About

Jean O’Driscoll, general counsel of FPG Amentum, trained with Matheson in Dublin and qualified as a solicitor in its banking department. In 2000 she moved to Paris to work with Norton Rose in their asset finance department mainly working on aviation financing transactions. While there she was seconded to BNP Paribas where she provided legal support to the project finance and oil and gas finance teams. The secondment gave her a first taste of in-house life. In 2004 on her return to Dublin from Paris she joined RBS Aviation Capital, now SMBC Aviation, where she joined the commercial negotiation team which she then went on to manage. This was a quasi-commercial role and the team was made up of people from a range of backgrounds not solely legal. As head of the commercial negotiation team she was also a member of the management team and sat on various decision-making committees. She left there in 2010 to join a start-up and from there she joined FPG Amentum in June 2011 and became its general counsel and a member of their management team. During the recent management buy-out negotiations for the purchase of Amentum, O’Driscoll higlights that, ‘it was clear that both parties wanted the other side to be satisfied with the deal in the knowledge that it was intended to mark the start of a long and successful relationship. The co-operation and sense of fair play was an excellent indicator of how the relationship would develop. It is not necessary to win every point in a negotiation but rather keep an eye on the overall deal’. O’Driscoll’s role within the firm goes beyond legal advising and she says that she acts as, ‘a sounding board and advisor as well as the go-to lead for all legal matters’. The legal team is very much an integral part of the business and is involved from the very early stages of any deal through to closing and beyond. Since her joining, FPG Amentum has evolved from a captive lessor of a bank to an independent full service third party lease manager. As part of this evolution the legal department has had to overhaul our processes and procedures. It also had to establish itself as a trust company and service provider which meant setting up detailed AML and anti-corruption policies and procedures in addition to all its own policies and procedures. Prior to that the company had relied on its previous shareholder to perform these functions. The company has a specialised focus on the Japanese market. O’Driscoll adds that, ‘over the last number of years FPG Amentum has developed a strong Japanese operating lease (JOL) pipeline and together with its shareholder, it has introduced new airline customers to that market and also developed some innovative structures, such as the use of Japanese trusts. It has also continued to develop third party business with other non-JOL investors’.