About

Steve Clayton works as a legal counsel at AIA Australia, and is described by a nominating source as a ‘leadership focused corporate lawyer who specialises in group life insurance and has broad experience in financial services, superannuation and general corporate and commercial matters’. As a young lawyer, Clayton has already been recognised within the industry, having received multiple in-house awards in Australia. Clayton began his current role with AIA Australia in 2015, where he has been acting as a trusted adviser to AIA Australia’s market leading group insurance channel, advising on a variety of complex legal issues. These include group life insurance distribution arrangements, market leading product innovations, innovative technology and outsourcing projects, and high profile regulatory matters. He also supports AIA Australia’s technology, people and culture functions and has successfully advised on a number of innovative projects. In his current role, Clayton helped AIA Australia achieve quality results including the renewal and retention of group insurance clients REST and Sunsuper, and as lead counsel on successful tender and implementation for HESTA, which helped AIA Australia attain the number one position in the Australian group insurance market. He has also worked on AIA Group’s A$3.8bn proposed acquisition of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s life insurance businesses in Australia and New Zealand and entering into 20-year bancassurance partnership, including acting as lead counsel negotiating key technology contracts, and assisting with drafting and negotiating transaction documents and managing external counsel. Additionally, Clayton acted as lead Australian counsel on important group-wide technology, outsourcing and offshoring projects, including the upgrade and enhancement of AIA’s actuarial software, procurement and contract management systems, and data centres, involving extensive negotiation of agreements and submissions to AIA Australia’s board and APRA, and the successful trial of IBM Watson in call centres. Commenting on recent topics and trends, Clayton says: ‘The Royal Commission into banking and financial services showed us all that community trust in large corporations in Australia is at an all-time low. As legal advisors we’re in the privileged position of being able to guide ethical decision-making to rebuild trust and protect against reputational damage. Taking a lead in this area is something I think our clients have come to expect from us as in-house lawyers and I expect this trend to continue’. He also thinks that ‘senior leaders need to take steps to create clearly defined career paths for junior lawyers and provide opportunities for career development. For example, through AIA Australia’s PLT program I’ve had the opportunity to directly supervise junior lawyers which has given me valuable exposure to managing people at an early stage of my career’. According to Clayton, general counsels of the future will need to be willing and able to adapt. ‘Flexibility to advise across a wide range of matters has always been important for in-house lawyers but the key is being able to adapt to industry trends so that we can continue to deliver value for our clients in ways that are relevant and recognisable to them. For example, if your business implements a strategy that emphasises the use of data, consider implementing a data based solution for legal services so you can show that your team is aligned with the business’s strategy. This will assist your team with delivering value in a way that is clear to the business’, he states.