About

Willliam McKechnie has led the corporate legal department at if P&C Insurance Company in Sweden since 2012, and currently leads a team of 22 liability lawyers through the many challenges international financial markets provide, dealing with complex liabilities in the Nordic area and around the world. When first undertaking the role, McKechnie focused on transforming the legal department’s image and purpose, emphasising that the team should be business oriented and seen as a service provider rather than an inhibitor. This was achieved mainly by involving the legal team early in the stages of transactions, and fostering an atmosphere of approachability. McKechnie identifies that he has had to deal with regulatory challenges during this time, and says that there have been ‘a big wave of new regulatory changes that have affected [the] industry in the last five years’. He continues: ‘There’s been an overhaul of the insurance business regulations and insolvency in the banking side of the business. It affects how the insurance companies are supervised and run. If you put that together with the EU’s insurance distribution directive and data protection regulation in which new higher sanctions and requirements, these three new regulations have come into force there has been a big effect in the last 10 years’. In response to these challenges, McKechnie attempts to identify potential gaps in the company’s regulations that address these laws and make sure that they are filled by being proactive and business minded in searching out potential problems and eliminating them, entailing close partnership with business management within the company. McKechnie’s journey to his current position started with his law degree in Dublin, where he qualified as a barrister in 2003 after working in the office of the attorney general since 2000. Immediately afterwards he came to Sweden and qualified as a Swedish advokat in 2008 after working as an associate at Mannheimer Swartling in banking insurance and litigation. He first joined if P&C in 2008 and has since worked his way to being the most senior lawyer at the company based in Sweden.