In Focus - November 2007
In Focus this month is Geoffrey Beedham, Chief Counsel and Vice President of BT’s Global Services UK Commercial Legal & Regulatory team with the responsibility for major third party channel corporate and government deals for BTGS in the UK and who heads a team of about 40.
Geoffrey was born in 1953. He read Law at Chelmer Institute of Higher Education, now part of Anglia Ruskin University, graduating in 1975. He went on to the College of Law in Guildford between 1975 and 1976. Geoffrey did his Articles at Dennis Berry, a medium-sized provincial firm which is now part of a national firm. He qualified as a solicitor in 1978 and remained at Dennis Berry until 1989. He then joined Reedpack, a management buy-out from Reed International (now Reed Elsevier).
He left Reedpack in 1991 to join BT Group Legal, supporting the BT Group Procurement section, where he remained until 1993. BT is the former state-owned company which was privatised in 1984 and now operates in more than 170 countries. It is the UK’s and Europe’s largest telecommunications provider and one of the world’s largest telecommunication companies.
By the early 1990s, BT was increasingly forming international alliances and Geoffrey was part of the legal team supporting this drive. One of his major involvements was with the alliance between BT and MCI Communications, at the time one of the three major US long-distance carriers. In 1994, Geoffrey was seconded to the joint venture between BT and MCI Concert for three years, a period he described as “very exciting times. MCI showed us how to respond quickly to customers’ needs”. The plan developed to the extent of a planned merger between BT and MCI but in 1998, the BT and MCI alliance broke up as WorldCom acquired MCI Communications and was the US's largest communications company after AT&T (in 2002, WorldCom was to be the subject of serious multi-billion dollar accounting fraud dating back years and MCI has now been acquired by Verizon Communications).
After a six-month assignment based in North Virginia, in 1996, Geoffrey spent a year in France immersing himself in the French corporate and legal culture in BT’s quest to acquire a share of Cegetel, the fixed and mobile telecoms company owned by Comagnie Generale des Eaux (CGE) (now Vivendi) and was part of the team responsible for the successful acquisition of 25% of Cegetel’s shares for BT.
In 1999/2000, Geoffrey was also part of the team that created Concert, an international joint venture between BT and AT&T, the US giant and one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world. In April 2002 he was also involved in the highly complex transaction of unwinding Concert, a process he described as “sad”. It involved breaking up a joint venture with assets and businesses in most of the world’s major jurisdictions, amounting to billions of dollars of revenue and contracts with the parents companies’ most significant customers.
In June 2007, Geoffrey was a guest speaker at the Manchester Law Society’s HR annual lunch. His speech, entitled: “Law Firms and the Martini Factor”, was on his firm belief that technology can give lawyers the flexibility to work anywhere, any place, anytime and they need not be shackled to the office – delivering benefits to both employee and employer. However, he is also keen to ensure that technology does not take over people’s lives as their homes and family lives should be respected. According to Geoffrey, “as customers of legal services at BT, we have to make the same kind of judgment as when we are buying a pair of shoes. When I am buying legal services, I am also looking for ethical standards”.
He is the author of Trust in Flexibility, a Corporate Legal supplement looking at the benefits of technology and business best practices within general counsel and corporate legal departments.
Geoffrey is married with two children.
Below is our interview with him:
BLD: What was the best career advice you were given?
GB: It was from Harry Andrews, the senior partner at Dennis Berry many years ago which was: “Don’t jump in with both feet.” This meant that sometimes something may seem very tempting superficially, but it may turn out to be a dog. You would think that is an obvious point, particularly when it comes to making career decisions, but you would be surprised at the number of lawyers who jumped from frying pans into fires.
BLD: What was the worst career advice you were given?
GB: I cannot recall anyone giving me duff advice.
BLD: What is the best career advice you would give to others?
GB: Think of the long term. Think of what you would like life to be like in 20 years’ time.
BLD: If you were to choose another job/role, other than what you are doing, what would it be and why?
GB: Sales would be tempting because a good salesman relies on personal rapport and an ability to convince the customer that there is a win/win to be achieved. I think I have the ability to have rapport with people. Having rapport is something that is mutually beneficial.
BLD: The person you most admire (dead of alive) and why?
GB: Again it’s Harry Andrews, who had a brain the size of a planet, but with an amazing personal touch. He read through every Finance Bill and came up with the most astonishing tax advice. He also had great compassion for people. There were more than 150 people in the firm and he knew them all by name and the names of their husbands and wives, their children too!
BLD: When compiling/choosing/reviewing your panel of external legal advisers, do you also look at their diversity records amongst your other criteria?
GB: Yes, we do. Christine Moore, who is the Head of Employment, is involved in this and has been instrumental in securing BT’s sponsorship of the Law Society Diversity Charter, which aims to bring diversity high on the agenda in the legal procurement process.
BLD: Please tells us what (other) practical steps you are taking, as users of legal services, to ensure that external legal advisers you instruct pay more than lip service to diversity?
GB: When it comes to selection criteria, we have specific steps and procedure to ensure the highest standards of equality and diversity. We look behind the statistics to satisfy ourselves that appropriate standards of diversity are in place.
BLD: What do you consider are the greatest issues/challenges on diversity today?
GB: Complacency. BT is not complacent, but as a country we are complacent. We don’t recognise that we have 60 million people and everyone has something to offer. We think because we have laws regarding discrimination, we are okay. Actually, we are not. We have more to learn from our American cousins.
BLD: The most famous/interesting/challenging case you have had to tackle in your professional role to date.
GB: The most challenging was the Cegetel deal. Much of the discussion was in French but the people involved came from different backgrounds i.e Germany, the US, the UK and of course France, from civil law jurisdictions as opposed to our common law jurisdiction. Personally I learnt an enormous amount. I see this as a high point and it’s is like having tasted the very best champagne!
BLD: What are you most passionate/happiest about?
GB: My two boys.
BLD: What are your dislikes/makes you angry?
GB: Injustice
BLD: If you could rule the world for a day what you change/do?
GB: Ensure that there is justice for everyone – to be treated justly and fairly for a day. Sadly there are people who have never experienced that.