Articles From the Team
Inspirational In-house lawyers
Last night I was part of the judging panel for the Commerce and Industry In-house Legal Awards to be held at the end of the month. BCL Legal is sponsoring the ‘Young’ In-house Lawyer of the Year category. The shortlist consists of Martin Mosley at Manchester United, Victoria Southern at AstraZeneca and Jonathan Bamber at Liverpool FC.
Quite frankly any of the above could win the award. For lawyers with maximum 6 years PQE they certainly have and are achieving great things.
1. Having trained and qualified with Pinsents in 2005,Victoria Southern moved to AstraZeneca at the start of this year. At only 6 years PQE she has the lofty title of Global Privacy Officer – giving her responsibility for data protection issues across 101 countries! Although not responsible for the US she has had to deal with incredibly challenging issues building trust in a short space of time with senior members of the US business. As her nominee conveyed: ‘Victoria is rising to the challenge, not just as a result of her overall knowledge of privacy law but also her ability to translate this knowledge into practical, effective advice’.
2. Martin Mosley trained and qualified with Addleshaw Goddard in 2006. Whilst in private practice he had the opportunity to work on secondment at The Football Association before moving to Manchester United as only the second lawyer in the team. A worthy nominee he has acted as lead counsel in the negotiation of over 20 global and regional sponsorship deals, with an aggregate value well in excess of £100m. He has also recently negotiated the first ‘triple-play” sponsorship deal – a first in the industry.
3. The youngest in terms of PQE is Jonathan Bamber. Jonathan trained in-house with UMBRO, briefly becoming the sole UK lawyer before making the move to Liverpool FC. Jonathan joined the recently appointed Head of Legal as the second lawyer in the team and acts as the primary interface into the Club’s Commercial Team. Jonathan has negotiated the new shirt sponsorship agreement and has been heavily involved with the kit sponsorship renewal contract. He also played a crucial role in making sure the transfer of Luiz Suarez happened within a challenging timeframe – which culminated in Suarez scoring his first goal for the club 48 hours after joining.
Listening to these ‘young’ lawyers and hearing what they have achieved already in their career was inspirational and goes along way in highlighting the legal talent in-house in the NW.
The winner will be announced on the 21st October at the annual C&I North West dinner. Good luck to all the nominees.
By Mark Levine marklevine@bcllegal.com