Career Biography

Umar is an experienced, board-level, executive leader, with over two decades in industry in the financial services and legal sectors. Award winning magic circle lawyer by background. Focused on managing high performing teams, particularly in the macro and systematic trading hedge fund space, serving institutional clients across multiple jurisdictions and product types.

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

I was project lead for the business’ platform consolidation, which shifted the entire business into a new platform. Outcomes included: simplification of the firm’s corporate operating model; the integration of new technologies; reduction of regulatory footprint, associated costs and regulatory risk; rebrand and strengthening of market positioning; the consolidation of staff and teams into one vehicle; and expansion into new geographies. I led and managed the migration of all the Alternative Investment Fund and Separate Managed Account clients (representing over $2bn AUM), based in multiple jurisdictions and operating under various regulatory regimes, to our new consolidated business platform operating under the DG Partners label. I also led all discussions with the firm’s various regulators and the migration of all staff to a common entity within the firm’s group, as well as the redesign of all external facing media (website, social media, client facing brand packaging).

Please provide a brief description of any internal transformation/development projects within your legal team over the last twelve months.

Integration of legal workflow tools: working closely with the firm’s RnD team to integrate Jira into the legal team’s regular operational practice, enabling oversight by the GC of all legal matters, their status and items blocking completion across the business;

Rollout of AI: rollout of LLMs to legal (as well as RnD, trading and marketing) to ensure efficiency, reduced external legal spend, expansion of output and rationalisation of existing tools and as a result, reduced costs and increased productivity;

Modernisation of marketing delivery: developing and systematising the firm’s marketing offering, PR and comms across different platforms including webinars (working with professional videographers to deliver online content), new website and branding development and analytics capture across investors to ensure legal and compliance review and restrictions are appropriate and effective.

Large project delivery: negotiating the delivery of a new SaaS based cloud-native front-to-back investment management system which touches multiple operational and data points across the business.

What key trends should in-house counsel be monitoring over the coming months?

Without a doubt, AI. It’s impact is being felt in multiple ways: material productivity efficiencies (for example, we recently migrated all staff to a different group entity using AI as a junior team member to help produce the relevant transaction documentation); new budget requirements (although much is made of the cost savings available because of AI, the flip side is that AI actually requires material investment by the business in order to harness its potential and costs can quickly run out of control if this is not managed carefully); cultural impacts of AI utilisation (it is key to ensure that staff across all functions using AI maintain intellectual rigour in their activities and thought processes – it is very easy to forget that AI needs to be managed in the same way that a junior associate needs to be managed); competitive capability (small businesses can effectively scale their activities with the right AI utilisation approach so that they can compete with larger businesses with much larger headcount, but beware the bottlenecks that can arise if this is not managed properly); in the investment management space, the line between repeatable and explainable activity versus uncontrolled AI driven activity (philosophy has a part to play here – we are very focused on seeing AI like other technologies: as something that can enhance behaviour under the right supervisory processes); the value of people (AI doesn’t have people skills or indeed a model of the real world. If AI continues to spread as it is projected to, people skills will become increasingly important and valued).

What are the most important attributes of the modern GC and what advice would you give to those aspiring to be an in-house lawyer?

Adaptability, resilience and integrity.

On adaptability, the ability to continuously reframe your skillset to match your environment allows you to take on new and more challenging roles – and fundamentally that’s what good lawyers are: problem solvers who can use their skills in as yet unknown situations to come out with good results.

On resilience, being a lawyer is not for everyone. It can be very hard work and requires a lot of focus and determination both to understand a problem properly and to find solutions that work for everyone. Resilience is key if you are going to succeed.

On integrity, you cannot put a value on your reputation or authenticity. Coming to a commercial resolution that works for everyone and makes people want to work with you again in the future is only possible if you act with integrity throughout the process. For the young aspiring lawyer, when faced with a particularly challenging point in need of resolution or a difficult drafting point, I would encourage them to think about uncovering the solution in the same way an artist might think about creating a beautiful piece of sculpture: the figure is already trapped inside the block of stone, the carving is simply removing the excess to release it. Have the confidence and belief that through intellectual struggle an elegant solution can always be found.

How do you help drive strong governance and ethical decision-making across your organisation?

In a word, culture. As COO, I have worked hard to implement an approach where people strive for excellence whilst also understanding that where they fall short, the business will look to find structural solutions rather than attributing blame. This approach rewards honesty and encourages everyone to take responsibility for the successes and failures of the business – with a constant drive for improvement. It is based upon the airline crash investigation model of fixing problems holistically rather than looking for individuals at fault. From a legal and compliance perspective, this has allowed us to embed a culture of ethics and strong governance at every level of the business. After all, there is no point in having great policies if people just ignore them. Our approach seeks to avoid that cognitive dissonance. At the same time, when staff understand the purpose of legal and compliance is to ensure the best outcomes for everyone as a whole, it’s much easier to create alignment around the correct behaviours.

Have you had any particularly unique or defining experiences during your legal career? What has been your biggest career challenge or highlight?

I started my career as a litigator working on a complex, billion-dollar, multi-jurisdictional dispute. It became an important precedent and won our team at Clifford Chance Litigation Team of the Year. The case involved various structured investment products, and it shifted my thinking about where I wanted my career to go. The prevailing wisdom at the time was that you qualify into an area and never leave. However, I became convinced that the skills I had developed were wholly transferable and that a good lawyer can turn their hand to any area of law in which they are interested. I embraced the challenge of changing specialisms and successfully navigated a move into the investment funds space in private practice. In the summer of 2010, I ended up being invited to work on a transaction to help create a market-leading systematic trading business. I ended up joining that business as GC in 2012 and have been there since. That decision to be brave enough to follow my interests proved a defining point in my career.