Team size: Eight

Head of Team: Philip Merrills- Dearn, general counsel

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

The team provides an all-round legal and compliance service to the Riley Cillian Group. In doing so, we have faced a large number of challenges across a number of jurisdictions in line with the business’ increased growth. Notably, there has been a strong drive to enforce the global requirements for content moderation and work with law enforcement to ensure our platforms are safe for our users. The team has also been working on some significant data projects in an effort to deeply understand the business. We have significantly increased our resources in the aforementioned areas whilst working across various corporate restructuring matters and investment vehicles (especially in environmental and Web 3 technologies).

What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

We have had several dynamic shifts in the last 12 months, but perhaps most impactfully has been the relentless drive into understanding the business through data insights. It enables us to analyse our impact and operations for the benefit of our users and the business, reacting more quickly to user demands whilst ensuring our core fundamentals are protected. The team has gone the extra mile in supporting the business and ensuring our privacy compliance standards are met as we perform these data exercises.

Has the increasing consciousness of climate change and sustainability affected your company and the team’s priorities, and if so how?

We are always looking at ways to improve our impact in relation to climate change. With that in mind, we have been particularly focused on directing our investment business to invest in organisations that specialise in environment-forward technologies. This is exciting for all concerned.