Team size: 18

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

I led legal negotiations for multiple multi-jurisdictional, multi-product asset servicing transactions, including the consolidation of an Australian asset management group with $157bn assets under management (AUM); streamlining asset servicing providers for its Irish, UK, Australian and Singapore funds; and the appointment of NT by Partners Group AG to support its semi-liquid fund structures across Luxembourg, Cayman, UK, Ireland, Guernsey and Delaware. I also secured NT’s appointment by two newly established sovereign wealth funds with initial assets of €10-12bn and projected AUM of €100bn by 2035, to provide front, middle and back-office asset servicing solutions.

I was the lead lawyer supporting NT’s project in response to the Sixth Capital Requirements Directive (CRD6) involving consideration of licensing issues, advising upon regulatory mitigation strategies and future operating models.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

Our role in these situations, beyond the pure provision of legal advice, is to ensure a calm, structured and well-governed approach is taken by management. My department will oversee and, at times, tightly control the management of communications both internally and externally so that issues are dealt with in an organised manner.

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

I would say that there are experiences every week that are fairly unique and interesting! The role of in-house counsel sees us constantly swinging at curve balls.

Based on your experiences in the past year, are there any trends in the legal or business world that you are keeping an eye on, of which you think other in-house lawyers should be mindful?

Everyone is going to say AI in response to this, but my focus is how we respond to ever increasing demands of regulators on operational resiliency, governance and risk management practices. As regulators globally respond at a different pace to each other on these topics, coordinating our response to new requirements is an ongoing and daily challenge.