Judging panel

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Bill Knight

Immediate Past President, City of London Law Society, chairman, Financial Reporting Review Panel
Bill Knight is a solicitor who has chaired the Financial Reporting Review Panel since 2004. He is deputy chairman of council at Lloyd’s of London and a Gambling Commissioner. He is a former senior partner of Simmons & Simmons and chairman of the Law Society’s Company Law Committee. He is currently Master of the City of London Solicitors Company.

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Alex Novarese, editor of Legal Week, discusses with Bill Knight, chair of the judging panel, exactly what the judges are looking for in a winning British Legal Awards 2009 entry. Click here.

Review Panel

Massimiliano Maestretti
General counsel, Ferrari SpA
Massimiliano leads Ferrari’s legal affairs department which manages the legal and corporate matters of the company worldwide. He is a member of the executive committee and reports directly to the CEO. Prior to joining Ferrari he was in private practice in Switzerland (where he is admitted to the Bar) and in New York.

Charles Barter
General counsel, Bridgepoint
Charles Barter is Bridgepoint's General Counsel and joined the firm in 2008.
He previously worked at law firm Travers Smith where he became a partner in 1995 subsequently leading its private equity group for over 10 years. Charles is a graduate of Exeter University.

Richard Bennett
General counsel, HSBC
Career to date: 1976-79 - assistant solicitor with Stephenson Harwood; 1979-88 - assistant group legal adviser with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking corporation; 1988-92 - deputy group legal adviser with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking corporation; 1993-97 - head of legal and compliance for Asia-Pacific with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking corporation; 1998 to date — head of legal and compliance with HSBC Holdings.

Juan Bullón Alemán
Counsel of Ferrovial Aeropuertos, S.A.
Joined Ferrovial Agroman, construction division of Spanish Infrastructure Group, Grupo Ferrovial, S.A, in 1997. Spent two years in Poland working within the legal team of Budimex, S.A., a subsidiary of Ferrovial. In 2005 joined the legal department of Cintra, S.A, the infrastructure arm of Grupo Ferrovial, where he mainly dealt with concession projects for highways in the US as well as with airports. In October 2007 was appointed as Counsel for Ferrovial Aeropuertos, S.A., which, together with two partners, acquired BAA in 2006.

Anthony Cann
Anthony Cann is a non-executive director of Smith News and joined the Board on 31 August 2006. He is Chairman of the Remuneration Committee and a member of the Audit and Nominations Committees. He is a solicitor, now non-practising, and was the worldwide Senior Partner of Linklaters, an international law firm, from 2001 until September 2006. He is a non-executive director of Panmure Gordon & Co plc and Chairman of Trustees of Changing Faces.

Tim Clark
Tim Clark was, for 7 years, the Senior Partner of Slaughter and May, one of the leading international law firms. As part of his role as Senior Partner, he had overall responsibility for the firm's external relationships and played a leading part in the development and implementation of strategy for its integrated network of independent law firms across the world. After joining Slaughter and May in 1973 as a trainee, Tim became a partner in 1983. His practice primarily involved mergers and acquisitions, corporate and general corporate finance. He advised companies and institutions from a range of jurisdictions, in particular, Europe and the USA. Tim is a non-executive director of Big Yellow Group PLC, Mint Partners Limited and the COIF Charitable Funds and a Vice Chair of Business for New Europe. He is also a member of the International Chamber of Commerce UK Governing Body, the Development Committee of the National Gallery and the International Advisory Board of Uria Menendez and a trustee of the Geoffrey de Havilland Flying Foundation.

Professor Laura Empson
Professor Laura Empson is Director of the Centre for Professional Service Firms at Cass Business School in the City of London. She has spent the last 15 years of her academic career at London Business School and Oxford University dedicated to researching professionals and professional service firms. Her current research is concerned with leadership dynamics in professional service firms. More generally she is interested in how professionals and the firms they work within respond to, and manage change, including new forms of governance, post-merger integration, knowledge management initiatives, and the construction of organisational identity. She has published extensively on these topics in leading academic journals and her recent book Managing the Modern Law Firm (Oxford University Press, 2007) was hailed by The Times as representing “a seminal moment in the development of management theory in this sector.” Prior to becoming an academic she worked for several years as an investment banker and strategy consultant. She has a PhD and an MBA from London Business School.

Olga Garcia Gonzalez
Head of legal, Banco Santander, London
Joined Banco Santander in 1999 and heads the legal team of the London office since 2003.
She heads an internal legal team responsible for advising the Santander Global Banking and Markets division.
This year Olga was awarded the European Counsel award by the International law office in association with the Association of Corporate Counsel Europe in the category of individual, Financial Services.
She is a Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Iberian Lawyer and member of the jury for the 40 under 40 Spanish & Portuguese legal awards.

Jeremy Hand
Chairman of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association
Jeremy Hand is managing partner of Lyceum Capital. In addition to sourcing and leading Lyceum's investments in Asquith Schools and Asquith Nurseries, Fox IT, VELO, National Britannia Group and Digica, Jeremy co-led the Southern Cross acquisition. Before co-founding Lyceum Capital in 1999, he was a founding shareholder, director and Investment Committee member of Duke Street Capital (formerly Hambro European Ventures. Jeremy is vice chairman of the British Venture Capital Association and is a former chairman of its taxation
committee.

Carol Hui
General counsel, BAA
Carol Hui joined BAA in 2008 from construction giant Amey, where she had been general counsel and executive director for nine years.

Prior to that, Hui was part of the in-house legal teams at British Gas and TDG. She launched her legal career with Slaughter and May in Hong Kong as a member of the firm's corporate finance department.


Helen Mahy
Group Company Secretary and General Counsel – National Grid plc and member of its Executive Committee
Helen Mahy is Company Secretary to National Grid plc Board and Committees providing Company Secretariat services and support to all Group companies and ensuring National Grid maintains appropriate system of governance to comply with statutory, regulatory and best practice requirements. She is responsible for Group Legal Function, ensuring professional and appropriate legal support is provided throughout the Group and also Heads up Group Risk and Compliance function. Co-sponsor of the Group Inclusion and Diversity programme and Chair of the National Grid UK Women's Network

Zahida Manzoor CBE
Legal Services Complaints Commissioner and Legal Services Ombudsman for England and Wales
Ms Manzoor was appointed as Legal Services Ombudsman in March 2003 and as Legal Services Complaints Commissioner in February 2004. A former member of the NHS Policy Board and Regional Chair of the NHS Executive, Northern and Yorkshire Regions, she oversaw many improvements in the Health Service for over 60 hospitals and Health Authorities. Ms Manzoor was Commissioner and Deputy Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality and Chair of the Bradford Health Authority, the first Asian woman to fill these posts. Ms Manzoor is a trustee of the NSPCC and in Autumn 2007 accepted an invitation to become a trustee of the National Media Museum.

Terry Miller
General counsel, London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games
Terry Miller is the General Counsel of The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG). As general counsel, she heads an internal legal team responsible for providing advice on all aspects of LOCOG’s operations, including compliance with contractual obligations under the Host City Contract with the International Olympic Committee, implementation of sponsorship and supply contracts, and protection of the Games brand.

Jonathan Pearl
Corporate Vice President & General Counsel of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB
Sony Ericsson, a 50:50 joint venture between Sony Corporation and LM Ericsson, is the third largest phone handset maker by value in the world with 10,000 employees and a turnover of around US$15 Billion a year. Jonathan is Company Secretary of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, and a member of the company’s Executive Committee. He is responsible for all Sony Ericsson’s IPR and Legal issues and also has other functions, such as Compliance, Anti-Counterfeit, Trade Affairs and Export Control, reporting to him. Jonathan heads a Global team of 70 professionals located in Sweden, France, Germany, U.K., U.S.A., Singapore, Japan and China. Before he joined Sony Ericsson Jonathan spent 12 years working at Sony Electronics Europe, and prior to that he was with Apple Computer. Jonathan is also a Trustee of the legal pro bono charity LawWorks.

Professor Joe Peppard
Professor Peppard holds the Chair in Information Systems and is also Director of the Information Systems Research Centre, the IT Leadership Forum and has recently launched the innovative Cranfield IT Leadership Programme. Over the years he has held academic appointments at Loughborough University, Trinity College Dublin, Groningen University, and the University of South Australia. The focus of Professor Peppard's research and teaching is in the area of information systems and technology strategy and management and he has published widely in academic and general business and management journals.

Anthony Salz
Executive vice chairman, NM Rothschild
Anthony Salz is an executive vice chairman in the investment banking business of Rothschild. Before joining Rothschild in 2006 he spent more than 30 years at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer as a corporate lawyer, the last 10 as senior partner. He is a trustee of the Tate Foundation, the Eden Project, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Media Standards Trust, and is a director of habitat for Humanity GB. He is a member of the advisory panel for the Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue. He was vice chairman of the BBC Board of Governors from 2004 to 2006. Anthony is a law graduate from Exeter University. In 2003 he received a Business in the Community Ambassador Award for his work relating to homelessness and education.

Rosalind Wright CB QC
Chairman, Fraud Advisory Panel
Rosalind Wright is the Chairman of the Fraud Advisory Panel. She is also an independent member of the DBERR Legal Services Group and Insolvency Service Steering Board and is a member and past Chairman of the Supervisory Committee of OLAF, the European Anti-Fraud Office.

Rosalind was Director of the Serious Fraud Office, from 1997 to April 2003. She was also previously General Counsel and an Executive Director for 10 years at the Securities and Futures Authority, one of the principal City financial services regulators. Prior to taking up that appointment, she was an Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions at the DPP’s Department, where she worked for 18 years, after five years in practice at the Bar.