Team size: Seven 

First, can you please give us an idea of the sort of work your team has done recently? 

In addition to leading the legal department, I am responsible for our Luxembourg operations and head up our Luxembourg office with close to 40 associates plus overseeing the six branches with another 40 associates. Within the legal team we have achieved a few remarkable milestones in the last few years. We established a direct relationship with our regulator (the CSSF) and are doing now all our filings in-house with great success and impressive turnaround times. We are a very diverse team with five different nationalities represented within a team of seven. One of my team members is chairing the firm’s EMEA Pride Committee and received an award as one of the Top 100 Gamechangers in 2022 from LGBT Great. I personally represent the firm at the Diversity Project Europe as one of the founding members of the project that was established in spring last year. 

As far as the core legal work is concerned, we work on fund structures, segregate mandates, provide generally advice for most of the continental European countries, including the DACH region, BeFraLux, Italy and the Iberian Peninsula plus the six branches spread across European countries. I am currently leading a global project for the establishment of a blue bond fund structure from a legal perspective. We have also gone through a regulatory inspection in the last couple of years and received a clean letter at the end of the inspection. Another member of my team is, in addition to his legal counsel responsibilities, the appointed conducting officer for distribution and finance, who spearheaded internal efforts to reinforce our internal distribution oversight processes in line with evolving regulations and market expectations during the last few years. Finally, I led an internal project recently to review our Luxembourg operating model ensuring functional alignment with an evolving and growing presence in Luxembourg. 

What particular industry trends are you seeing in the legal sector in Luxembourg? 

I see a trend towards using more technology for safekeeping documents. With SharePoint solutions, the review and negotiation process has become more interactive and reduces some of the burden in relation to version control. Also, regulators are using more and more technology and have introduced different platforms for filing submissions. Internal assessments are being made to see how prospectus reviews can be facilitated with the use of technology. Since the pandemic and in an era of flexible work arrangements, electronic signatures have become the new norm for executing agreements. While some countries (for example, Germany) have clear expectations for qualified signatures offered by DocuSign for instance, others do not, and it would be advisable to introduce a European standard here. 

What is a cause, business related or otherwise, that you care about, and why?              

I care about strong work ethics and doing things the right way. While it may take longer to implement a solid and sustainable solution, it ultimately pays off in the long run. Strong leadership is at least equally important than the technical knowledge of one’s area of expertise. As Peter Drucker puts it: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” and it is a leader’s responsibility to cultivate important cultural principles and values within the organisation.