Team size: 19

What are the key projects that you have been involved in over the past 12 months?

2024 was a transformative year for Keywords Studios and an important one for our legal team. The most significant milestone was the public-to-private acquisition of Keywords Studios, through a UK scheme of arrangement, with the business acquired by a consortium led by EQT, alongside the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Temasek. Valued at approximately $2.8bn, the transaction resulted in the company’s delisting from AIM, the London Stock Exchange’s market, in October 2024. It was an intensive, high-stakes process, requiring cross-border coordination, regulatory expertise, and continuous stakeholder engagement.

Alongside the takeover, we completed four strategic acquisitions, namely Robot Circus (Australia), Bright White (UK), Wushu Studios (UK) and Certain Affinity (USA), which have further strengthened our capabilities across our game development and creative services.

We also progressed Project Ava, our in-house R&D initiative exploring the use of generative AI in 3D game production. This project, which involved extensive cross-functional collaboration between our production and legal teams, built on our prior 2D initiative and involved multidisciplinary collaboration across our global studio network. The initiative has helped inform our responsible AI strategy and approach to emerging technologies.

Have you had any experiences during your career as a lawyer that stand out as particularly unique or interesting?

One experience that stands out was the coordinated relocation of our production operations out of Russia in response to geopolitical events across 2022 and 2023. The project required urgent action, tight organisation, and collaboration across production and the legal, HR, operations and information security functions, all under significant pressure and uncertainty. We successfully transitioned to new operational hubs in Poland, Serbia, Armenia, Malta and the UAE, minimising disruption to our clients while safeguarding our people. It remains one of the most challenging and ultimately rewarding projects the legal team has been involved in.

What do you think are the most important attributes for a modern in-house counsel to possess?

In-house counsel today must be much more than technical legal advisors. The most effective in-house lawyers are commercial, pragmatic, and embedded in the fabric of the business. It’s essential to understand the industry in which your organisation operates, in our case the fast-evolving world of video games, media and entertainment, and technology, and to use that insight to offer proactive, solution-focused guidance.

Modern in-house counsel need to be comfortable making judgment calls, not just identifying risks, but also helping the business navigate and manage them. That means balancing governance and agility, enabling innovation while safeguarding the organisation. Curiosity, resilience, and adaptability are also essential, particularly as emerging technologies and regulatory change continue to reshape our operating environment.