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

Having completed several acquisitions, we are now busy integrating newly acquired subsidiaries while at the same time preparing to roll out payment services in several EU locations. This involves work in a wide array of legal disciplines from corporate to employment law, tax, as well as financial regulation and related disciplines such as data protection, eIDAS, and other aspects of tech regulation. We try to take the lead in everything, apart from tax, in-house, complemented by external experts as needed.

As a licensed institution, a key focus always has to be on regulatory compliance, while as a scale up, the focus also needs to be on ensuring commercial success. I attempt to balance this by leveraging technology, so as to ensure not only that data is correct and up to date, but also to minimise the manual work needed for reporting according to frameworks like DORA.

Generally, almost everything I do is covered by laws originating from the EU. Working across jurisdictions often involves differing implementations of the same frameworks, so a key goal is to find solutions that truly take advantage of harmonisation as much as possible while allowing for practical differences.

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

I remember when I was fresh out of law school, and my first manager gave me a book by Lawrence Lessig, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, which had a profound impact on my understanding of the relationship between technology and law. I have been lucky enough to work amongst highly skilled IT developers in two of my jobs and, from the beginning of my career, have been able to both use and observe the impact technology has on the law.

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

In addition to understanding the business you are there to support, and being able to use technology safely and efficiently, a key attribute is knowing what you don’t know, and, as a consequence, when you need to consult experts.

Also, experience provides for better decisions on what fights to take, and what fights to walk away from.

What is a cause, business or otherwise, that you are passionate about?

Defending demoracy in Europe. Ensuring Ukrainian victory.