A highly practical and interactive 2-day MBA-style training for in-house lawyers within Iberian and European businesses, the annual In-House College assists in-house lawyers and those who manage legal departments to establish a framework for organising and managing the legal function.

Methodology:
The College is interactive, participatory and highly practical. Held over two days, it includes case study presentations from leading in-house lawyers, interactive discussions and small group exercises. The Programme Director, Gwyn Price, is the former General Counsel EMEA for American Express, a consultant to in-house legal teams and regular MBA tutor.

Objectives:
The In-House College assists participants in:

1. Understanding the main purpose and extra value provided by the in-house legal function;
2. Deciding what tasks should be led by the legal team or managed more cost-effectively by other departments or external lawyers;
3. Understanding how to coordinate the evolving responsibility and roles of the legal team eg compliance, corporate governance, legal risk management, etc;
4. Knowing how to measure and demonstrate the performance of the legal team and the service provided;
5. Managing relations with external law firms more cost effectively;
6. Recruiting and retaining lawyers, leadership skills and getting the most out of the legal team;
7. Budgeting and getting better financial controls.

Issues covered:

1. The main purpose of the internal legal team;

2. The options for organising the different roles and responsibilities;

3. Recruiting and retaining in-house lawyers and offering them a career path;

4. Relating the legal team’s activities to the business strategy;

5. Providing extra value to the business as well as value for money;

6. Demonstrating value through financial control and performance measures.

Programme Director:
Gwyn Price is the former General Counsel for American Express with responsibility
for legal activities in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India. He read Law at Oxford, then qualified as a solicitor spending two periods at Norton Rose. The majority of Gwyn’s career was spent with American Express where, for fifteen years, he was their most senior European lawyer. He has since been a Visiting Professor at Nottingham Law School, where he was a tutor on their MBA in Legal Practice and is a member of Sherwood PSF Consulting where he leads training and consultancy projects for in-house legal departments.

Faculty members:
The following are members of the 2008 Faculty:

• Eduardo Ruiz Montoya, Regional Counsel, Hewlett-Packard;
• Elizabeth Wall, former General Counsel, Cable & Wireless and McDonnell Douglas;
• Iñigo Cisneros, General Counsel, Gamesa Corporación Tecnolólgica;
• Isabelle M.Hautot, General Counsel, Orange – France Telecom Group;

• Javier San Roman, Head of Legal, Merrill Lynch España;
• Jochi Jimenez, General Counsel - Compliance Officer, HCC Global Financial Products;
• John Rigau, Vice-President Legal, Pepsico Europe;
• Juan Pardo, Senior Vice President, Legal & Compliance, Sol Melia Group;
• Kees van Ophem, Vice President Legal - International West, Medtronic;
• Marta Campomanes Camino, Head of Legal, Pernod Ricard España;
• Olga Garcia, Head of Legal - London, Santander;
• Pilar Aranguen, Executive Director – Compliance, Goldman Sachs España;
• Rosemary Martin, CEO, Practical Law Company, former General Counsel, Reuters;
• Steve Weatherley, former Head of Legal – UK, Scottish & Newcastle, Consultant – Practical Law Company.

Language:
As participants will be from a variety of countries the working language is English although where participants wish to ask questions / make comments in Spanish these can be translated for non-Spanish speakers. If any participant prefers, discussions in small group exercises can be in Spanish  (placing non- Spanish speakers together in a group).

Course venue:
Alcalá de Henares is a charming town located just outside Madrid city centre and close to the main international airport. The birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, it developed as a university town in the 16th and 17th centuries and is now a United Nations World Heritage Site. The College will take place at the newly renovated Parador, a monastery in the centre of the town which now serves as a luxury hotel and conference venue.

Click here to see the 2008 programme in Spanish

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