Career Biography

Justine Jones is the General Counsel for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the Regional General Counsel for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey (MENAT) region for HSBC.

Jones leads a team of over 60 lawyers and legal professionals who advise across all aspects of HSBC’s business within the MENAT region. With a presence in seven markets and an offering that includes retail banking, wealth, private banking, commercial banking, investment banking and markets and securities services, Jones leads an on-the-ground full-service team comprising subject matter experts in a wide variety of disciplines. Jones is a member of HSBC’s Regional Executive Committee, the UAE Executive Committee and Global Legal Executive Committee.

Jones’ team is recognised as best in class, having received the In-house Legal Team of the Year (International Bank) award from the International Financial Law Review Middle East Awards for the last five consecutive years.

Jones invests significant time in developing others. As a Co-Executive Sponsor of the HSBC Global Legal People Programme, she recently led a pillar under which individuals across the global legal function come together to design and promote initiatives for the purposes of “Developing our People”.

In addition, Jones takes on a prominent role in the HSBC inclusion agenda – she is the Co-Executive Sponsor of HSBC MENAT Balance, an employee resource group which focusses on career progression with gender intelligence, as well as being a Co-Executive Sponsor of HSBC MENAT’s Wellbeing Initiative.

Originally from the United Kingdom, Jones has lived and worked in the UAE for over 16 years. Prior to joining HSBC in 2015, Jones worked at Linklaters LLP in its London, New York and Dubai offices, specialising in structured finance, capital markets and Islamic finance. Since joining HSBC, she has worked in various positions within the Legal team, including Regional Head of Global Banking and Markets Legal, MENAT and Regional Head of Commercial Banking Legal, MENAT. Jones assumed the role of UAE General Counsel and Regional General Counsel, MENAT in July 2022.

In 2023, Justine was inducted into the International Financial Law Review Middle East Women Dealmakers Hall of Fame.

Interview questions – the responses to these questions are confidential – please do not publish anything below without prior approval:

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

As the most senior lawyer in the MENAT region, Jones has been involved in many projects over the last 12 months, including (but not limited to): the sale of HSBC’s retail business in Bahrain; the establishment of a new branch in Oman; implementation of evolving regulatory requirements, e.g. Open Banking in the UAE; enhancements to HSBC’s retail and wealth propositions, including the launch of the HSBC/Skywards Co-Brand Credit Card and the new World Trader investment platform in the UAE; and corporate and investment banking transactions for our customers, many of which have contributed to HSBC being recognised as Middle East’s ‘Best Investment Bank’, ‘Best Investment Bank for Equity Capital Markets’ and ‘Best Bank for Sustainable Finance’ at this year’s Euromoney Middle East awards.

What do you think are the most important attributes for a modern in-house counsel to possess?

The role of in-house counsel is to be a trusted business partner, helping the company to achieve its ambitions in a safe and sustainable way. To achieve this, it is not enough to be technically excellent in your particular area of expertise within law, that is taken for granted.

In fact, stakeholders often believe that you are an expert in all aspects of law and so a good in-house counsel can recognise what they do not know and have the right network to be able to ask the right questions of the right people at the right time. In addition, strong in-house counsel need: great communication, negotiation and diplomacy skills; an open mind and inherent curiosity; a deep commercial understanding of the business, its customers, the markets in which it operates (including the applicable legal and regulatory frameworks); strong analytical skills; an understanding of the various influences on the business, its regulators, the market and customers (including economic developments, ESG, geo-politics, regulatory developments, jurisdictional ambitions, technological evolutions); a commercial solutions-orientated approach; and a growth mindset – counsel need to stay up to date not only with current developments that might be relevant but also to look around corners and predict what the future risks and opportunities might be.

How do you prioritise diversity and inclusion within your legal department, and what initiatives have you implemented to foster a more inclusive work environment?

Jones takes on a prominent role in the HSBC inclusion agenda inside and outside of the legal function. She is co-sponsor of HSBC MENAT Balance, an employee resource group focussing on career progression with gender intelligence, and sponsor of HSBC MENAT’s Wellbeing Initiative. Jones has hosted and spoken at a number of internal and external events in the last 12 months, partnering with clients and other industry participants to help raise awareness and move forward the discussion on inclusion.

The Legal team within HSBC MENAT is very diverse with positive gender balance and team members from over 18 different nationalities. To enable everyone to bring their true self to work and to ensure diversity remains within the team, Jones has run a number of psychological safety initiatives, including exchanges, skip level meetings and trainings and has implemented practices such as blind CVs, balanced hiring panels, etc. In addition, Jones champions flexible working (alongside hybrid working) to ensure that team members can find the best balance for themselves between personal and professional commitments.