Team size: 100+ lawyers

Jacqueline Schrader is a Managing Director at HSBC, where she serves as Regional Head of Legal for Corporate & Institutional Banking across Asia and Deputy General Counsel International, based in Hong Kong. A seasoned general counsel, she has over 20 years’ experience in legal, governance and commercial roles at top-tier financial institutions.

In her current role, Jacqueline is the strategic legal partner to senior Corporate & Institutional Banking leaders across the region, leading all lawyers supporting the bank’s Corporate & Institutional Banking businesses encompassing credit and capital management, capital markets, structured and strategic financing and transaction banking. She has regional responsibility for legal teams spanning seven markets across Asia and is a member of the Asia & Middle East Legal Leadership Team and the Group Legal Leadership Team.

Jacqueline joined HSBC in April 2023 as General Counsel Singapore and Deputy General Counsel International. In that role, she was principal legal adviser to the CEO, Board and Executive Committee and led all lawyers in Singapore— a priority market and international hub. She directed legal strategy across the bank’s banking, wealth management and markets businesses, and focused on operational change including leadership development, technology adoption and improvements in execution, risk management and cost efficiency.

Prior to HSBC, Jacqueline spent 14 years at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in senior legal and commercial roles based in Sydney and Hong Kong. As Executive General Manager and General Counsel Group Services Legal, she led large, multi-disciplinary teams across the legal function, directed the Group’s regulatory engagement strategy and enforcement response, and managed a material portfolio of investigations and litigation.

During her time at the Commonwealth Bank, Jacqueline also led the bank’s response to Australia’s landmark Financial Services Royal Commission, where she established and directed a substantial cross-functional team and worked closely with the CEO and Board to manage material legal, regulatory and reputational risks. She held the commercial role of General Manager in the Group Strategy team, where she co-led work on the bank’s strategic direction with a focus on international and digital strategy, and served as a director of x15 Ventures, the Group’s innovation vehicle, providing strategic counsel on fintech incubation, investment and partnerships.

Earlier in her career, Jacqueline held legal roles at Macquarie Group after beginning her career at Blake Dawson Waldron (now Ashurst) as a financial services and corporate lawyer. She holds a Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours and a Bachelor of Business from the University of Technology, Sydney, a Graduate Diploma of Corporate Securities and Finance Law from the University of Sydney and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

In an increasingly complex global environment, how are you helping your organisation navigate risk while still supporting growth?

As Regional Head of Legal for Corporate & Institutional Banking across Asia, I lead the legal teams supporting HSBC’s growth ambitions in some of the world’s most dynamic — and complex — markets. My remit spans client relationship management, transaction banking, capital markets, structured finance, private credit, innovation banking, leveraged acquisition and strategic financing, infrastructure, and aviation and maritime financing across multiple jurisdictions. I also have responsibility for the in-country GCs and legal teams across seven markets in Asia.

Navigating risk while enabling growth requires a legal function that operates as a genuine strategic partner rather than a gatekeeper or arms’ length adviser. I have focused on building teams that understand external context, business strategy, financial performance, and commercial operations so that they provide practical, solution-focused advice that is fit for purpose and audience. This approach has been shaped by over 20 years’ experience in-house at financial institutions, including a period co-leading the strategy team at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, where I developed a close understanding of how strategic, commercial and risk considerations intersect.

At a practical level, I work closely with senior Corporate & Institutional Banking leaders and country CEOs to ensure legal risk is managed proactively – issues are identified early and managed proportionately, so the business can move at pace where the risk-reward profile supports it. Experience in regulatory enforcement and crisis management — including leading the Commonwealth Bank’s response to Australia’s Financial Services Royal Commission — has reinforced the importance of preparedness and a calm, structured approach to decision-making under pressure, while maintaining a forward-looking, growth mindset.

How has the role of General Counsel evolved in recent years, and where do you see GCs creating the most value today?

The GC role has evolved considerably — from legal risk manager to enterprise-wide strategic adviser. Today’s GC is expected to combine sound legal judgment with commercial acumen, cultural fluency and the ability to translate complexity into actionable guidance for CEOs, Boards and senior leadership teams.

I see GCs creating the most value where they connect legal, strategic and operational perspectives — linking regulatory change, geopolitical risk, technological disruption and commercial opportunity into a coherent view for the business. The credibility to do this comes from genuinely understanding how the business creates value, not only how it manages risk. Having held a non-legal strategy leadership role earlier in my career, this commercial and strategic grounding helps me contribute more broadly to leadership and business discussions.

General Counsels also create lasting value through the quality of the teams they build. A well-led, commercially oriented legal function — one that is genuinely embedded within the business and focused on the quality of its legal thinking, risk management and commercial contribution — is a source of real competitive advantage. In an environment increasingly shaped by AI and automation, that human capability becomes more, not less, important.

What does effective leadership look like for a General Counsel today, and where do GCs have the most impact?

Effective GC leadership today requires strategic clarity, execution discipline and the ability to develop talent. Technical excellence is a given; beyond that, a GC must set a clear direction for the legal team, align it with business priorities and create an environment where lawyers think broadly about the commercial and strategic contribution they can make — not just the legal risk they manage.

In my view, GCs have the most impact when they build teams that are genuine business partners — commercially aware, proactive and equipped to operate with confidence across complex, multi-jurisdictional environments. When I joined HSBC as GC for Singapore, I worked with the team to evolve our operating model, strengthen business partnerships, develop leadership capability and embed technology into day-to-day practice. That process — approached collaboratively and with transparency — reinforced my view that investing in people and ways of working delivers lasting improvements in performance and engagement. It also underscored something I have observed throughout my career: the most effective legal teams are built on a foundation of trust, clarity of purpose and a genuine commitment to the success of the business they support.

General Counsels also lead most effectively when they are comfortable with ambiguity, innovation and risk — advising senior stakeholders with confidence. Having navigated regulatory investigations, crisis management and complex cross-border issues across Asia and Australia, a combination of composure and judgment is one of the most important qualities a GC can bring.

How do you build and maintain a strong legal team?

Building a strong legal team starts with clarity of purpose: every team member should understand how their work connects to the broader business and contributes to meaningful outcomes. I invest in developing leadership capability, set high performance standards, and ensure that development and succession planning are ongoing priorities.

Over the course of my career, I have had the opportunity to build and develop legal teams across several organisations and jurisdictions. The common thread has been a focus on ensuring teams are commercially aware, engaged and structured to operate as genuine partners to the business.

A strong legal team is a source of real value to an organisation – through the quality of its legal thinking, its contribution to risk management and commercial decision-making, and its role as a strategic partner to the business.

The GC’s responsibility is to champion that value: to ensure the organisation understands what a high-performing legal function contributes, and to create the conditions in which lawyers can do their best work.

That foundation of value is also what makes it possible to have a constructive conversation about how legal services are delivered and how the function evolves.

AI is now central to that cost and efficiency conversation and more significant than a productivity tool. It will drive a structural shift in how legal work is defined, delivered and valued. It is already changing which tasks are performed by lawyers, which are automated, and which are augmented. Over time, it will reshape roles within legal teams, alter how legal departments are organised and redefine the relationship between in-house teams and external advisers.

What makes this shift important for legal leadership is that it does not diminish the qualities that define a highly effective GC and legal team, it amplifies them. When routine analysis, document review and information retrieval are handled by technology, what differentiates a strong legal function is the quality of its human capability. Three key qualities, in particular, matter more in an AI-enabled environment, not less.

The first is commercial understanding — the ability to connect legal advice to business outcomes and organisational strategy. That context is what makes legal advice genuinely useful – when it is connected to what the business is trying to achieve.

The second is strategic judgment — knowing what matters, identifying risk and navigating ambiguity. The ability to prioritise and advise decisively becomes more valuable when information is abundant.

The third is leadership capability — the ability to inspire and develop a team and drive a culture of legal excellence. As AI reshapes the work lawyers do, the leadership challenge becomes about helping people adapt and build new skills, and maintaining a culture where legal thinking and commercial understanding come together with new ways of working.

Equally, I prioritise diversity and inclusion — hiring for potential and adaptability as well as experience and fostering an environment where all team members can contribute meaningfully. A team that reflects diverse perspectives is better equipped to serve a complex, international business and to navigate the kind of change that AI will continue to bring.