Team size: Six

What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

I work in a very dynamic environment. It is crucial to keep a good balance of legal perfection and practicability from a business perspective. Sometimes this can be very challenging, but we are getting better every day. Creating a new legal and compliance department from scratch was, of course, an enormous challenge. However, it is very rewarding to see the team succeed thanks to dynamics that really work.

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?

I have recently started blocking out half-day slots for us as a team once every few months. This was not easy at first, as the day-to-day business seemed increased and more urgent, but now it works well. The purpose behind this is that we, as a team, take time to regularly structure our way of working and adapt to new demands that are placed on us. In this way, we can ensure that we continuously improve the way we work without being overrun by outside forces. By investing a few hours every few months, we can avoid many duplications and inefficiencies.

What would you say are the unique qualities required to be successful as an in-house lawyer in your industry?

For a lawyer, working at the interface between the insurance and fund and asset management business is per se quite a challenging affair. From a legal perspective, these are two completely different areas of the law, both of which are highly regulated and technical, therefore you must be on top of both topics. The mindset and perspective of your internal customers is very different, depending on the area they are working. As an in-house lawyer, however, you also need to add the corporate perspective to the mix. You are part of the company and its culture. Hence, besides excellent knowledge of the law you also need various personal attributes such as persuasiveness, pragmatism, the ability to work in interdisciplinary teams, a sense of diplomacy and finally a lot of humour. In summary, the unique qualities required to be successful as an in-house lawyer in this industry are a healthy mix between legal precision and personal abilities.