The Cadbury legal team has taken the blue ribbon at the inaugural Lawyers Weekly Icon Awards, with the team taking home the 2010 Dolman In-house Lawyer or Team Award at a ceremony held in Sydney on Thursday night.

The judges commended Cadbury chief counsel Karen Perret for leading her team of lawyers through the company's transition to becoming part of Kraft Foods in February this year, as well as the department's work on key deals, including the $1.2 billion sale of Schweppes' beverages business, settling Cadbury's high profile intellectual property litigation with Darrell Lea, launching fair-trade certified chocolate as part of the Cadbury CSR agenda and developing a new online content and social media legal policy.

The judges awarded a Highly Commended to fellow finalist Suzanne Greenwood for her role as Corporate Counsel & Company Secretary for St Vincent's & Holy Spirit Health, in which she has developed a new database for contract management processes, updated the precedent library, overhauled tendering processes, and provide legal advice on large infrastructure projects being undertaken by the group, in her role as the organisations first ever in-house lawyer.

Other finalists in the in-house award category, included Vanessa Maruna's Perpetual Legal Team and the Pregno Family Investments Legal Team.

The 2010 Lawyers Weekly Icon Awards, recognising excellence, innovation and leadership in the Australian legal profession, were held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, in Sydney on Thursday.

>> Click here to read the full report on all the 2010 Lawyers Weekly Icon Award winners, and don't miss full coverage of the event in the special Lawyers Weekly 500th edition, on desks on 27 August, 2010.

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