Team size: 176

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

After the successful acquisition of Refinitiv — a global financial market data and infrastructure provider — for US$27bn in 2021, we have focused on delivering LSEG’s strategic growth objectives.

Key legal and compliance initiatives have concerned multiple acquisitions and disposals, totalling £6bn. Among the most notable, there are the disposal and separation of the €4.3bn Borsa Italiana; the purchase of Maystreet — a global low-latency technology and market data provider; GDC — a global identity verification data provider; Tora —a multi-asset fund trading system; and Quantile — subject to antitrust approval — a provider of portfolio margin and capital optimisation and compression services. We are also executing a full-scale carve-out of BETA, Digital Investor and Maxit.

Additionally, we have established a £10bn global medium-term note programme to execute a multi-currency bond offer to refinance indebtedness taken on as part of the Refinitiv acquisition.

The legal team has had a pivotal role in delivering an innovative project to design, construct, and operate a new technology centre offshore; to enable the transformation of LSEG’s technology capability.

Our priority has been accelerating revenue generation while enabling the delivery of the Group’s strategic goals through contracting initiatives. By implementing greater automation, we could reduce the time from prospect to contract to sign, expanding our partner outsourcing model, and enabling us to flex our resourcing to meet the company’s demands.

The legal team has been at the forefront of driving material strides in ESG commitments. Through the LSEG Foundation, we could provide equal access to economic opportunities. The introduction of our pro-bono programme has tremendously impacted talent development, diversity, equity and inclusion. Within the Legal and Compliance Team (L&C), 59% of colleagues are female — 80% in our leadership team — and 22% are ethnically diverse.

Did the pandemic lead to a lasting increase in the interaction your legal team has with the strategic plans of the company?

The L&C team has always been a strategic partner to the executive committee and leadership team. The pandemic has allowed our local thought-leaders to shine and contribute to the country-by-country crises as they unfolded. L&C led the response on vaccine support across our offices globally and will continue to leverage this new multi-layer partnership.

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values?

LSEG’s mission is to influence the market and society for a sustainable economy for all. Vendors go through a rigorous process to ensure they align with our values. We expect these to be reflected in our partnership on an ongoing basis. We also provide guidance to vendors on how to shape their own inclusion strategies and become effective and valued LSEG partners.

Catherine Johnson