Team size: 43

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

In 2024, Liberty created Liberty International Insurance, a $6.5bn business bringing together Liberty’s businesses based outside North America under one executive management team, providing retail, commercial and specialty (re)insurance products for businesses across the globe. In Asia, this included the unification of our Retail and Commercial & Specialty business operations under a single unified strategy. The strategic aim was to allow Liberty to further enable global capabilities through local execution, to meet the evolving needs of our clients and broker partners and helping them to thrive in an uncertain world. So, over the past 12 months the International Insurance Legal team has been focussed on helping to shape an operating model that delivers an integrated business, rooted in underwriting excellence and risk expertise while providing exceptional service and value.

This involves the integration of legal entities and management structures to ensure that the business can achieve its strategic aims in the most effective and efficient way, and providing a deliberate, consistent and accessible offering to our broker partners and clients. We do this via diverse, local, globally connected, teams who have a deep level of knowledge and expertise in the needs and strategic objectives of the local businesses, and the legal and regulatory environment in which they operate, and well as knowledge of where else within the wider Legal Department other pools of relevant expertise lie. By approaching issues using the best talent and best ideas from across the globe, we ensure the best possible outcomes for our valued clients and stakeholders. While we obviously acknowledge the legal and regulatory differences between countries and regions, our integrity-first approach means that there are more similarities than differences when it comes to legal and corporate governance best practice and our transparent and constructive relationships with our regulators.

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

Integrity, strategic awareness, and a commitment to high performance. While we transform our ways of working, embracing the digital and legal tech evolution, in a rapidly changing legal and regulatory environment and increasingly uncertain world, these fundamental attributes remain constant. My teams provide far more than legal advice alone; as well as being partners with them in safeguarding Liberty’s integrity-first reputation and brand, we are valuable strategic partners to our business leaders. Our inclusive, equitable, and high-performing teams have a deep understanding of the business strategy which enables us to focus our advice and problem-solving expertise where they add the most value and help the business to be risk aware, not risk averse.

What strategies do you employ to ensure the successful digital transformation of a legal department while maintaining compliance with your country’s data protection laws?

Our Legal teams are at the forefront of the digital transformation, both for the teams themselves, and the rapid digital transformation of the business as a whole, to ensure we respond to client needs. With teams embedded in businesses around the globe, we avoid a fragmented or inconsistent approach, while allowing for local-first execution to meet client needs. We have therefore implemented a single framework of principles incorporating applicable laws and regulations, to be adopted across all businesses and regions worldwide, while being flexible to accommodate to any regional business and regulatory requirements.