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

My biggest challenge at the company is keeping up with change. We are a young, fast-growing fintech startup, so, it is a good problem to have, but there is a lot to keep up with as we continue to add clients. We recently completed another funding round, and we are continuously developing new products, rolling them out, and signing more clients up, so the legal team must stay on top of this continuous change.

Do you have an example of a time when you have come up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works that did not result in a large expense? 

You can throw money at a problem, and sometimes that takes care of it, but sometimes it does not.

In my case, there has not been one single innovative change that I can point to that has added value in one fell swoop; rather I am of the view that change and innovation are often incremental.

When I first started in the company, I was the first in-house lawyer, so there was not a legal department. Therefore, I had to put into place electronic signatures and contract management processes, and revise the way that work was handled to involve outside counsel. These are not terribly interesting steps, however, but small steps can produce meaningful change over time.

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

With an echo of some of what I said before about keeping up with change, I would say that what is important is being able to be comfortable with a certain amount of chaos and disorder. Sometimes it feels like there is chaos from all the change around you, and you must realise that you have the tools and the ability, and the team around you, as well as outside counsel for that matter, to navigate things into order by prioritising things properly. Prioritising in the face of seeming chaos would be the biggest challenge and the best way to succeed in my particular sector.

Who are your biggest heroes? 

There are lawyers on my list of heroes – those who have transcended their label and have become more than a lawyer. Immediately, I think of someone like Charlie Munger, an American lawyer, who recently wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. He works very closely with Warren Buffett and transcended his role as a trusted lawyer to become someone who applied his legal training and skills and experience well beyond this. He has the fundamental skills of rationality and problem solving, and project management, and became a very skilled businessperson in his own right, which is no small challenge when you are living in the shadow of Warren Buffett, who is maybe one of the greatest ever in that regard.