In-House Counsel

I wrote before on the convergence program of Linde Group (See my post of June 18, 2007.). More information about its circumstances appear in FocusEurope, Summer 2008, at 31. The article mentions that both Honeywell and Brady Corporation have chosen a single firm to handle all their legal work in Europe or adjoining regions. Brady asked eight firms to pitch for work worth more than $1 million annually.

Just before the shrinkage of law firms from 150 to five firms, General Counsel Nick Deeming had survived the $16 billion acquisition of the BOC Group. In fact, Deeming was the group legal director of BOC so he must have been promoted over Linde?s legal director. [Typically, the acquiring company?s top lawyer takes over the combined department.].

Asked to find synergies between the merged law departments, Deeming ?ultimately reduced the size of the in-house team from 100 to around 60,? which amounts to almost a 40 percent downsizing (See my posts of Sept.13, 2005: Honeywell and Oracle and the layoffs that result from mergers; Feb. 19, 2007: BellSouth/AT&T; and May 5, 2008: morale consequences of layoffs.). The article does not make clear the degree to which the layoffs were lawyers or non-lawyers. Is there any connection that Deeming himself left Linde shortly after the bloodbath, in June 2007?