate counsel who are driving the legal business forward.
The GC Powerlist is a series of publications highlighting the most influential in-house lawyers and legal teams in business today. I would like to express my personal thanks to our headline sponsor Pinsent Masons and associate sponsor Alvarez & Marsal for supporting this publication. A special mention must also go to the in-house lawyers that took time to speak to us throughout the process, as well as to the research team that worked on this GC Powerlist publication.
David Burgess
Publishing Director
The Legal 500 Series
For this year’s GC Powerlist edition, we focused our research efforts around the theme of ‘resilience and recovery’. We chose this to reflect the transitional nature of the response to the Covid-19 crisis that has endured since our 2020 edition; while there is still certainly a hangover from the lockdown and its attendant business disruptions, the UK’s general counsel have been instrumental in stabilising the situation and returning to a growth phase. Many of the more fortunate companies, as you will see in the following pages, have even been able to capitalise on the situation.
The survey produced some interesting results. One of the most encouraging is that there is evidence that general counsel in the UK have increased their face-to-face time with the top brass of their organisations. Over half of respondents agreed that they have been more involved in c-suite matters in the period following the pandemic, with 39% strongly agreeing with this assessment. Only 7% disagreed, with none strongly disagreeing.
Looking back at the pandemic, the UK’s general counsel appear to have been putting their own people first and foremost. When discussing the greatest challenge of the past twelve months, the most common answer was safeguarding employee health and wellbeing. This points to a collaborative and compassionate corporate culture which prevails at many of the companies which feature in the 2021 UK GC Powerlist, which is something to be celebrated. Further insight into the difficulties faced by our in-house counsel can be gleaned from the fact that increased workload was the second-most common response. ‘We were required to manage the additional Covid-related workload on top of business as usual, most of which did not slow down’, reported one individual.
What about the verdict on home working going forward? Apparently, a resounding ‘yes’! All of the GCs who responded to our survey said at least some team members would be continuing with some form of flexi-working going forward. A little over half even said they would be expecting all of their team members to be partially or fully home-working from now on.
I’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone – successful or unsuccessful in making the final shortlist – who spoke to us for this new-look edition of the UK GC Powerlist, and to Elisha Juttla, Mark McAteer and everyone else in our research team who worked on producing this year’s edition. Stay tuned for more GC Powerlists all over the world soon as our publishing schedule returns to some sort of normality in the coming months.
Joe Boswell
Head of Research:
GC Powerlist series
Resilience and Recovery
The global pandemic has impacted our lives in so many ways. It’s sharpened our awareness of mental health and wellbeing, reminded us of the importance of connecting with people and re-engaged us with our communities. Businesses too have learned how to operate under the most challenging of circumstances, forced into drastically flexing and adapting to an ever-changing environment simply to continue operating.
Yet while so much has changed, the climate emergency has not. We should, indeed must, move from inertia to momentum in response to the existential threat posed to our planet by climate change and biodiversity loss. The pandemic will accelerate change. Agility, vigilance, and resilience will be critical to sustain our relevance. Climate change is inevitable, so if we don’t like change we will like irrelevance even less! It will be purposeful organisations and actions which will sustain us environmentally and financially.
Now more than ever, organisations are under pressure to retain the trust of customers and employees. Expectations about standards of ethics, diversity and sustainability are high. And so, we see the dial starting to shift as success in the eyes of our stakeholders becomes more heavily influenced by how we do business. An organisation that measures itself against its impact on the environment, the communities it operates within, and how it supports its people and clients is rich not just in reputation, but in the talent and cognitive diversity it attracts. It becomes a business that people are proud to work for and that clients are proud to work with.
Perhaps it is this focus on purpose that has enabled businesses’ resilience throughout this challenging period, and certainly it will play a part in their recovery. But as we know, a business is only as good as its employees, and this year’s Powerlisters have shown resilience and an unwavering determination to remain successful in times of adversity. It recognises those who are playing an active role in influencing their organisations and staying ahead despite the pressures posed by the pandemic. They are engaging with the C-suite, taking on Board positions, and are deeply involved in the strategic direction of their companies.
They are human. They recognise when health and wellbeing, both physical and mental, is being stretched and are engaging with initiatives to support it. Most common among them all? They are visionary. Ready to innovate, collaborate and motivate to drive change.
It is collaboration and innovation with clients that helped to inspire the transformation occurring within Pinsent Masons as we become a purpose-led professional services business with law at the core. The time when legal services providers were simply trading vehicles for legal acumen is gone. Law remains at the heart of our business, but our diverse team comprises of a wider range of skillsets and expertise that mean we apply the right people, process and technology to every project.
This is what we do, but most importantly, as a purpose-led organisation we know why we are doing it.
Pinsent Masons is a firm that stands for something. We believe we have an obligation to make business work better for our people, clients and the communities that we operate within, and to bring that to life we build strong relationships based on trust, demonstrable ability and with shared ambitions to accomplish our goals.
Congratulations to everyone on this year’s Powerlist, who are each powerful reminders that despite the difficult environment we’re operating in, lawyers have an important role to play in effecting change.
About Alvarez & Marsal
Companies, investors and government entities around the world turn to Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) for leadership, action and results. Privately held since its founding in 1983, A&M is a leading global professional services firm that provides advisory, business performance improvement and turnaround management services. When conventional approaches are not enough to create transformation and drive change, clients seek our deep expertise and ability to deliver practical solutions to their unique problems.
With over 5,400 people across four continents, we deliver tangible results for corporates, boards, private equity firms, law firms and government agencies facing complex challenges. Our senior leaders, and their teams, leverage A&M’s restructuring heritage to help companies act decisively, catapult growth and accelerate results. We are experienced operators, world-class consultants, former regulators and industry authorities with a shared commitment to telling clients what’s really needed for turning change into a strategic business asset, managing risk and unlocking value at every stage of growth.
We are delighted to launch our first China GC Powerlist since the pandemic. It has been far too long since we could celebrate the best in-house lawyers in this remarkable country, but it has certainly been worth the wait. We thoroughly enjoyed researching this edition and are immensely grateful to the many lawyers and GCs who supported us over the past few months to bring this publication to fruition. The launch event was a huge success, with over 120 key legal professionals who make up the elite of the Chinese legal scene attending to hear speeches from leading partners at sponsor firm Tian Yuan and the in-house lawyers who made it on to this exclusive list.
In particular, the excellent team at Tian Yuan Law Firm played a pivotal role in providing insights into key market changes and introducing some of the most innovative GCs for consideration in this publication.
As expected for legal and business leaders in such a powerhouse economy, we had an abundance of outstanding candidates to choose from. Narrowing it down to the final 100 names was no easy task. Congratulations to everyone included—earning a place on this prestigious list was a significant achievement.
