In-house counsel summit at Pinsent Masons HQ hears from leading lawyers

The GC Summit, held at the firm’s Dublin headquarters, examined trends in legal services and career pathways for in-house roles.

The event was the latest in a series of international events by the Lawyers Business Development (BD) Club.

Dennis Agnew, partner at Pinsent Masons, introduced the event before Lawyers BD Club founder Colin Carroll led a number of “fireside chats” with in-house lawyers, including:

• Ruth Murphy, chief counsel at BT Enterprise, who explained that her move in-house was driven by curiosity to see how decisions impacted on organisations, post-transaction;
• Simon Hollywood, vice-president legal & associate general counsel at ICON plc, who explained why his company had focused recently on organisational culture to influence decision-making in the face of disruption;
• Sarah Lennon, general counsel for Ireland and Northern Ireland at Google, who surprised the audience with a proficiency in the Japanese martial art of ninjitsu before speaking of the difficulty in basing decisions on previous assumptions, as in technology the pace of change is so fast;
• Lory Keho, managing director at ConsenSys, who predicted the impact of Blockchain technology would be more quickly felt than the internet took to reach maturity;
• Brendan Noud, CEO of LearnUpon, whose business spotted the potential for learning management systems to use cloud technology, making them accessible to smaller organisations;
• Jennifer Hourihane, previously interviewed in Irish Legal News, who used her legal background to set-up Oathello, which streamlines the booking and payment process around notarisation of documents;
• Nigel Kemp, GC of Citibank Europe, who established a legal team of 30 people in just two years and lauded the talent available within Dublin legal market, but caveated that Brexit-related dynamics could bring a pressure on that pipeline.

Speaking after the event, Mr Agnew said: “This event is an excellent showcase of the exciting talent we enjoy in Ireland, both in legal services and in business.

“We were delighted to host the discussion, as the profile of speakers very much resonates with our strategy to work with clients in Ireland who have either a global presence today, or ambitions for tomorrow.”