For a man who has retrained throughout a career spanning civil law, criminal law, the public sector, private practice and in-house practice, it comes as no surprise that education is at the top of John Bleasdale’s agenda. As new chair of the Commerce & Industry Group, the association of in-house lawyers with some 4,500 members, Bleasdale wants not just the group’s management but also its members to take a more active role in training both themselves (through the packed schedule of courses the group offers) and prospective in-house lawyers.

Bleasdale, 59, legal director at haulage company TNT UK, says there is ‘no reason’ why law graduates should not be able to train as in-house lawyers from the outset of their careers. He will shortly canvass C&I Group companies on whether they have an appetite to provide in-house training contracts to Legal Practice Course graduates. ‘I’m aware of the current shortage of training contracts and there’s no reason we shouldn’t act,’ he says.

In addition, he wants C&I Group members to mentor young lawyers thinking of working in-house; the C&I Group is working with the Law Society to develop guidance on the matter.

The C&I Group admits that the number of training contracts in companies has not risen in line with the number of lawyers working in-house. Across England and Wales, just 48 companies offer in-house training contracts, including J Sainsbury, EDF Energy and Vodafone. Most companies have tended instead to take on LPC graduates on a short-term basis, as a means to their obtaining a training contract.

Aside from education, Bleasdale also has his eye on judicial appointments. ‘There’s a great deal of common sense and commercial acumen among our members,’ he says. ‘They have been at the sharp end of many a commercial deal and commercial negotiation.’

Following interest from members, Bleasdale wants to try to increase the number of applications by in-house lawyers for judicial posts, after some members expressed interest in applying. This coincides with a general push to widen the pool of applicants to judicial posts. At the end of February, the Advisory Panel on Judicial Diversity published a 110-page report including 53 recommendations aimed at improving diversity on the bench. Judicial Appointments Commission chair Baroness Prashar says that she wants to attract as wide a range of candidates as possible from across the legal profession.

Bleasdale was involved with the C&I Group’s north-west committee and sat on the national board for seven years before taking up the chairmanship at the start of February. C&I Group management has already planned a ‘busy year’ ahead, and he intends to build on what the past chair, LSL Property Services legal director Sapna Bedi Fitzgerald, has already done. Bleasdale chaired his first board meeting, in Leeds, at the end of last month and expects to be chair for 18 months.

Another item on his agenda that needs scant introduction is the Akzo Nobel case. ‘We’re working with the Law Society to protect our legal privilege, which has been attacked,’ Bleasdale says.

The European Court of First Instance ruled that, in cartel investigations, legal professional privilege does not extend to communications between in-house lawyers and other company staff. The C&I Group is working with Chancery Lane on an intervention in the case, which is due to be heard on appeal this year. The Society was denied a direct intervention by the European Court of Justice in a hearing at the beginning of last year – as were the GC100 and many other professional legal bodies around the world. Bleasdale says the C&I Group is allowing the Law Society to access the case via the C&I Group’s seat on the European Company Lawyers Association, which was one of the few organisations granted an intervention. The ECLA is the umbrella organisation for 21 company lawyer associations in Europe, representing more than 29,000 individual company lawyers.

Another recent development saw the C&I Group lobby the Solicitors Regulation Authority on practising certificate fees. Changes to the PC fee charging system, whereby 40% of PC costs will be paid through an individual PC fee and 60% through a firm-based fee, will save in-house and local government lawyers an estimated £16m because they will not have to pay firm-based fees. The C&I Group had argued that in-house lawyers cost less to regulate and should therefore pay less.

Bleasdale says he wants to raise the profile of the C&I Group and develop communication with members through website and email updates. The group has 4,500 members, but Bleasdale estimates that there are around 18,000 lawyers in industry that could be snapped up as new members if they were ‘aware of the group and what we can offer’. What it does offer are 50 training courses a year, which Bleasdale says will be supplemented with webinars as a ‘cost-effective and time-efficient way for our members to get their CPD points’.

Bolton-born Bleasdale was educated at Thornleigh Salesian Catholic Grammar School and went on to obtain an honours degree in law at Manchester Polytechnic, now Manchester Metropolitan University. After completing his part 2 qualifications at Manchester, he was articled to Derek Hogg at Stockport firm Nuttall Hogg before admission in 1975.

His focus on education and CPE is perhaps reflected in his subsequent career path. After qualifying as a solicitor, he completed a diploma in business management at the University of Manchester Business School in 1989, achieved the Higher Court (Criminal Proceedings) Qualification in 1995, and qualified as a chartered secretary in 2005.

After three years in private practice following his admission, Bleasdale spent the next seven at the Greater Manchester Prosecuting Authority, where he was responsible for special casework, including commercial fraud, serious crime and extradition. However, he declines to go into detail about the cases he worked on, preferring to say that he ‘enjoyed the atmosphere in the court’. From 1987, Bleasdale spent three years as a senior crown prosecutor for Lancashire and Cumbria, describing the area as ‘a beautiful place to work, travelling around the courts’ and expressing great enjoyment in the advocacy work he undertook.

Bleasdale maintains that the criminal law aspect of his career was somewhat inspired by John Stride and the fast-paced TV legal drama The Main Chance, which ran for four series between 1969 and 1975. Stride played Leeds-based solicitor David Main, famous for numerous affairs with his secretaries and retorts such as ‘if I wanted to be loved I’d have been a teddy bear’ – although Bleasdale insists he was inspired more by what went on inside, rather than outside, the courtroom. ‘He seemed to win every one of his cases,’ Bleasdale says of Main.

He also drew inspiration from his brother-in-law, the first lawyer from a family of teachers and medics. His youngest son recently completed a law degree, although he has chosen a career in publishing instead.

After working as a prosecutor, Bleasdale joined a new firm, Cunningham Turner, set up by ex-prosecutors and advocates, as a partner in 1990. The principal focus of the firm soon switched from criminal work to civil work, especially relating to the transport industry. Bleasdale became more and more involved in commercial services, property, and new company work. TNT UK was one of the firm’s major clients, and after 10 years at Cunningham Turner – now known as CT Law – TNT UK invited Bleasdale to become its legal director.

‘I do believe I have quite a good commercial acumen,’ he says, while admitting that he misses criminal work. ‘With crime you can get an instant satisfaction. You do the work, plot your strategy, do your preparation, do your advocacy, and get a result.’

His criminal law background makes him unlike many senior in-house lawyers, who tend to shy away from litigation and all matters criminal, preferring what they see as the certainty and predictability of contract work and deal-making.

Delivering the goodsAt TNT, Bleasdale finds himself working in a global transport and distribution industry estimated by TNT to be worth more than $3,500bn (£2,311bn). Worldwide, the company, which is listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange, generated revenues of €11.15bn (£10.12bn) in 2008. TNT has a global fleet of more than 30,000 vehicles, including 40 aircraft; employs 152,000 staff; and runs 456 mail depots. Netherlands-based chief executive Peter Bakker oversees operations in some 200 countries.

TNT, like most companies, has suffered in the economic downturn: global profits before tax fell by 42% from €802m (£728m) in 2008 to €468m (£425m) in 2009.

Bleasdale has responsibility for all things legal in TNT’s UK division. In the UK, TNT employs 11,000 people to deliver more than 100 million items of post every year, using a fleet of 3,500 vehicles operating between 70 delivery depots, three sorting offices and three national contact centres. UK chief executive Tom Bell saw TNT turn over £828m last year.

Bleasdale reports to the TNT UK management board. ‘The work is basically balancing risk and reward,’ he says. ‘The role has grown so that we’re involved in far more things, especially in bringing together various parts of the business.’

Bleasdale employs a small legal team, comprising one legal assistant, his own ‘extremely capable’ personal assistant and a dedicated human resources solicitor – essential in a company with more than 11,000 staff, especially in light of obligations under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations. Worldwide, Bleasdale says there are around 50 lawyers working in-house at TNT, who report to global general counsel Onno van Klinken. They all meet once or twice a year in a major European capital. Video conferences are also becoming the norm, and Bleasdale expresses awe at his colleagues’ linguistic ability: ‘I’m always amazed at their proficiency in the languages they use, and how well they do their legal work in English,’ he says.

Bleasdale employs national firm Eversheds as his general purpose panel firm, but brings in other firms for specialist work, multi-jurisdictional work and regulatory matters, such as work on operators’ licences. He last reviewed his panel four years ago, after his previous general purpose firm was conflicted out through acting for a competitor in the US. The company does not make public its annual legal spend, and Bleasdale also declines to comment on whether the firm outsources any legal work.

He lists ease of communication, speed of response and ‘a patience and understanding that only a certain amount of work is being sent out’ as positives for law firms. ‘It’s a given that we expect them to know what they’re doing,’ he says. ‘I don’t usually have problems because I don’t allow them to fester.’

Compliance is key for Bleasdale. Indeed, TNT HQ in the Netherlands has two specialist compliance committees on disclosure and ethics. The disclosure committee advises the group board on ensuring proper disclosure in TNT’s reports, while also overseeing TNT’s disclosure controls and procedures. The ethics committee advises the group board on designing and implementing ethical policies, on preventing fraud, and anti-corruption matters, while also overseeing investigations arising from the internal whistleblower and fraud prevention procedures. The ethics committee also makes recommendations on disciplinary matters.

Of course, Bleasdale is quick to point out that educating his own staff about compliance is just as important as running committees. Should C&I Group companies agree to open their doors to LPC graduates, then budding in-house lawyers may well be thankful for his pedagogic outlook.