The In-House Lawyer - The magazine of choice for counsel

Out of the shadows

According to Sandy Bhogal, co-chair of Gibson Dunn’s global tax practice, ‘General counsel will probably be more involved in tax affairs now than they’ve ever been’. With this in mind, he identifies three major trends in corporate tax that will keep lawyers busy for the foreseeable future: the knock on impact of the pandemic to …

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Validity in the opposition

A cursory glance at The Legal 500’s IP coverage – which was recently split into a distinct patents table alongside a trade marks, copyright and design table – makes for a head-scratching read. In a legal discipline that attracts sophisticated, technical expertise, fortune favours the innovative as much as the who’s who of the City …

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Caught offside

It was the football story of the year – eclipsing even Lionel Messi’s move to PSG and football not quite coming home – almost beyond belief in its audacity. On Sunday 18 April, The Times broke a story that 12 leading clubs from England, Spain and Italy had agreed to break away from UEFA’s Champions …

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Established in 1992, The In-House Lawyer is the magazine of choice of the in-house counsel of the UK and EMEA. Relied upon and trusted by heads of legal departments, company secretaries and managing directors of FTSE 250 companies for providing authoritative and independent editorial content, The In-House Lawyer boasts the largest and most comprehensive published resources of professional knowledge and expertise.

Stephanie Dominy – Snyk

‘There is a creative and artistic side to me but also a very pragmatic and logical one. While I left that creative side behind, sometimes it still wants to get out.’ From speaking to Stephanie Dominy, general counsel of the hyper-complicated, open-source software security start-up Snyk, both her logical and creative credentials are in no …

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Ahmed Badr – GoCardless

Ahmed Badr did not want to be a lawyer. A self-professed ‘huge geek’ at school, he was never happier than when sat a computer doing some programming or web design. ‘You would never find me playing football,’ he reflects.
Anthony Kenny – GSK

The In-House Lawyer (IHL): Can you describe your career path so far and tell us a little bit about your current role at GSK?
Philip Price – TP ICAP

The In-House Lawyer (IHL): Describe your career before your current role with TP ICAP and the company today.
Lindsay Beardsell – Tate & Lyle

Lindsay Beardsell is never one to rest on her laurels. She trained and qualified at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer but, as is the case for so many established general counsel, private practice failed to satisfy the need to be closer to a business.
Julian Homerstone – Virgin Atlantic

The transatlantic airline’s GC talks to The In-House Lawyer about what it takes to advise one of the world’s most high-profile carriers amid a global pandemic.
James Stebbing – Six Nations Rugby and the British & Irish Lions

James Stebbing talks to The In-House Lawyer about breaking into sports law, working with two of rugby’s best-loved sporting brands and what the Covid-19 pandemic means for next year’s South African tour and beyond.
Dan Webster – Harrods

The retail group GC talks to The In-House Lawyer about what it takes to advise one of the world’s most recognised department stores.
Ria Sanz – AngloGold Ashanti

The mining firm’s in-house counsel considers the keys to success and the importance of values when heading a legal and compliance team.
Rupert Skellett – Beggars Group

As general counsel for one of the UK’s premier record companies, Rupert Skellett tells The In-House Lawyer about the realities of being at the forefront of negotiations with some of the world’s most exciting artists.
Sivan Whiteley – Square

Sivan Whiteley’s legal career began with the study of rational choice theory at university – decoding why people make the decisions they make.
Heather Mitchell – The Carlyle Group

‘One reason I’m doing this interview is so I can send it to my parents. They’re really important to me. Ah, suddenly, the hard-woman persona crumbles,’ jokes Heather Mitchell, global general counsel (GC) for investments and head of EMEA at The Carlyle Group.
Christine Dekker: McDonald’s

The UK and Ireland GC on ten years at the fast-food giant and how tech is transforming the consumer trade
Sonya Branch: Bank of England

The GC of the UK’s central bank talks Brexit, having a mission and making partner at 31
Anna Cosgrave: Graze

The self-confessed fitness freak and head of legal on the allures of in-house law and healthy snacks
Hugh Pugsley: HSBC

The banking giant’s UK law chief on retaining perspective, understanding your advisers and the value of mentors
Charlotte Heiss: RSA

How kidnap threats and vodka-fuelled due diligence helped shape the insurance giant’s group legal chief
Matt Wilson: Uber

The EMEA legal head of one of the world’s most valuable private companies on sticking along for the ride
Martin Cook: Funding Circle

The London office of peer-to-peer lender Funding Circle is exactly what you would expect from one of the UK’s largest and most high-profile fintech businesses.
Julie Smyth: BAE Systems Air

‘My husband has virtually no understanding of what I do,’ admits BAE Systems Air chief counsel Julie Smyth. ‘He thinks I sit in meetings all day.’

Striking a balance: the right to disconnect

With technology playing an ever-increasing role in the workplace and the rapid growth in all forms of digital communications, many employers no longer face practical obstacles to facilitating employees working outside their normal working hours.
Developments in defamation: Scotland and England

The law of defamation in Scotland is due to be reformed. Although there are similarities in defamation law in Scotland and England, in-house lawyers should be aware of upcoming developments, particularly where there are cross-border considerations.
A new environment of disputes?

The last 18 months have seen major disruption to the way we live and work as a direct result of the pandemic, the full impact of which is still working its way through global systems.
Corporate criminal liability in the UK: is change in the air?

In what some have described as a development ‘seismic’ in its potential consequences, in June 2021, the Law Commission launched a consultation concerning proposals to reform corporate criminal liability in the UK. The consultation seeks views on whether, and how, to improve the law relating to the identification and punishment of criminal offences committed by …

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Tax disputes – some predictions for the year ahead

With public finances under sustained pressure, HMRC will clearly have to collect more tax, more quickly, with stable resource levels, while stimulating economic growth. This will require rapid decision making on what, or who, to pursue, and why. There will be more pressure on tax policy decisions in terms of where to draw the line …

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Tax disputes – discard the Whitebook?

There are some significant differences in the process of litigation when HMRC is your opponent. Understanding those differences is essential when formulating the strategic approach to the dispute. This is not to say however that commercial litigation practice is of no relevance; increasingly there is a tendency for the tax courts to look to the …

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Compliance programmes and the protection of legal privilege

In recent years, financial crime prosecutors have sought to encourage companies to establish compliance programmes designed to avoid – or at least detect – illegal conduct, by including the requirement as a precondition to their securing a reduced penalty, or other form of leniency, following a compliance incident. In responding to those incentives by implementing …

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Moving ethnicity pay gap evaluation from the ‘too difficult’ pile

Against a backdrop of Government expressions of support for ethnicity pay reporting in the UK in 2018 and a consultation paper which appeared to favour some form of Government intervention, the lack of any legislative proposals since had been perceived by some as a sign of waning commitment. Immediate reaction to the independent Government Commission …

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Bill of law to enhance the protection of consumer rights: a new data protection authority in Chile

The current Chilean regulations on data protection, Law No 19,628 on privacy protection (DPL), enacted in 1999, has become outdated and it does not properly regulate new scenarios that the development of legal relationships between participants of an economic system creates.
Post Covid-19 Hong Kong: a new kind of ‘business as usual’?

Despite Covid-19 remaining a global concern at the time of this article, much of Hong Kong has in fact returned to its pre-pandemic hustle and bustle for quite a while. However, the pandemic has left an imprint on the city – apart from making face masks a must-have when going out, as there seems to …

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The Russian M&A market since the outbreak of the global pandemic

Economic environment overview The Russian economy was greatly affected by the global epidemic and the decline in business activity. Economic performance was influenced by the OPEC+ oil pact, the drop in oil prices and the volatility in the dollar exchange rate. However, those difficulties were overcome relatively well, since the government implemented support measures to …

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Spotlight on Germany – the new Digitalization Act

With its enactment of the new German Digitalization Act (GWB10) on 19 January 2021, Germany became one of the first countries to upgrade its statutory toolbox to tackle the (perceived) market power of digital giants. The most prominent tools aim to address behavioural and structural market deficiencies (paras 19(1a), 20(3a)) and ease data access (paras …

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New UK government powers to block deals on national security grounds

The National Security and Investment Act 2021 completely overhauls the UK’s approach to government screening of investments. It will create a free-standing regime with unprecedented new government powers to investigate and block acquisitions (of entities or assets) on security grounds. Expected to be in force by the end of the year, the Act could be …

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The Turkish Competition Board and the ice cream war

The Turkish Competition Board (the Board) decided that several practices of Unilever Sanayi ve Ticaret Türk AŞ (Unilever) amounted to infringement of Article 4 and Article 6 of the Law No 4054 on the Protection of Competition (Law No 4054). 1
The workforce of the future: key HR legal considerations

Over the last couple of years, organisations have been working through a significant transformation journey in the way they work and operate. Automation and technology are replacing or significantly impacting human tasks and jobs, changing the skills that organisations require in their workforce. At the same time, workforces are demanding a new ‘deal’, with organisations …

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