Team size: Eight

What are the most significant cases, projects and/or transactions that you and/or your legal team have recently been involved in?

While I am unable to provide specific details on the transactions, we have undertaken highly structured domestic and cross-border transactions with a myriad of collateral types, including artwork, aircraft, real estate (both commercial and residential) and securities, among others. Each of these, including transactions without any security, poses unique challenges and risks, and ultimately provides an opportunity for our clients and the firm.

Supporting the transformation of the firm has also been at the forefront of 2025 and will continue into 2026. For the Wealth business overall, and for lending and banking products in particular, we are becoming simpler and stronger in our offerings. Not all decisions are easy, and in making them we need to put our clients and the firm first, being pragmatic and flexible, while ensuring that we operate within a sound legal and regulatory framework. I have been fortunate to be, as they say, ‘in the room where it happens’, and to help shape the strategy for the firm’s next chapter.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

Working at a global financial institution with a presence and clients across the globe results in my and my team’s work being influenced by the micro-environment across jurisdictions, as well as the macro political, regulatory, social and economic environments. As a result, it is not uncommon for my team and me to be balancing one or more high-pressure matters or escalations, in addition to revenue-generating transactional work and proactive initiatives. The management of crises and instability requires the proper and effective utilisation of the team and its resources.

My approach to managing disruptions, and instability generally, varies according to the nuances of each situation; however, consistency in how we serve our clients is fundamental. We need to be consistent in providing sound, reasonable and practical advice and counsel to our stakeholders. This requires that we step back, listen, ask the right questions and appreciate the issue(s) from legal, regulatory and other perspectives, and not jump to conclusions. As lawyers, we aim to utilise our technical legal skills to analyse and advise on the law. We are routinely faced with more than one legal option or solution, and I call on my team to always do the right thing. This means doing what is right for our firm, its clients and its many stakeholders.

Foundationally, we aim to be trusted advisers and consiglieri to our clients by understanding the business and its strategy, while manoeuvring and adapting to an ever-changing environment. That level of trust is gained over time, and sometimes over several crises, through the application of judgement. In managing instability, particularly in the current legal and regulatory landscape, we need to be novel, pragmatic and adaptable, which aligns with the broader transformative strategic principles of the business.

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 that you think other in-house lawyers should be mindful of?

The work that we do and, relatedly, the industry in which we practise, are influenced by several trends. I believe these include areas of regulatory focus (such as ESG, privacy, digital currencies, consumer protection and AI) and the continued proliferation of technological advances in banking. Many times, technological advances and client demand move at a faster pace than the speed at which law, regulation and jurisprudence evolve, which requires that we, as lawyers, be forward-thinking, look beyond the law as written and consider its intent.

Socio-economic and political trends will continue to influence the landscape in which we operate and the broader economic environment affecting two-legged individual clients as well as large-scale companies, and we are seeing many proposals to change a number of important regulations, and the way in which they are interpreted.

Since last year, AI has proliferated across all segments, including the legal industry. It is a remarkable tool that all lawyers should become very familiar with and use responsibly to stay ahead. Tasks that once took hours may now be completed in minutes or seconds. AI will also continue to become ‘smarter’ as it is further developed and refined.

How does your team contribute to the overall business strategy of the company? Can you share an example of a recent legal-led initiative that had a significant impact?

The role of Legal is to provide advice and counsel. We do that by applying several key principles to how we work. Principles such as pragmatism, judgement, ownership and proactiveness are key to supporting our firm and our clients. We impact strategy every day, on both micro (for example, transactions and escalations) and macro (the transformation of Citi and the businesses that we support) levels.

As part of the latter, Legal has recently led a significant overhaul of one of our principal lending products, which is aimed at simplifying and enhancing the client experience. This has involved not just a re-creation of legal documentation, but also a review of regulatory touchpoints and their impact, in order to deliver the best products.