Dutch chemicals group AkzoNobel has streamlined its in-house legal team in the wake of its acquisition of ICI, losing around 25% of the combined company's legal function.The merger, which completed at the beginning of this year, created a combined legal function of 240 lawyers but this has been trimmed to 180, with departures including that of former ICI general counsel Andy Ransom to Rentokil in March this year. The restructuring, led by AkzoNobel general counsel Jan Karel van der Staay, has also seen the company's central legal function disbanded with lawyers now sitting within the decorative paints, performance coatings or speciality chemicals divisions.The legal team still report directly into van der Staay but work within their business lines on a day-to-day basis. All specialise in either corporate law, finance, competition, M&A, sourcing, compliance, US litigation, US employment or environmental law, with each business division including a number of specialists.Van der Staay told Legal Week: "People from ICI have joined AkzoNobel in all functions from young, talented lawyers to very senior professionals. We are using the opportunity to enhance the strength of the legal function."A number of ICI staff hold important positions within the legal function and we feel that the integration process with ICI has gone well and there is a good fit."AkzoNobel is headquartered in Amsterdam and has lawyers positioned across the globe, with van der Staay supported by assistant general counsel in the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region as well as a further three heading the European function. Prior to the ICI takeover the team had 120 lawyers.AkzoNobel has worked with a number of high-profile law firms in the past including Slaughter and May, Eversheds, Sullivan & Cromwell and Dutch firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek.
October 09, 2008 at 02:02 AM
1 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Legalweek
Dutch chemicals group AkzoNobel has streamlined its in-house legal team in the wake of its acquisition of ICI, losing around 25% of the combined company’s legal function.
The merger, which completed at the beginning of this year, created a combined legal function of 240 lawyers but this has been trimmed to 180, with departures including that of former ICI general counsel Andy Ransom to Rentokil in March this year.
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