Team size: 37

What are the most significant cases and transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Our mission at Wise is money without borders: instant, convenient, transparent, and eventually free. In 2021, Wise marked its ten-year anniversary by launching a global re-brand from TransferWise to Wise. TransferWise started as a solution for cheaper money transfers. The rebrand was necessary to more accurately reflect our customers’ desire to use us for more than international transfers. Sending, spending, and receiving money internationally is too expensive, slow, and inconvenient. These are the problems that Wise is focused on fixing for individuals and businesses, which is why we have an app, a debit card, a multi-currency account and a growing focus on businesses as well as individuals. Our name and brand must encompass all the different parts of our global cross-border payments business, which is why we became Wise.

The legal team focused on securing a new and highly desirable domain name (Wise.com), amending all our entity names across the globe and registering trademarks and transliterations. We negotiated rebrands, name updates and settlements with other companies with the name “Wise”, whilst undertaking all the necessary legal work that the rebrand required of our interactions with the rest of the world.

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values? Are you likely to reconsider what firms you work with based on this?

We look for a combination of excellence, technical expertise and experience and clear communication to both lawyers and non-lawyers at Wise. It’s important that we work with lawyers who can understand the mission focus and commercial priorities of the company. And the best way of achieving this is if our lawyers feel they are an equal part of the team, working alongside and challenging us.

In general, what would you like to see change about the external law firms you use?

At Wise, we value open, honest and blame-free two-way communication. We like the same transparency from our external counsel. I think even the best firms have “blind spots” where they’re not necessarily as strong as you need them to be (as do in-house teams). I appreciate it most when law firm partners can be honest about that and help us to pre-empt disappointment or wasted time down the line.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners?

I like to think that we have one of the most fast-paced teams out there, a team that can execute incredibly well and keep up with our fast-growing business. We’re not a typical back-office function, and the way that we operate in the legal team is entirely consistent with how Wise operates overall.

Jessica Winter