Legal team size Eleven

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

During my tenure at Bayview, we have experienced several economic cycles. I have found that the best planning for instability is to assume it will eventually happen, negotiate your transactions as if there could be potential problems down the road, and partner with the right outside counsel. We try to avoid “foot fault” provisions or language that might prevent us from quickly changing course in the event of a crisis. Our legal team tries to anticipate issues that could arise in the future and under differing circumstances. This strategy works well with the business team’s view too.

In your opinion, what are the main trends affecting your work now?

The main legal trends in the financial services industry have been regulatory and keeping up with changes in laws and regulations where we do business. Macroeconomic factors do impact the business, but from a legal perspective, if we have stability in regulation and legal structures, we can find a way to try to take advantage of differing economic situations.

What strategic priorities are guiding your legal team into 2025?

My main priorities are to make sure the legal team is being responsive to business needs and managing outside resources in an efficient manner.