Team size:  Four 

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense? 

Together with the responsible business units we have assessed the possibility of standardising and automatically generating specific legal documents and agreements. We trust that this will become a tool to expedite the preparation of documents and agreements, enhance cost efficiency and allow personnel to be involved in other areas which require expertise and human involvement. 

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

Our bank was very recently involved in an important credit transaction for £33m, which regarded the financing of the acquisition of a UK company. The specific acquisition was also announced by the London Stock Exchange. The team undertook the task of advising the bank in respect to the legal documents and liaising with external legal advisors and the legal team of the customer; this required working long hours, be professional albeit swift in decision making, provide legal solutions to assist the Bank and the responsible credit unit and be consistently positive in working together with the customers in order to assist them in reaching and completing this milestone. 

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values? Are you likely to reconsider what firms you work with based on this? 

It is significant when choosing to work with external legal advisors that the external legal advisors share the same professional ethic, integrity, social responsibility and values as the ones that the bank represents; in a continuously changing banking industry, the bank aspires to work with external legal advisors who meet its expectations and timely provide thorough and professional advice and legal solutions to the bank in order to be aligned with the bank’s business profile and values. The aforementioned enables the bank to further advance business whilst adhering to the applicable legal framework. The external legal advisors who, at times, cooperate with the bank and their level of service and conduct are evaluated by the bank and taken into consideration when assessing in the case of a potential new cooperation.