‘It was ambition that made me decide to leave Barclays,’ declares self-confessed deal junkie Michael Shaw, who resigned from his role as the bank’s deputy general counsel in the summer of 2015. Shaw was eager to pursue a weightier leadership role after six years serving as the ‘apprentice’. Bob Hoyt had succeeded Mark Harding as …
Continue reading “Profile: Michael Shaw, The Royal Bank of Scotland”
I’ve been lucky. I didn’t always want to be a lawyer. I used to party a lot; I liked going out. I always have done. In my twenties my girlfriend suggested I do something with my life instead of faffing around. She binned me.
Stefan Stern forecasts that GCs will be forced to address a renewed attempt to fix what ails governance in UK plc Who knew that the staid term ‘corporate governance’ could create so much excitement? That Latinate phrase seems designed to reassure: ‘governance’ suggests order, calm, and mastery. But the chaps in the boardroom – and …
Paul Gilbert argues that AI has become a marketing gimmick that obscures the shortcomings of legal teams. The words ‘artificial intelligence’ bother me. I want to have a little rant about the words, but I also want to challenge the way in-house lawyers approach technology. On the words, I can legitimately stand accused of using …
Days after the August bank holiday weekend, the former head of the British Civil Service, Gus O’Donnell, returned to Whitehall to catch up with former colleagues and host a live broadcast titled The Leavocrats on Radio 4.
It turns out that the next risk front facing business and promising to reshape the role of general counsel is a piece of legislation notorious among lawyers for having no teeth and little direct liability for companies.
It is possible artificial intelligence will change all our working life immeasurably in the next 20 years. It might put us all out of work; nobody knows. Even if it did happen in 20 years’ time, it is of no use to me in the way that I do my job right now and not …
In his recent book, The Inside Counsel Revolution, Harvard Law professor and former General Electric legal chief Ben Heineman argues that the core mission of global corporations should be the fusion of high performance with robust integrity and sound risk management.
Having seen Legal & General’s shares initially tumble on the Friday morning immediately after the UK’s vote to leave the EU – like so many financial services businesses – general counsel Geoffrey Timms is concerned that the business impact of Brexit could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. ‘Markets are emotional rather than factual. We can talk …
The implications for the Scottish market in light of the recent Brexit vote, like the rest of the UK, remain unclear, with the inevitable lengthy negotiation period on the terms of our exit still yet to come. Many of the same issues arise here as in the UK, but there are a number of Scottish …
Continue reading “Brexit: so many angles north of the border”