Team size: 100+

Key team members: Benjamin Goss, Andrew Dixon-Smith, Karen Chan, Adam Hoskin

Major legal advisers: Simmons & Simmons, Allen & Overy and Norton Rose Fulbright

Can you sum up the team culture or ethos, and give us a breakdown of what makes your legal team function so well?

We established the sustainability legal team in 2019 and provide general counsel to the chief sustainability officer and the CSO team across sustainable finance, sustainability strategy and strategic initiatives. The sustainability legal team focusses on delivering bold, collaborative and strategic solutions to the chief sustainability officer and the global CSO team.

Recognising that sharing knowledge across the global Standard Chartered legal team was essential, the sustainability legal team, among other initiatives, established a sustainability legal working group, including product and regional leads that work with the sustainability legal team to support sustainability integration across the bank; developed an annual sustainability legal work plan; and prepared a playbook on sustainable finance transactions for legal and business teams.

To upskill and share relevant knowledge on topical sustainability issues and transactions, the sustainability legal team established the sustainability legal working group – a working group open to all Standard Chartered lawyers, which shares relevant information and meets bi-weekly to discuss current sustainability issues and hear from country and/or region and product lawyers on sustainability issues affecting their teams. The sustainability legal working group now includes over 100 lawyers across the globe and considers issues such as corporate governance, reporting and disclosure, documentation and guidance and industry developments in the sustainability space.