How do you balance your responsibilities as a general counsel with your involvement in dispute resolution and M&A matters? 

To be effective in an in-house environment, general counsel need to be able to respond to and balance ever-changing demands and challenges, and which are often competing, complex and require different technical skills and expertise. Dispute resolution and M&A matters may need prioritisation due to fixed deadlines, materiality, or strategic importance to an organisation, but where this is not immediately clear, general counsel need to quickly understand developing situations, identifying, and focusing on the key issues and tasks. General counsel today also draw upon a broader business knowledge and a wider skill set to balance the sheer scope and variety of their responsibilities, and which can of course be aided by enhanced project management strategies and tools (including clearly documented processes and procedures, outsourcing or delegation and the use of legal technology and artificial intelligence). 

What measures has your company taken to embed sustainability practices into its core business operations, and how does the role of the general counsel contribute to driving and ensuring sustainable practices within the company? 

At Deutsche Bank, we see it as our duty to support our customers in contributing to an environmentally sound, socially inclusive, and well governed world, and to facilitate their transformation towards a more sustainable economy. Our advice, as well as our products and solutions, are built on this commitment. Accordingly, sustainability is deeply embedded into our own operations. In practice, as general counsel, this translates into firsthand exposure to transactions and initiatives which contribute to the success of both the bank (from a financial, strategic and sustainability perspective) and the wider community in which it operates. Most recently, this has included: (i) the KSA Public Investment Fund´s landmark debut in the international capital markets through a $3bn green bond offering (the first ever green century bond globally), (ii) the financing of two key infrastructure development projects in Africa through social loans supported by Export Credit Agencies – the Tarkwa-Agona-Nkwanta road in Ghana (to help improve access to export markets), and new hospitals and health centres in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana (to help provide more beds and state of the art medical treatment to significantly improve healthcare services in both regions), and (iii) the Deutsche Bank Ocean Resilience Philanthropy Fund, a first of its kind philanthropic fund set up by a financial institution, giving client donors the opportunity to support Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for ocean conservation efforts through a dedicated international framework to facilitate donations. 

Can you foresee any key developments to the way general counsel work over the next five years? 

The evolving social, economic, political, and environmental landscape will continue to require general counsel to be a trusted advisor across the entire spectrum of a business’ operations, enabling them to meet the demands of challenges that often stretch beyond the specifically “legal” realm. Now more than ever, general counsel will need to be seen (and act) as a strategic c-suite business partner, adapting to and balancing a shifting landscape of new and developing priorities (including diversity and inclusion, hybrid working models and behaviours, digitalisation, and the rise of technology and ESG agendas), all of which will require them to adopt a broader mindset and a more holistic approach to legal and risk management advice.