Team size:  450 and circaa 50 lawyers 

Key team members:  Kimberley Hicks (Defence divisional GC), Elena Papangelopoulou (Civil Aerospace divisional GC), Will Morris (Corporate HQ – GC), Kathrin Aigner (Power Systems divisional GC), Richard Clack (Group Head of IP) 

What significant projects or deals has the legal team worked on in the past year?  Can you provide examples of successful outcomes or major accomplishments?  

The legal team advised on several large-scale agreements across the group. For example, in our Civil Aerospace division the team supported a contract with Air India for 68 Trent XWB-97 engines, marking the biggest ever order for this engine type, and the landmark deal to transform Turkish Airlines’ fleet with 140 Trent XWB Engines, which will make Turkish Airlines the world’s largest Trent XWB operator.  

In our defence business a highlight was the Global Combat Air Programme, where the lawyers advised upon and constructing a multi-party, multi-£bn collaboration among the UK, Italy and Japan to design a 6th generation combat engine, incorporating cutting-edge technology and ground-breaking industrial participation structures.  

The sale of the lower power range business as well as a strategic co-operation agreement with CATL to strengthen the ability of both companies to realise large and complex grid-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) projects are examples from our power systems division. 

In addition, the team successfully handled several complex and critical litigation cases including a high-profile multimillion high court litigation resulting in a commercial settlement. 

There was also a lot of work to help the group answering macroeconomic trends like sanctions regulations, supply chain challenges and new incoming legislation. 

These achievements are particularly impressive as the company was undergoing a significant transformation during the year, including the transformation of the legal and broader GC-function itself, and the team was heavily involved supporting the business to achieve the set targets. 

Can you sum up the team culture or ethos in one sentence, with an explanation?  

The team is striving for excellence while embracing personal and business growth working collaboratively and inclusively. We operate different group-wide initiatives for strategic matters to ensure a holistic approach where experts with different backgrounds and experience work together to achieve the best results.  

How does the team stay updated with changing regulations or sanctions, ensure compliance, and handle legal landscape or industry trends?  

During the last year we have established a regulatory horizon scanning structure that enables the team across the group to be ahead of the curve when it comes to new legislation or industry trends. The new governance structure provides a reporting and escalation route from the legal team to the general counsel who provides the report to the CEO. Our legal experts interact externally with law firms and industry bodies and internally with critical stakeholders to ensure the right issues are identified. The overall process provides clarity of accountability to areas of law and regulation and assures that there is an appropriate implementation programme in place.