C&I chairman aims to sprinkle stardustINTERVIEW: Alvin Shuttleworth tells of vision for stretching networking frontiersIf anyone is prepared for the slings and arrows that come with taking a high-profile role with the legal profession, then it is Alvin Shuttleworth.Like his predecessor as chairman of the Law Societys Commerce and Industry (C&I) Group, he has learnt his trade at one of the most controversial companies in the UK British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL).After qualifying in 1984 at the Warrington and Runcorn Development Corporation, he joined BNFL a year later.

Mr Shuttleworth became head of litigation in 1989, legal director of the company in 1992, and company secretary and group legal director in 1993.His rise was punctuated by some of the most complicated and high-profile litigation in the UK.

In 1991, he was involved in the Merlins case, in which BNFL successfully defended a damages action brought by the owners of property near the Dounreay nuclear reactor site, who alleged that their house had been devalued and contaminated.

Three years later, he worked on what he maintains is the highest volume personal injury case ever achieved in the UK that of claimants alleging they had contracted leukaemia from BNFLs Sellafield plant.

However, since becoming a director of the company, he has been more instrumental in mergers and acquisitions, and it is this experience with litigation and corporate work that makes him, he says, well-placed to take on the mantel of chairman of the Law Societys in-house group.Apart from continuing its training programmes, Mr Shuttleworth wants to tap into the tremendous potential for networking within the groups potential 15,000 members.He says: They are all lawyers with a great deal of experience, both in terms of the legal issues affecting the companies they represent, and their ability to buy external legal services based on their experience rather than marketing.

As part of this networking job, he says more effective use of the C&I Web site is required to make best use of the membership, and encourage easier participation.

This is the pressing issue for the agenda at a group strategy meeting scheduled for June.Meanwhile, what Mr Shuttleworth describes as the fastest growing group in the Law Society is also keen to recruit more members, and to increase its links with comparable overseas groups such as the Global Corporate Counsel Association, the US equivalent of the C&I Group.

A meeting has been arranged with them for later this month.

In such boom times for the group, rumours of an economic downturn do not worry him: If a recession comes the need for in-house lawyers is as great if not greater than ever.

Jeremy Fleming