‘Know what you don’t know’
How is being an in-house lawyer in your industry different from other industries?
I think the key difference is the sheer breadth of what is required. Financial services is very highly regulated (more so now than ever), and as an in-house lawyer, you need to make sure you are keeping up to date. You need to be aware not only of the regulations being enacted at the moment, but also have an understanding as to what motivations are driving governments and regulators to potentially take additional action in the future.
What are some of the major trends in your industry?
Generally speaking, the amount of regulation across the industry is increasing, and with that, comes increased complexity. We are also seeing regulators expand their influence beyond what has historically been the case. For example, we now regularly field enquiries from regulators in countries where Instinet does not have a presence, but into which we may trade for our clients through a local executing broker. This means we must be able to understand the regulations of jurisdictions that are new to us, as well as the cultural context in which a particular regulator operates. Thematically, a lot of financial services regulation is the same across the Asia-Pacific region, but understanding the different way in which ASIC in Australia will operate as compared with, say, the Financial Supervisory Service in Korea, can be difficult. It’s an interesting and stimulating challenge, but a challenge nonetheless.
How many lawyers does your team consist of, and how does the structure work as a whole?
Our regional head office is in Hong Kong and from here we take care of our offices in Sydney and Singapore as well. I have lawyers in all three jurisdictions. As we have a combined legal and compliance function, the team also includes compliance professionals who are not lawyers. Across the three offices, we have six people in our group, which means we are a relatively small team with wide coverage.
Each country head of compliance reports to the local CEO or equivalent as well as having a dotted line report into me. Similarly, I report directly to the regional CEO for Asia who sits in Hong Kong, as well as a dotted-line report to the global general counsel, based in New York.
What are the most important qualities someone in your role must possess?
A sense of humour? Seriously, I think you need to be keen to learn new things and be able to handle pressure. Most of the time, even in a highly regulated environment, you can work in a structured and more methodical way. However, if a critical situation arises (an error, an investigation and so on), keeping calm and influencing others to stay calm is a great asset.
How would you describe your strategy for the legal team?
After beginning my career in private practice (I spent the first 12 years of my career as a litigator), it was a huge change moving in-house. Moving from being a “fee-earner” to a “fee-burner” is a seismic shift in terms of how you operate and how you demonstrate your worth. Given my private practice experience, my general approach now that I’m an in-house lawyer is to constantly ask: “Who are my clients and how do I service them?” In my experience, the answer is not that different - you need to be responsive, understand your “clients’” business, and be a trusted adviser.
I ask the people who work in our team to understand the business and our role in supporting the business from simple things like getting a contract negotiated quickly and efficiently, to more complex matters such as protecting our licences around the region.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
It was given to me by the first partner I worked for as a summer clerk back in my first law firm in Sydney. It is simple and still entirely relevant. He said: “As a lawyer, you should always know what you don’t know.”
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