About

Dubbed by some as among Ireland’s most high-powered and ‘resilient’ corporate counsel, Patrick Wilkinson faced considerable challenges early in his in-house career. A year after joining Barings’ Ireland from private practice, his remit was transformed, when Northern Trust purchased the fund in 2005. From the outset, Wilkinson says, it was made clear to him, that ‘if I wasn’t up to scratch, there would be no hesitation in getting rid of me’. A decade later, as well as leading the Irish legal function, he also manages The Trust’s EMEA global funds business. ‘It’s the same job, and it’s not the same job’, he says. ‘It’s light years away from when I joined. When I joined there were 180 people, with assets under custody of around the $20-30bn mark. In March, Northern Trust’s assets were valued at $386bn and we have about 1,000 employees in Ireland alone. The breadth of products and services we support is also significant’. Wilkinson is particularly praised for his role in purchasing Bank of Ireland’s security services business. He also counts his team’s response to the financial crisis, as among his biggest professional achievements. ‘Looking back, our Ireland business was not profitable in 2011. We’ve recovered now to a position where we are making a meaningful contribution to the overall bank’s bottom line, and being part of the senior management team who has achieved that is a real highlight’. The legal team takes a very central role in strategic decision-making, Wilkinson says, and this is very much ingrained in the business culture. ‘Northern may be unlike other banks, in the way it truly values and actively seeks the input of its legal department. We’re a very valued group within the organisation and people hold a lot of store in what we say. We’re consulted on all things – we’re in-house counsel, rather than lawyers. We’re here to provide common sense solutions not just legal advice’. An inherent feature of this, is that the function is not required to justify its costs, in a significant departure from the approach from most organisations. ‘We don’t spend a great deal of money with outside counsel in Ireland, but when we do we aren’t directly responsible for the costs of that – the business pays’.