| Nokia | Telecoms | 160 | Reorganisation transforms legal team into a profit generator | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 32 | Restructured itself to incorporate intellectual property and legal services into a single global entity designed for flexibility, but remaining integrated within the business. Implemented sophisticated legal procurement to improve efficiency and develop closer relationships with external firms. |
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| Yahoo Europe, Middle East and Africa team | Internet | 35 | “Super-team” concept | 8 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 30 | A new management approach was developed, encouraging the company’s lawyers to take an unusually autonomous approach. With leadership defining key strategic aims, team members are asked to invent the ways in which the strategy will be implemented. |
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| Banif Investment Bank | Banking | 6 | Legal team promoting innovation | 8 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 29 | A restructured legal team has transformed the way it works, cutting external legal bills by 27 per cent and helping to structure the largest investment fund to date in Portugal. Every lawyer also has to devise a new financial product each month, with more than a quarter successfully adopted and sold by the bank. |
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| Royal Bank of Scotland | Banking | 550 | Binding in-house team to key strategic objectives | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 29 | With the bank aiming to return to private hands by 2015, the legal team is aligned to the overall strategy rather than to individual business units. Implemented an “eAuctions” system to cut the cost of external lawyers radically, and implemented a global talent programme focusing on risk management and leadership. |
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| GE oil and gas litigation team | Conglomerate | 4 | Early resolution of commercial disputes | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 27 | Pioneered the use of an online tool to resolve smaller disputes at an early stage, quickly and cost effectively. Uses this analysis to make key strategic decisions, with significant cost savings. |
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| Syngenta | Agriculture | 250 | Using advanced information technology | 8 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 27 | Career tracking and planning tool focuses a comprehensive viewpoint on every individual’s skills, preferences and experience, enabling more nuanced human resource planning and better career development. Team also led on developing “Simplify”, an intellectual-property rights tracking system focusing on the make-up of products. |
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| Guardian News and Media | Media | 6 | Focusing on high-value work | 6 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 26 | When the legal function’s remit expanded to cover the entire media group, it needed to focus on high-value work. To do this, it developed “Project Bronze”, through which law firms agree a fixed fee for low-value contract work and deal directly with the business people, leaving the in-house team to concentrate on strategic business advice. |
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| Save the Children International | Charities | 4 | Legal-led restructuring | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 26 | The restructuring of the charity from an affiliation of 14 different bodies into a more centralised model was partly devised and entirely implemented by the in-house legal team. A key issue was getting external professional service firms to bid for a chance to help with the work on a pro bono basis. |
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| Eon UK | Energy | 21 | Building deeper relationships with external lawyers | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 25 | The “Future Engage Deliver” programme is a set of unusually open-ended conversations that build deeper relationships, incorporating external firms as genuine partners. The legal team has also expanded its use of specialist legal procurement professionals to drive value for money. |
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| Deutsche Bank leveraged-debt capital markets team | Banking | 6 | Putting in-house team “in the minds of the bankers” | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 24 | A highly integrated team works to add value to the broader business. It maintains its own database, developed internally, to keep track of products and terms, and to help advise on new business proposals, and is heavily involved in crisis and risk management, including advising on reputational risk. |
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| Nationwide Building Society | Building Society | 33 | Taking inspiration from Toyota to drive efficiency | 6 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 24 | Implementing a lean process review has allowed the team to ensure its lawyers spend more of their time on the highest-value work. The team aims to equip all lawyers to be business leaders through its home-grown “Training Academy”. |
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| Schroders | Banking | 40 | Fully integrated legal team | 5 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 24 | The team is highly integrated and laterally connected, with lawyers attending all senior management meetings. It has hired dedicated compliance professionals and developed a suite of proactive training programmes to prepare the bank for a raft of new regulations. |
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| Aegis | Marketing | 16 | Using technology to help the business in the new risk environment | 6 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 23 | Taking a forward-looking approach to risk management, the legal team designed and implemented a regulatory intranet site and online compliance training system, enabling commercial teams to become more knowledgeable when advising their clients, and preparing the business for the UK Bribery Act. |
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| CMC Markets | Finance | 10 | Keeping innovative offerings compliant | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 23 | The company is developing online community platforms for customers, designed to share trading ideas, with the in-house legal team taking responsibility for ensuring the platform remains compliant with financial regulations, involving a mix of privacy, defamation and ecommerce issues. |
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| Henderson | Finance | 12 | Using mergers and acquisitions to help motivate staff | 5 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 23 | Faced with the challenge of the group's acquisitions of Gartmore and New Star Asset Management, the legal team took the opportunity to help motivate and develop staff by resourcing much of the most complex work internally. |
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| Three | Telecoms | 17 | End-to-end commercial accountability | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 23 | The legal, commercial and regulatory team is structured to have an extensive commercial accountability, and has led on numerous high-profile projects, including the recent network integration deal between Orange and T-Mobile. |
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