| Accounting | PricewaterhouseCoopers (Eurofirms OGC Assurance Counselling & Litigation Team) | 125 | Risking it All': a film about the potentially damaging consequences of wrong decisions taken by company Audit Committees. | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 31 | A general counsel at PwC produced a film showing an Audit Committee reacting to an allegation of management fraud. Unique in its space, it has gone far beyond the usual training presentation and has not only enhanced PwC's relationships with clients but it has also worked to push this important issue up the company management agenda. |
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| Government Services | The Belgian Post | 16 | Proactive management of litigation costs. | 7 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 30 | General Counsel Dirk Tirez has overhauled the way litigation is managed. The number of new files opened has decreased 43 per cent since 2005 and the costs of litigation are down by 40 per cent. Outside advisers have been reduced from 65 to 11 and are measured on their performance. The department continues to lead strategic initiatives to enhance the future competitiveness of the business. |
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| Financial Institution | Deutsche Bank | 584 | Outsourcing, offshoring and managing the requests for advice from outside lawyers through a 'clearing house'. | 8 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 29 | One of the first banks to outsource to India in 2006, the team is ahead of the curve on outsourcing and off-shoring. E-discovery work is sent to India via a third party provider, and ISDA documentation is handled by an Indian captive. The team has not only moved work to lower cost jurisdictions, it has also re-engineered the way legal work is done. Click4Legal is a process which streamlines and directs the requests for legal support across three global business lines. |
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| Financial Institution | Alliance & Leicester | 17 | Innovation as an external purchaser through encouraging reciprocal business and forging closer alliances with outside law firms. | 5 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 25 | The A&L legal team have made agreements with the lender's key law firms to directly market the bank's products, scour client lists for potential clients and place substantial deposits with the bank as part of a reciprocal business initiative. It shows a legal team adding value through developing new business. |
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| Telecommunications | BT | 285 | Four initiatives that involve off-shoring to India, streamlining legal processes, rotating staff around the business and diversity thought leadership. | 6 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 25 | To improve efficiency, BT's legal team have set up a team in India to handle paralegal, research and less complex project work. A standardised process for legal matters means lawyers are called in much later in outsourcing deals and offshoring transactions, saving the business time and money. The team is also leading the way on encouraging diversity in the profession. |
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| Utilities | National Grid | 92 | Project 'Pick N' Mix': a suite of technology- based solutions to standardise legal processes and improve the business' access to legal advice and training through e-learning. | 6 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 24 | In March 2008, National Grid launched 'DealBuilder', a product that automatically generates legal documents for gas easements with landowners. A pipeline may involve more than 3,000 easements so the system has multiple layers of value in speeding up the process, achieving potential cost savings of up to £60,000 per annum as well as detecting potential problems that could cause millions in construction delay. |
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| Financial Institution | HSBC | 768 | Smart' Branding: A global risk management programme and suite of knowledge management initiatives. | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 23 | A suite of initiatives to derive best value from external legal advisers. For example, Smartdesk enables the bank to access all their panel law firms' research. The initiatives are not new but the scale on which they have been conducted puts the team ahead of other financial institutions. The risk programme is comprehensive and equips them to standardise cultural approaches through uniform documentation. |
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| Financial Institution | Barclays | 850 | Legal spend management, on-line training calendar and promoting diversity. | 5 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 22 | A dedicated IT solution from Datacert now means Barclays can track and analyse their legal spend. In the pilot stage, the legal team is the first in Europe to buy the product. Barclays require panel firms to divulge diversity statistics and continue to use their clout to raise awareness through a variety of community action programmes. Overall, the team is forward thinking and consciously positioning itself at the cutting edge. |
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| Telecommunications | Vodafone | approx 315 | Three year strategic initiatives to build an effective international community of lawyers. | 4 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 21 | Responding to a rapidly globalising business, the legal team has turned itself into a global thinker through various mechanisms such as a Group Legal Board, a Knowledge Management Team and legal intranet across its 22 operating countries. The result is tight cohesion. Team creates competitive edge for the business through the 'negotiator', Vodafone lawyers who are expert in negotiating for the company - a visible saving when the other side turns up to meetings with several City partners in tow. |
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| Pharmaceuticals | Novartis | 220 | A radical re-structure of the global legal group. | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 20 | Re-structuring the legal team along a three-dimensional matrix structure that allows lawyers to develop their talents as both technical and business lawyers in order to deliver the best possible service. Knowledge management is an increasing priority globally.In the US, teams of Novartis lawyers actively create financial value for the company through scouring competitors' patents for weaknesses they can challenge. |
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