About

Team size: 24
Major law firms used: Allen & Overy, Sidley Austin, Wiggin

When Ruwan De Soyza, deputy group GC of Worldpay, moves on later this year, the newly merged payment-processing giant will be losing a credit to the in-house profession.

De Soyza made his name as an in-house lawyer at Standard Chartered, working there at the height of the financial crisis. As a result of that harsh experience, the resident headaches of 2018, such as Brexit and GDPR, have been burdensome but manageable.

Factoring in the small matter of the world’s largest-ever merger of payment-processing companies (US-based Vantiv bought Worldpay for £9bn in 2017) and the resulting surge of integration work, even De Soyza could be excused for being flustered. ‘Brexit on its own would’ve been enough!’ he quips.

The integration, which has seen a mass-migration of people to Vantiv’s Cincinnati base, is going smoothly according to De Soyza, but he notes it is ‘touching every member of the legal team’. Aside from the logistical hurdles, De Soyza and his team had to match up with the legacy Vantiv in-house function in terms of external counsel. He was keen for the Worldpay ethos not to be lost: ‘We’ve always operated a relatively slim panel of preferred law firms. Since the merger, we have retained that methodology. In terms of billing, we expect discounts where they can apply.’

De Soyza was able to successfully argue his case – Worldpay has largely retained its roster of preferred advisers, which has historically included Allen & Overy, Sidley Austin and Wiggin.
But having steadied the ship following the blockbuster combination, the new-look Worldpay will have to manage without De Soyza, who will decamp to a FTSE 100 technology company in a GC and executive committee role later this year.

His human qualities will be among the most missed. He concludes: ‘My mantra is “work hard, do well, but be nice”. Being approachable and helpful is so important.’