About

With offices in 17 countries and with business activities in 50 countries, the Pictet Asset management legal team is spread across Geneva, Luxembourg, London and Hong Kong with heads of practice groups taking on specific geographical responsibilities. There are six heads of practice groups reporting into the general counsel, Nicolas Tschopp, who operate at the same level of seniority. The legal team is divided into five practice groups, each headed by one or two lawyers. These practice groups include investment funds structuring and registration, distribution, institutional clients, trading and corporate secretarial services. In addition to bespoke topics, such as data protection, each matter is assigned to specific lawyers, covering almost all affairs of the business. ‘Legal is continuously involved in all strategic decisions made by the business line, either for its organisation or for its product offering’, says Tschopp. One major project taken on by the legal team includes the implementation of MiFID (Market in Financial Instruments Directive), a new regulation overhauling financial services. ‘Both projects were very transversal and required various streams [such as] strategic decision making, corporate restructuring, regulatory filings, review of hundreds of agreements, amendments to business processes and communication’, explains Tschopp. The legal team’s vision is to be recognised as a global legal team with market leading expertise that partners closely with all stakeholders within Pictet Asset Management. Tschopp explains that the legal team is dedicated to developing three critical pillars including thinking globally, which involves taking a holistic view on all topics, marketing leading expertise and continuously developing in-house expertise through trainings and industry networks and partnerships. ‘The legal team is positioned as part of the company’s operating process, not as an “ivory tower counsellor”, and we engage daily with all colleagues to provide practical legal advice’, says Tschopp. The legal team has also recently been preoccupied with digitising their activities, by designing and implementing an IT tool to manage legal documents.