The longstanding leader of Akin’s London office, Sebastian Rice, has left the firm to be general counsel at Nasdaq-listed telecoms multinational Veon.
Rice will take up his new role on 1 January 2026 and work out of Veon’s Dubai headquarters. He has spent the past 24 years at Akin, where alongside his role as partner-in-charge of the 160-lawyer London office he led the Geneva office and was co-head of the corporate practice.
His practice focuses on cross-border M&A and private equity transactions. A longstanding adviser to Veon, he acted for the group on its $27.5bn combination with Italian operator Wind Telecom in 2011, which created the world’s sixth largest mobile telecoms provider by number of subscribers. In 2014 he also led the Akin team with firm co-chair Dan Walsh that guided Veon’s $2.6bn disposal by its Egyptian-listed subsidiary Global Telecom Holding of a stake in Orascom Telecom Algérie, the leading Algerian mobile telecoms operator, to the Algerian National Investment Fund.
Walsh said of Rice’s departure: “Sebastian has been an exceptional leader whose impact will continue to be felt across the firm. His contributions – from shaping the growth of our London office to helping define our international strategy – have positioned Akin for continued success. We’re excited for him as he takes this next step with Veon.”
The Veon role is the second in-house for Rice, who speaks Russian and Italian and worked at private equity firm 3i Group as a legal advisor to its European investment teams before joining Akin.
His appointment is part of a wider shakeup in Veon’s leadership as it pushes to grow its digital services business. He will succeed acting general counsel Vitaly Shmakov, who has been appointed as chief investment officer, leading the group’s M&A function, while chief corporate development officer Anand Ramachandran will take on expanded investor relations and investor value creation responsibilities.
Veon serves around 120 million monthly active digital users across Ukraine, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and said Rice’s experience would be “invaluable as the business continues its digital operator transformation across the frontier markets that we serve”.
In August the company, which grew revenue 8.3% in 2024 to just over $4bn, turned to Latham & Watkins when it listed its subsidiary Kyivstar on the Nasdaq, making it the first Ukrainian investment opportunity listed on a US stock exchange.
Meanwhile, Akin’s London office was boosted late last year by the arrival of Cooley’s former London head, Justin Stock, at the helm of a three-partner transactions team. The office also hit Cooley for tax partner Natasha Kaye in March and over the course of 2025 has hired capital solutions partner Daniel Wayte and tech and IP partner Natasha Ahmed from Orrick.
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