Team size: 100

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

The legal team of La Banque Postale (LBP) has been involved in the highly structural capital transactions resulting in the completion of the acquisition by LBP of CNP Assurances (purchase of 100% of the shares in CNP Assurances, delisting of CNP Assurances and sales of interest in AEW and Ostrum) and, more generally, the achievement of a full public bancassurance group under the control of Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (including LBP, and its banking and asset management entities, and CNP Assurances, and its French and international insurance subsidiaries). In July 2023, the legal team was also involved in the acquisition of the asset management company, La Financière de l’Echiquier, by LBP’s asset-management subsidiary (LBP AM), thus contributing to the completion of the capital transactions relating to the asset management business.

In the context of this new organisation, the legal team developed and reorganised its group legal team (filière juridique) to consolidate the legal expertise within the newly consolidated group and appointed a legal operations officer to ensure effective animation of the group legal team. We also developed a specific organisation relating to the legal monitoring (veille juridique) with a dedicated team, dedicated committees within the group and the implementation of a specific legal monitoring tool.

The legal team also supported the development of the corporate and investment banking business of LBP (the new CIB was created in January 2022) covering the different business lines, including community funding (infrastructure project financing, and renewable energy financing) bank financing to local authorities, development of a range of responsible bank financing solutions (including green, impact and social loans), transaction banking (management of electronic payment solutions, deposit management services).

LBP legal team participated in the transformation of the bank into a mission-led company (société à mission) in 2022: after adopting its company purpose (raison d’être) in June 2021, LBP took another step in its transformation by becoming a mission-led company. This decision supports LBP’s commitment to a just transition by embedding several environmental and social impact objectives in its governance system in line with the approach taken by La Poste Groupe, which also became a mission-led company in June 2021.

As we enter the next decade, what skills will a corporate legal team need to succeed in the modern in-house industry?

Having become a real business partner in recent years, the in-house lawyer must now develop new legal expertise: new areas of law (digital for example), challenges relating to the use of data, and ESG impacts.

Legal teams must face a strong legislative and regulatory inflation covering new sectors (digital, ESG) and produced by new authorities (emergence of soft law; development of regulations issued by new local, European, and international authorities). This trend is particularly strong in the banking and financial sector, thus requiring lawyers to investigate new legal themes, to remain informed daily of any new development and to remain vigilant on the legal force and the application of new legal standards.

Lawyers will need to be even more flexible and have a strong ability to adapt. In the current environment, it becomes impossible to predict and cover all risks, lawyers will need to adapt quickly to be able to provide appropriate and efficient solutions to companies.

In our challenging environment and facing high legislative production, legal teams will also be expected to demonstrate pedagogy with operational teams and management; this will require increased listening and communication skills.

Lastly, the legal team will need to be able to use innovative tools. AI and technological innovations a are means of strengthening the role and missions of lawyers; these tools make it possible to develop their impact and reinforce their added value in the company. As a result, the ability to use these tools will very quickly become an essential skill; this should be considered as a real opportunity to develop the impact and added value of in-house legal teams.