Mr Geanacopoulos took over as GC at Volkswagen Group of America seven years ago. Before that he had been director of industry – government relations. He is, the Volkswagen website says, 'responsible for the company’s legal affairs in the United States, for government relations, and public affairs'. 

Level of knowledge

At General Motors, it was sustained that the general counsel was not kept fully abreast of issues surrounding the faulty ignition switch. Experts say that it is too early to say how much the senior legal team at Volkswagen knew about the company's practice in relation to 11 million vehicles in which the emissions performance disclosed to regulators worked at its proper level only when being tested. Joseph Grundfest, professor of corporate governance at Stanford Law School, said: 'I don’t want to speculate here. I can contemplate situations in which the lawyers were as fooled as anyone, and situations in which some lawyers were in it up to their farfegnugens.'

Class actions

Kirkland & Ellis, the firm which acted for BP over Gulf of Mexico oil leak claims, is to act for Volkswagen as other firms begin to bring class action suits against the carmaker. Suits have already been brought in the US by Clifford Law and Hagens Berman. The German carmaker has admitted that it fixed the design on 11 million vehicles to cheat on its emission testing results. 

Business-critical

On its litigation experience, the 1,600-lawyer, Chicago-based international firm says it has earned its reputation 'by successfully representing companies involved in business-critical lawsuits and class actions'. Sources: The Guardian; Bloomberg Business of Law