Team size: 558 

Major legal advisors: Allen & Overy, Baker & McKenzie, Clifford Chance, DLA Piper International, Eversheds Sutherland, Herbert Smith Freehills, Norton Rose Fulbright, Simmons & Simmons, Slaughter & May, Sullivan & Cromwell 

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

SC’s legal function has been involved in the following significant matters recently:  

The mergers and acquisitions legal team is leading on the exit of seven markets (Zimbabwe, Angola, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Jordan and Lebanon), as well as the exit of SC’s consumer, private and business banking business in two further markets (Tanzania and Cote D’Ivoire) to support SC’s strategy to deliver efficiencies, reduce complexity and drive scale. This has included management of multimarket and complex processes with unique transactional challenges. 

Transactions supporting SC’s net zero commitments, including our pledge to mobilise $300bn in sustainable finance by 2030 to accelerate solutions to support a just transition in some of the most vulnerable and challenging jurisdictions. SC’s legal team advises on documents and governance for transition and sustainable finance including on market-leading project finance deals for renewable energy projects.     

SC legal acted as a key decision maker for SC’s IBOR transition programme, spearheading advisory efforts and establishing documentary change processes, including the development of an in-house contract management platform to support this effort. SC’s USD exposures required coordination across our global SC Legal footprint to transition our portfolio away from LIBOR; with our emerging markets presenting unique challenges when managing differing client, industry player and regulator expectations. Remediation efforts aside, this work provided important lessons for the future on documentation and productivity efficiencies, data, and an opportunity to launch a data-driven documentation tool, led by SC legal in support of the group’s businesses. 

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

The fast pace of business in today’s world, incredible technology developments–especially in the field of artificial intelligence–and proliferation of data will dramatically impact the way general counsel and their teams work over the coming five years.  

Expectations of business stakeholders will continue to increase, with in-house teams being expected to collaborate as partners and be strategic contributors to business initiatives. They will be expected to challenge, identify risks broadly–not just legal risks–and help identify solutions. My in-house team strives to exceed stakeholder expectations by consistently delivering solutions that are bold, collaborative, and strategic.  

General counsel and in-house teams will also expand their use of artificial intelligence to provide efficiencies, internally and through external vendors, for query management, contract lifecycle management, drafting and so much more, which will give in-house colleagues much needed time to focus on strategic issues.