Tag: In-house

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In-house: RPC and DWF among four new firms on Dixons Carphone’s expanded roster

Retailer Dixons Carphone has added four firms to a revised legal roster, with DWF, RPC, Bristows and Carson McDowell winning spots.

The panel will run for four years following the expiration of its previous arrangement in March, which was the result of a 2016 review. The new additions join ten firms Dixons Carphone has kept panel relationships with, including Addleshaw Goddard, Clyde & Co, DAC Beachcroft, DLA Piper, Doyle Clayton, Fieldfisher, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Pinsent Masons, Shoosmiths, and Worthingtons.

The 14 firms will work across commercial, corporate, employment, litigation, regulatory, property and IP work. General counsel Nigel Paterson, who featured in the GC Powerlist 2019, told Legal Business the winning firms were assessed against technical expertise, financial value, retail market understanding and their abilities to offer added-value services.

‘We have maintained existing relationships with the firms we’ve worked with for many years, while also bringing on board the expertise of four firms,’ he added.

Paterson has responsibility for 47 lawyers across employment, corporate and commercial legal teams in London, Athens and Oslo.  He joined Dixons Carphone a year after the £3.8bn merger between Dixons and Carphone Warehouse in 2014, which brought household names including Currys and PC World under one umbrella. A former senior lawyer at BT for over 14 years, he replaced interim joint-GC team of Helen Grantham and Tim Morris.

Dixons Carphone has been riding a turbulent couple of years of poor trading on the high street, and in 2018 announced the closure of 92 of its 700 stores.

anna.cole-bailey@legalease.co.uk

This article first appeared onLegal Business.

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In-house: Trustpilot bags former Skyscanner legal chief as Gowling scores sole Commonwealth Games mandate

Adding to recent high-profile in-house appointments, former Skyscanner legal chief Carolyn Jameson (pictured) has been appointed chief legal and policy officer at consumer review website Trustpilot, while Gowling WLG has become sole legal adviser to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

GC Powerlist-regular Jameson, who earlier in the year announced her departure from high-profile travel metasearch engine Skyscanner after six years, will oversee global legal and public affairs at Trustpilot from the UK and Denmark.

She also joins the company’s executive leadership team, reporting to chief executive Peter Holten Mühlmann, and replaces former general counsel (GC) Kasper Heine. Jameson ran a legal team of 12 at Skyscanner and was involved in its £1.4bn acquisition by Chinese online travel giant ctrip.com in 2016.

Jameson said: ‘I am hugely excited to be joining Trustpilot at a time when it is continuing to grow more important every day.’

Muhlmann added: ‘[Jameson’s] experience in helping brands navigate the issue of trust online makes her a fantastic addition to the team. As Trustpilot continues to grow and continue its ambition to bring consumers and businesses together, Jameson’s expertise will only help improve the experiences of everyone using the platform.’

Her move to Trustpilot follows former Worldpay GC Ruwan de Soyza decamping to FTSE 100 technology company Halma earlier in the month. Jameson, meanwhile, was replaced at Skyscanner by former Deliveroo legal head Rob Miller.

Elsewhere, Gowling has won a competitive tender to be exclusive legal advisers to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games for the next three years.

A team from the firm will advise on a range of legal matters, including brand reputation and disputes management, led by partner and Commonwealth board member Michael Luckman, alongside the event’s chief legal officer Caroline McGrory.

Commonwealth event chief executive Ian Reid said it already works closely with Gowling: ‘This is a very exciting time as we’ve just passed our three years to go milestone and our profile and workload is really starting to increase.’

Gowling chief executive David Fennell added: ‘This appointment builds on our strong track record of advising on major projects across the public and private sectors’.

By Legal Business anna.cole-bailey@legalease.co.uk