Eleana Spyris was promoted to her position of head of legal at Cypriot insurer EuroLife following a successful two-year stint as in-house counsel at its parent company, Bank of Cyprus (BOC). ‘Although my new position was in the life insurance sector, a field I had no previous experience of working in, I looked forward to undertaking the challenge of learning a new field of law, as well as assuming the major responsibility of being the sole legal advisor to the leading insurance company in the Cypriot market,’ she says.

During her tenure at EuroLife, Spyris has indeed been involved in many legal challenges, including the handling of the hereto unprecedented legal repercussions of the banking resolution decrees in March 2013 which EuroLife, as a subsidiary of BOC, was directly impacted by. In addition, Spyris has overseen and provided legal guidance for the implementation of the EU Solvency II Directive, a new insurance regulatory framework that has brought about significant changes to EuroLife’s operations. Spyris is currently involved in the oversight and implementation of the EU Insurance Distribution Directive, and the EU General Data Protection Regulation that is also expected to have a significant impact on the insurance sector. ‘The day-to-day operations of a company with the scope of activities and size of EuroLife however does not only involve the provision of legal advice covering insurance related matters’, Spyris explains. ‘It also involves dealing with legal matters relevant to these operations, such as laws on consumer protection, employment, tax, data protection, assignments and trusts.

My duties also include drafting and reviewing any contracts the company may enter with third parties, and handling legal claims against the company with the assistance of our external legal counsel’. Impressive cases from the last few years for Spyris include working on an international arbitration in 2015 to 2016 with regard to a dispute arising from the Cyprus Resolution Law of 2013 and the decrees issued thereunder, and a 2016 transaction related to the purchase and implementation of a new core software system for the company. Having spent the first six years of her professional career in private practice, Spyris is able to compare working in-house to serving as an associate at a law firm: ‘I would say that as in-house legal counsel, you have the advantage of becoming a legal “jack of all trades” and of obtaining “hands-on” experience of the practical implementation of law in business practices. Both are invaluable tools that have helped me grow as a legal practitioner’.