Team size: 5 legal advisors + 1 head of department

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

Over the past twelve months, I have been a key contributor to the establishment of the Portugal branch of Bank Julius Baer Europe S.A., leading the legal workstream of this strategically important project. Acting as the interface between the bank’s business objectives and the legal and regulatory requirements across multiple jurisdictions, I coordinated all legal aspects required to enable on-premise operations in Portugal.

My role included managing interactions with external law firms, regulators and public authorities in both Luxembourg and Portugal, while providing guidance on a broad range of legal topics, including branch passporting, regulatory and governance requirements, conduct rules, labour law and tenancy matters. By ensuring effective stakeholder alignment and timely resolution of legal and regulatory challenges, I helped drive the project forward and support key business decisions.

The project was successfully completed within a twelve-month timeframe, culminating in the transfer of existing clients and employees and the successful launch of the Portugal branch on 1 January 2026. This achievement enabled the bank to establish a fully operational local presence in Portugal while maintaining compliance with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

What key trends should in-house counsel be monitoring over the coming months?

One of the most important trends that in-house counsel should monitor over the coming months, no surprise, is the reasonable and hands-on integration of large language models (LLMs) and artificial intelligence into day-to-day legal practice. Rather than simply replacing traditional research tools, these technologies have the potential to act as strong multipliers, enabling legal teams to enhance productivity, improve the quality and consistency of their work and better manage limited resources. For in-house legal functions, the opportunity lies in leveraging AI to streamline routine tasks, accelerate legal analysis, support document drafting and free up capacity for more strategic advisory work. At the same time, it is critical to avoid overreliance on AI-generated outputs.

Current models are not free from inaccuracies and may produce incomplete or incorrect results. As a consequence, one of the key responsibilities of in-house counsel will be to critically assess, validate and challenge AI-generated recommendations rather than accepting them at face value. Legal judgment, experience and professional scepticism will remain essential. Furthermore, particular attention must be paid to safeguarding client data, protecting intellectual property (IP) and ensuring that the use of AI solutions complies with applicable legal and regulatory requirements. Balancing the benefits of innovation with appropriate risk management will be a defining task for in-house counsel in the years ahead.

Organisations are facing increasing regulation across jurisdictions. How do you embed compliance across the business?

Given Bank Julius Baer Europe S.A.’s extensive branch network in Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, as well as its cross-border activities across the European Economic Area under the freedom to provide services regime, embedding compliance requires a coordinated and forward-looking approach. Regulatory monitoring cannot be limited to Luxembourg and European legislation alone. It must also encompass the legal and regulatory developments in each branch jurisdiction and the countries in which cross-border services are provided. To achieve this, it is essential to maintain a strong network of internal and external stakeholders capable of identifying and assessing regulatory changes at an early stage. In my experience, a combination of close cooperation between local functions and central governance, supported by a skilled and well-connected external consultancy partner, is particularly effective. Such an approach strengthens regulatory horizon scanning, helps assess potential business impacts and enables the timely implementation of necessary compliance measures across the organisation.

How do you manage situations where legal advice and commercial objectives conflict?

My opinion is that Legal should be a business partner, not merely a control function, always being able to develop a complaint and commercially viable way forward. My objective is to understand the underlying business need and work with stakeholders to identify solutions that appropriately balance risk and opportunity. Where legal and commercial objectives diverge, I focus on enabling informed and transparent decision-making by clearly articulating risks, available options and their implications. Thereafter, it is all about managing risks properly, based on a robust risk management framework.

Have you had any particularly unique or defining experiences during your legal career?

While I wouldn’t describe my path as unique, my career has allowed me to gain diverse experience across several areas of the banking sector. I began in corporate lending at a universal bank, then moved into drafting documentation for secondary market transactions and loan trading activities, and ultimately landed in private wealth management.