A former general counsel at T-Mobile UK is to head a London law firm’s new standalone management consultancy service for senior in-house lawyers.

Julia Chain (pictured) will lead RPC’s new consultancy, RPC Perform, to help GCs and senior in-house lawyers ‘improve their operational efficiency and personal effectiveness’, the firm has announced.

The business will focus on strategic and operational efficiency, managing relationships with external law firms, and ‘soft’ skills such as team, personal and leadership development.

Chain, former managing partner of law firm Garretts, said: ‘We know that the demands on GCs have grown in tandem with their own ambitions for advancement and improvement; and increasing pressure on internal resources allied to more personal accountability have only added to the challenges they face.’

Chain’s team includes Andrew Dey, former head of legal operations at Barclays.

RPC Perform will be based at the firm’s London office.

RPC managing partner Jonathan Watmough said: ‘We spend a lot of time talking to GCs and other buyers of legal services to help build our understanding of the issues they face day to day.

‘What’s clear is that, in an increasingly regulated and complex global risk environment, the role of the GC has changed immeasurably, with in-house lawyers these days needing to perform at a much higher level and across a significantly broader business landscape than before.’