Lauded Reuters general counsel Rosemary Martin has been overlooked for the top post-merger legal job at Thomson-Reuters in favour of Thomson’s legal director, Deirdre Stanley.

Martin, who joined Reuters from Mayer Brown as deputy company secretary in 1997, is one of the best-known in-house lawyers in the UK. She has been the director of Reuters’ charitable arm, the Reuters Foundation, since 2002 as well as being vice chair of in-house lobbying group, the GC100.