Team size: 200

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

Few legal teams can truly say that much of the work they do is unprecedented. Fewer still have a hand in writing the laws they uphold and only a handful wake up to hear about their work of the day in the morning’s news.

The Legal Directorate provides legal support across the Bank’s full remit and our key daily task is to meet the significant demand to provide high quality, pragmatic and expert advice to identify and mitigate the Bank’s legal risk so colleagues can deliver on our collective mission for the UK public. Our work ranges from public law and legislative drafting to litigation, financial services regulation and corporate governance.

Increasingly, at the Bank, our work involves helping business areas develop their risk appetite from scratch or fundamentally revisit an existing risk appetite given the changing external context in many ways.

The last year has seen the Legal Directorate navigate a particularly intense and high-profile period as it supports the Bank’s strategic priorities. Innovative, digital and technological changes that affect financial services, financial market infrastructure and payment systems require regulatory reform, and the Bank has been at the forefront of these discussions and regulatory transformations.

The Legal Directorate has also played a key role in the responsible adoption of AI within the Bank, and the evolving supervisory approach and regulation of adoption of AI in the financial services sector, as well as leading the Bank’s engagement with the Treasury Committee’s inquiry into AI in financial services. Given the potential transformative effect on the UK economy, the Bank continues to explore both the opportunities and risks associated with AI adoption in the financial sector.

An exciting cross-functional project in which the Legal Directorate has played a central role, is the launch of the Contingent NBFI Repo Facility, the Bank’s first-ever facility for non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs). This initiative required not only deep legal expertise, but also the ability to navigate novel regulatory, operational and governance challenges, working closely with internal and external stakeholders including the Prudential Regulation Authority, Financial Conduct Authority and overseas regulators.

The Bank supervises Financial Market Infrastructures (FMIs) to safeguard financial stability, ensuring they meet rigorous standards for risk management, resilience and operational continuity. A type of FMI that the Bank supervises is a Central Counterparty (CCP) – a financial institution that acts as an intermediary between buyers and sellers in financial markets, ensuring the completion of trades even if one party defaults. The Bank has recently been granted new rule-making powers under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 in relation to CCPs. These powers enable the Bank to establish a more tailored and flexible regulatory framework by replacing firm-facing requirements from retained EU legislation with its own rules. The Legal Directorate has been responsible for the drafting of these new rules – a huge task that has required close collaboration with clients, HMT and other stakeholders. This represents a significant milestone for the Bank and Legal Directorate, with it being the first exercise of a substantive new power in the FMI regulatory space.

These projects reflect the breadth and complexity of the Bank’s legal remit, and the Legal Directorate is proud to have contributed to the Bank’s mission through rigorous legal analysis, strategic foresight and collaborative leadership.

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

General counsel roles across the board must be adaptive and reactive. The modern GC role has shifted from purely legal advisory to being a strategic business partner, helping to navigate complex geopolitical risks.

You are not merely providing advice; you are acting as a Counsel to all peers, a guide who is tasked with providing comprehensive advice in areas far beyond the legal framework alone.

In a crisis, the GC role moves to centre stage but even in BaU, GCs increasingly find themselves cast in the role of risk custodian and consigliere. GCs are expected to not only contribute to business strategy and reputation management, but also to play a pivotal role in risk mitigation. That means staying close to the business and our clients, understanding its drivers, and being part of the decision-making process rather than simply reacting to it.

GCs must possess the foresight to identify and address emerging risks before they mature into more pressing concerns, ensuring the organisation is sufficiently equipped to handle potential disruptions.

In this role, one of the most important attributes is the ability to provide counsel and participate in complex, senior decision-making at pace, and in a context of uncertainty. The moments that test you most are precisely when your counsel is most needed. In those moments, it’s not enough to be the person in the room with legal expertise: you need to foster confidence and steadiness.

Equally, the modern GC must be relentlessly curious and stay informed through daily briefings with the Governor, participation in policy committees, and a steady diet of podcasts and publications — from the Financial Times to Oliver Wyman and FTI briefings. This is not just about staying current; it’s about being ready to advise in real time, with the optimal information to hand.

Finally, resilience matters. This is a demanding role. The pace can be relentless. You have to make time for extra-curriculum activities that motivate you, such as exercise and/or charitable work, to stay grounded and model that balance for your team.

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

The Legal Directorate places diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) at the heart of its culture and operations. Each member of the Legal Directorate’s Leadership Team has made it a personal and strategic objective to actively support Bank-wide DE&I initiatives, embedding them into our performance objectives, mentoring programmes, recruitment practices and knowledge-sharing efforts. Our approach is grounded in the conviction that a diverse and inclusive legal team is essential to delivering high-quality advice and supporting the Bank’s mission.

In 2023, the Legal Directorate welcomed its first cohort of trainee solicitors under our new Trainee Solicitor Development Programme (TSDP). The TSDP was launched to provide a structured and inclusive pathway for aspiring solicitors to qualify through a postgraduate legal apprenticeship at the Bank in partnership with the University of Law. It has proven to be hugely successful in developing legal talent aligned with the Bank’s mission and values. The TSDP opens up legal careers to a broader range of candidates by offering a postgraduate apprenticeship route, helping to remove financial and structural barriers to entry. Similarly, the pro bono programme within the Legal Directorate enables staff to support underserved communities, reinforcing the Directorate’s values of equity and social responsibility. Together, these initiatives foster a more inclusive legal profession and reflect LD’s dedication to public service and diverse talent development.

One of our flagship initiatives is the Stephen Lawrence Scholarship Scheme (SLSS). This programme, coordinated by Freshfields and the Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation, addresses the under-representation of Black men from less socially mobile backgrounds in law and finance. Colleagues across the Legal Directorate support the scheme through mentoring, work experience and hosting an annual Insight Week at the Bank. In July 2025, we welcomed the latest cohort of scholars for a week of immersive sessions, including a Q&A with the Governor and myself, scenario-based exercises, and meetings with senior leaders across the Bank. Feedback from scholars and colleagues alike has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are proud that Legal Directorate continues to lead this impactful work.

Beyond SLSS, LD supports the Black Future Leaders programme, providing mentoring and development opportunities to interns from under-represented backgrounds. We also champion social mobility through our Legal Directorate Work Experience Scheme and the Bank’s Personal Statement Checking Service, with many colleagues volunteering their time to support students from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Within the Bank, we have created the LD DE&I Forum, which includes working groups on flexible working, job-sharing and social mobility. For example, Legal Directorate co-hosted the “Two Heads Are Better” event with the Financial Conduct Authority and Treasury Legal Advisers to promote job-sharing and inclusive working practices.

LD actively supports the Bank’s Women in the Bank Network and regularly promotes events focused on women’s leadership and career development. We also appointed a dedicated DE&I Coordinator to support and scale our initiatives across the Directorate.

Our work aligns with the Bank’s broader DE&I strategy. And as General Counsel, I am committed to ensuring that LD not only reflects the communities we serve but also leads by example in building a more inclusive legal profession.