Why did you want to become a lawyer and what drew you to the financial services regulatory side?
As much as the law itself, it was the draw of international work that led me to the City and to Herbert Smith, as it was then. I had read languages at university and was excited about the prospect of working on high-profile international matters.
I wasn’t disappointed: at the outset of my career, I worked on matters relating to the fallout from the banking failures of the 1990s – BCCI and Barings.
The insight those matters gave me into banking regulation and the operation of banks meant that, when the Financial Services Authority was established in 2001, I naturally gravitated towards regulatory matters relating to financial institutions.
You’ve worked both in-house and in private practice – what made you want to switch from one to the other? Do you have a preference?
Following a very enjoyable and fulfilling secondment, I took up a permanent in-house position at Lloyds Banking Group in 2007.
Working in a retail bank, I loved being directly involved in the application of regulation on people’s everyday lives. The other things I learned a lot about in-house were leadership and the importance of team spirit, not least through the global financial crisis in 2008.
During my time in-house, I enjoyed working with a number of law firms, but when I decided to return to private practice in 2010, I didn’t hesitate to take up the opportunity to come back to Herbert Smith Freehills.
I have always enjoyed problem solving, which I consider to be at the core of what we do as lawyers; this has been true both of what I did in-house and continue to do in private practice.
You’ve spent your entire private practice career, from trainee to global practice head, at Herbert Smith Freehills – what makes the firm special to you?
As a firm, Herbert Smith Freehills has a stated ambition to be the leading international firm for diversity and inclusion. It’s something that’s led from the top and is core to who we are.
As such, there isn’t an HSF ‘type’ and so, although I didn’t come from a traditional City law firm background, from day one, I was surrounded by people who respected each others’ differences. I am grateful to many senior partners (past and present) who believed in me and helped me believe in myself.
How has your day-to-day workload changed since becoming practice head? Was a leadership position always your goal?
I am immensely proud to lead our global financial services practice. My role involves facilitating connections and assisting our teams with supporting clients and growing practices regionally and globally. We have a simply brilliant global team, whose energy, innovative spirit and collaborative, client-focused mindset inspires me every day and makes leadership a pleasure.
I am fortunate to be able to divide my time between leadership and a busy personal practice, continuing to work with interesting clients to solve knotty problems.
What have been the top investigations of your career so far, and why?
My matters tend to be confidential. I get great satisfaction from completing an investigation – it’s a bit like a jigsaw, you start with lots of jumbled pieces. The difference between a jigsaw and an investigation though is that, with an investigation, the picture at the end is rarely the one you thought it would be at the beginning.
And which case has been the most memorable for the wrong reasons?
A big frustration in my job is the length of time it takes for the FCA to complete an investigation. While this is frustrating for financial services firms, it is particularly acute when an individual is under investigation. Their lives can be on hold while the FCA investigates. The statistics show that the vast majority of investigations into individuals close with no formal enforcement action, and it is not always clear that sufficient thought has been given to the appropriateness of those investigations taking place or to the timeliness of communicating discontinuance, where that is the conclusion reached.
What are the best and worst aspects of life as a City lawyer?
That no day is the same is both good and bad. I enjoy the variety of my job, but there is also pressure to keep up to speed with, and ideally ahead of, the next regulatory change. With regulation in a constant state of change, you are constantly learning. Luckily, I enjoy learning.
What advice would you give to those who want to get to where you have?
Find an area of the law that interests you and cultivate your knowledge and profile in that area. Being the ‘go to’ person in a particular area helps you stand out from the crowd. If you are reluctant to ‘blow your own trumpet’, join forces with others who will do it for you, in return for you doing the same for them.
Maintaining a sense of humour and a sense of perspective is also essential to thriving in professional services.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the financial services sector currently, and how would you address it?
Our clients are faced with a tsunami of regulatory change. Just as it looks like the wave is subsiding, it returns with a vengeance. Interpreting the changes requires experience and judgement. In many areas, we have seen clients come unstuck, not because they have made a mistake or even a bad judgement call, but because they haven’t been able to evidence contemporaneous decision making. This should be an ongoing area of focus for all financial services firms, not least in the context of the FCA’s new Consumer Duty.
If you hadn’t become a lawyer, what do you think you would be doing now?
I expect I would have pursued something related to modern languages that involved travel – maybe interpreting or teaching.
Jenny Stainsby is the global head of financial services regulatory at Herbert Smith Freehills. She has been a partner at the firm for 13 years, returning to the firm in 2010 after 2.5 years at Lloyds Banking Group during the financial crisis.