About

Team size: 200 (700 globally)
Major law firms used: Allen & Overy, Baker McKenzie, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Herbert Smith Freehills, Mayer Brown

Simon Croxford recently returned to Swiss banking giant UBS after 13 years at Barclays, where he rose to one of the most senior legal positions as GC of Group Centre Legal (effectively replacing then deputy GC Michael Shaw, now GC at The Royal Bank of Scotland).

Back at UBS, Croxford has taken the position of investment bank and EMEA GC, leading a team of about 200 lawyers. His team covers sales and trading, equities, fixed income, capital markets, M&A advisory, research, corporate transactions, regulation and legal documentation. UBS has various panels broken down by area of business and specialism using major firms in each of its key locations. A focus has been on insourcing more work where the team can more efficiently perform a legal task than external counsel.

‘The risks have changed. It’s important to continue to analyse, be flexible and agile, and make sure you’re not too siloed, because change is constant,’ Croxford comments. ‘If you’re a global investment bank that covers a lot of products in different areas, there’s always going to be something from a regulatory perspective at any given time that’s affecting a business or product or client relationship.’

Another focus has been the use of technology, as part of the legal function implementing a programme called Time to Modernise. Croxford says that is about ensuring the department is run like a business, using tools such as matter management to understand what teams are doing, when they have peaks and troughs, and the costs. ‘We’re not a profit centre, but we certainly have to manage our department as if it were a business. Part of this involves a greater use of technology to drive efficiency and change. A few years ago I’m not so sure legal departments knew what they wanted on the technology front and I’m not so sure technology providers knew what they needed to provide, but that delta’s converging.’

He also emphasises the importance of developing talent. That includes a mobility programme that gives lawyers exposure to different products, divisions and geographies, as well as an emphasis on diversity. ‘A lot of it’s about your talent; people are fundamental to what we do.’