Team size: 15

What are the most significant cases or transactions that you have been involved in over the past year?

As a result of the significant monetary fraud cases caused by sales agents of some of the major life insurance companies, preventing sales employees’ monetary fraud had become an industry-wide challenge. To respond to this, the legal team was instrumental in initiating a task force to enhance compliance systems. Measures included the use of data analytics to analyse and redefine the hiring criteria for sales employees, a comprehensive review of the compensation system to reduce the risk of fraud, and strengthening the “three lines of defence” system for better compliance ownership. The legal team played a key role in addressing data protection, labor law implications and regulation compliance. These measures have successfully reduced fraud and compliance violations, resulting in a significant increase in employee engagement and customer satisfaction rates.

The company faced a challenge due to the industry trend of captive sales employees migrating to independent insurance agencies. There was one case where former sales employees used the company’s customer data for their new agency’ benefit. Responding to this, the legal team pursued a strategic litigation against the former employees who misused customer data. The uniqueness of the case was in the claim structure, demanding a clawback of the accused’s retirement allowances rather than quantifiable damages. Initially, the Tokyo District Court denied the clawback, but on appeal, the Tokyo High Court ruled in the company’s favour, based on evidence of the accused’s unusual access to the customer database before leaving the company. This rare victory boosted the morale of Gibraltar’s employees and set a precedent against potential customer base compromise by former employees.

Apart from legal matters, has the team worked on other company initiatives you would like to highlight?

The team has actively participated in the company’s transformative culture change project, designed to streamline collaboration between home office and field employees. The legal team tours field offices across Japan, elucidating recent legal affairs and their own strategic initiatives. This not only cultivates a deeper comprehension of these subjects but also fosters improved rapport between the sales teams and the Law Team, strengthening the synergy within the company.

How do you motivate and manage the other members of your legal team well?

I urge team members to take the following actions: Engage in face-to-face and proactive communications with business teams and relay these interactions in team meetings; highlight exemplary work of colleagues during team meetings to foster recognition and appreciation; and share recent happy events at team meetings to deepen interpersonal connections within the team.
These initiatives have played a significant role in driving our team’s engagement score to one of the highest within the company.