Back to the Cole-face for lawyer who won Maxwell pension case
MARGARET Cole’s move to in-house counsel at PwC marks a return to her original career as a lawyer, which has included stints as commercial litigation partner at both Stephenson Harwood and US firm White & Case.
Her first high-profile role came back in the early nineties, when she represented pension fund trustees in their recovery of some of the estimated £400m that it was revealed Robert Maxwell had used to shore up the Mirror’s balance sheet prior to his death.
In 1995 she moved to White & Case to head up its dispute resolution team, staying for a decade before jumping ship to the FSA, where she became the regulator’s most effective enforcement director ever.
Cole’s move to PwC is likely to mean a significant pay rise from the estimated £340,000 she banked at the regulator last year. She is the latest in a string of public sector recruits at the firm, following in the footsteps of ex-Monetary Policy Committee member Andrew Sentance, who joined the big four accountant as a senior economic adviser in November last year.