British American Tobacco GC Neil Withington tells Alex Aldridge about the outsourcing deal he struck with Lovells and recalls his early days at ICI in a team of lawyers destined for the top
During the 1640s, lawyers in Virginia were paid in pounds of tobacco – a way of working that would continue to suit British American Tobacco (BAT) quite nicely, jokes the company’s general counsel, Neil Withington. But resigned to the likely failure of resurrecting such a payment method, Withington is instead focusing on the rather more 21st century concept of legal process outsourcing as he bids to keep BAT’s external legal spend as tight as possible.
