FTSE 100 to have say in review

The UK’s biggest companies will take part in Lord Hunt of Wirral’s corporate liaison group, the members of which can now be revealed by the Gazette.

In-house counsel at FTSE 100 companies will be represented by Peter Maynard, chair of the GC100 and company secretary at Prudential. In addition, legal chiefs at BP, Barclays, SABMiller and National Grid have been selected to sit alongside a host of senior figures from large corporate law firms.

Magic circle firms Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance and Freshfields, alongside national firms Addleshaw Goddard and Hammonds, and City firm Herbert Smith, all have representatives. Sapna Bedi Fitzgerald, chair of the Commerce & Industry Group, which represents in-house counsel across the country, is also taking part.

The ‘reference group’ has been set up as part of the corporate strand of Hunt’s Law Society-commissioned review of regulation (see [2008] Gazette, 9 October, 1). It is being chaired by Bob Heslett, Law Society Vice-President, with former senior civil servant Nicholas Smedley taking overall responsibility for the corporate review.

The group sat together for the first time last week, and is expected to sit four more times before the corporate review is completed around February. Smedley will also consult members individually.

Russell Wallman, director of government relations at the Law Society, said the group would allow Smedley to ‘bounce ideas around and get back a variety of views.’

‘It’s important we make sure that the work doesn’t just look at what change the law firms think is needed, but also what their clients think is needed,’ Wallman said.

The Hunt review will begin taking evidence in December. Its website can be found at
www.legalregulationreview.com.