The strength of leadership in the highly-regarded in-house team at FTSE 100 insurer Aviva is consistently praised, even as the team saw significant change over the last year. And it is not just the high-profile GC and company secretary Kirsty Cooper whose leadership is pointed to: new GC for UK insurance Alison Gammon, GC for Aviva Investors Rachel Wheeler, GC for international markets and group competition Lee Callaghan, and GC for M&A capital markets, Asia and digital Neil Harrison are all cited. ‘Kirsty is a very effective leader and there’s a really strong group of GCs just below her,’ says Pinsent Masons head of financial services Alexis Roberts. ‘They are all strong and have a range of expertise.’ Cooper reiterates the sentiment, while going further: ‘I’ve got in my direct reports some exceptional leaders, but we’ve also got some exceptional technical expertise, both in the leaders and further down, especially in UK insurance and some of the more technical areas.’ Cooper manages 224 people in the UK, of which the vast majority are lawyers, as well as 100 across the rest of the world in areas such as Canada, Poland, Singapore and Hong Kong. The broader Aviva group restructured in 2017, merging the UK life and general insurance businesses. This saw Cooper cut her direct reports from 12 to seven and led to a decision to have one GC responsible for the new arm: a role filled by Gammon, who joined from healthcare group Bupa last year. The reshuffle followed the departures of the highly-regarded Aviva UK Life GC Monica Risam, who joined Lombard International Assurance, as well as Tim Vickers, who led Aviva’s general insurance legal team. Cooper comments: ‘Alison’s been a great hire and really hit the ground running. She had both the experience of life insurance and general insurance, and with the businesses coming together I wanted someone who had experience in both.’ Aside from the restructuring, other recent standout work includes the acquisition of Friends Life for £5.2bn in 2015 and integration work to bring the two companies together. Cooper also points to the team’s work on the company’s MyAviva platform and ‘Ask It Never’ proposition – an advanced form of underwriting that enables the customer to receive a quote after answering a few simple questions. Recently-appointed head of legal operations Amanda Brock has been charged with leading the team forward on innovation. ‘We’ll get some quick wins this year,’ Cooper says. ‘Having somebody like that who really holds you to account in terms of performance and efficiency management is really, really important.’