With a career in the financial services industry spanning 15 years, Paul Ndungi has worked with some of the most premier banks in the country, such as First American Bank Limited, I&M Bank Limited and Ecobank Kenya. Praised for his proactive nature by most that have worked with him, managing partner of Oraro & Company Advocates says: ‘Ndungi is a team player and very responsive and knowledgeable in his area of practice. Coupled with his patience, mild temperament, honesty and integrity, I can ask no more of an advocate’.

Ndungi has worked with Barclays Bank in Kenya since 2015 as its company secretary and senior legal counsel. During his time with Barclays Kenya, Paul has worked with other legal department colleagues in dealing with key legal challenges such as the introduction of interest rate cap legislation in Kenya as well as the ongoing divestiture of Barclays Bank Plc from the Barclays Africa Group. Ndungi takes great pride in a number of changes he helped introduce to the internal team; starting with the introduction of internal legal trainings for staff, a practise that had become moribund in the last few years prior to him joining.

Ndungi states this had an immediate positive impact for the branch and head office staff he trained: ‘This was of key importance since the passage of a new Kenyan Constitution in 2010 precipitated a flood of new or revamped legislation that is transforming the Kenyan legal landscape. As such, conducting the legal trainings allows us to guide the board, senior management and all staff on how these new laws and regulations shall affect our business’. In addition, Ndungi has also worked with his legal and business colleagues in facilitating the development of new products in the areas of structured trade and commodity finance transactions, generating significant revenue for the bank.

Furthermore, Ndungi also works to enhance the department’s case management systems to enable them to effectively manage litigation for and against the bank, something that ‘ensures that the bank is well prepared for every case coming up and also assists when developing litigation strategies’.