The inaugural Bluechip Awards, in association with Westlaw UK from Sweet & Maxwell, were held at the Natural History Museum on 15 June.
Winning teams included Reuters (global legal department) and Whitbread (team of the year). Winning legal directors were Howard Trust at Barclays (UK head of legal) and Dan Fitz at Cable & Wireless. (global head of legal).
Clifford Chance was voted by the clients as the most admired law firm and law firms voted BT the most desired client.
The first awards dedicated to lawyers working in business recognise the growing contribution of in-house lawyers to the legal profession and in the wider business arena.
The winning teams and individuals are the most highly rated by their peers – nominated and voted for by in-house and private practice lawyers.
The awards were divided into 14 categories spanning seven sectors and with seven awards recognising the outstanding in-house lawyers of the year.
Banking and financial services
This award, sponsored by the Peter Manners Partnership, was for the most highly rated in-house team in banking and financial services. On the shortlist were Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs International, Nomura International and Royal Bank of Scotland.
The in-house function at Deutsche Bank was consistently identified by its peers as the team that stood out in a competitive sector. The banking world has undergone a wave of consolidation in the past few years and what impressed was the ease with which two disparate legal functions have been integrated comfortably following Deutsche’s takeover of Bankers Trust at the end of 1999. UK head of legal Simon Dodds is credited with bringing the lawyers into a cohesive group following the merger and is praised for achieving the difficult balance between being a nice guy and a good lawyer and engendering a good sense of co-operation with external advisers. The team as a whole was highly rated for its legal, technical and personal skills.
Barclays’ in-house team was also highly commended for its far-reaching review of the delivery of legal services to the bank.
