Team size: 80

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

The general counsel function supports the organisation in dealing with M&A transactions. Additionally, we support the open division with BPA, mortgages and workplace pensions. We also assist our heritage division with part VIIs and reinsurance. Furthermore, our company secretariat function is responsible for implementing excellent governance across the organisation.

One of the key transactions we have been involved in this year has been our latest M&A announcement of Sun Life of Canada; leading the change on simplified governance to support our group’s transformation and bringing our new Standard Life equity release offerings to market.

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values?

That is very important to us. We choose our panel firms carefully, selecting from those that can work as an extension of our in-house team and align to our sustainability agenda.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners?

We operate on a business partnering model. For us, that means assuming an active role in business decision-making and working closely with our partners to understand their strategies and objectives to ensure that we can achieve these from a legal and governance perspective. We do this by spending time with our partners on a regular basis, asking questions and establishing open communication between our teams.