Joanna Nayler – GC Powerlist
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United Kingdom 2019

Joanna Nayler

Insurance | Just Group

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United Kingdom 2019

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Joanna Nayler

Insurance | Just Group

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Team size: 12
Major law firms used: Clyde & Co, Eversheds Sutherland, Herbert Smith Freehills, Hogan Lovells, Macfarlanes, Pinsent Masons, Slaughter and May, Taylor Wessing”

Joanna Nayler, group GC at Just Group, has been credited for bringing her legal department closer to the front line of the retirement market-focused life insurer. She is a self-confessed ‘risk management specialist’, overseeing legal risk across the FTSE-listed company, but she has also advised on substantial deals.

Nayler joined Partnership Assurance Group in 2013 as GC and advised on its merger with Just Retirement Group to form the Just Group in 2016. ‘The merger was a really lengthy process. We worked with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer on a scheme of arrangement deal, which had to be sanctioned by the courts. Both companies did pretty similar things and it was a merger of equals.’
In August last year, Just Group acquired a 75% stake in the holding company of Corinthian Pension Consulting, which led to Nayler stepping outside of her role as GC. ‘As business lead, I enjoyed leading a cross-functional team on the due diligence assessment and acquisition of the business.’

She oversaw a smooth transaction within five months of initial due diligence. ‘GCs are being exposed to more areas of businesses nowadays. There is more of a crossover into corporate governance and regulatory advice.’

The Just Group does not have a formal panel but will typically go to two or three law firms a time for work. Efforts to bring legal work more in-house since the merger saw the company save £150,000 in 2018. ‘The goal now is to replicate this in other parts of the team by streamlining work so the business can become more self-sufficient,’ says Nayler.

Her advice to aspiring GCs is to ‘worry less’ and seize opportunities. ‘In my previous job as legal counsel at ACE European Group [now Chubb], I was seconded to a European subsidiary that was in distress. That was a big step outside of my comfort zone, but I learnt a huge amount.’

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