More than 10,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia first invaded in February 2022 according to the UN. And, as highlighted by this week’s airstrike on Kyiv, in which more than 40 people lost their lives, the war is far from over.

But despite the ongoing conflict, law firms in the country remain very much open to business.

Here, Legal Business speaks to some of those on the ground in Ukraine about the different stages of the conflict and the mood among the business and legal community.

February 2022 – June 2022: Invasion

In the initial weeks and months after Russia’s invasion on 24 February 2022, law firms, like the rest of the country, went into survival mode. The first priority was ensuring the safety of staff. Although most men of professional age were unable to leave the country, female lawyers were largely free to leave.

International firms moved their eligible staff to overseas offices, with CMS, for example, offering all of its employees on the ground the chance to move to its Budapest office. Domestic outfits either shifted as far as possible into Western Ukraine, or managed to operate entirely remotely with staff scattered throughout Europe and beyond. Independent firm Arzinger continued to practice despite resettling approximately 40 people across 22 different jurisdictions. The alternative was to lose staff.

For those headquartered in Kyiv, the situation was less dire than for those in the eastern regions, such as Kharkiv, where Aurum Law Firm evacuated its entire team, and co-founder Sergey Ostrovskiy recalls that ‘a few of our associates were caught in the area when Russia invaded, and one had to sit for eight days in the basement without leaving’.

Yet by early summer 2022, carrying on with legal business in a combat zone was becoming the new normal.

Anna Babych, executive partner at AEQUO, says that many people were back on the ground in the office from June, ‘since the goal was to keep the team together as much as possible’. She adds: ‘We tried to get back to normal and were celebrating certain things together.’

Timur Bondaryev, Arzinger managing partner, describes how even though things were put on hold at first, over time ‘people got accustomed to it’. He adds: ‘Business became more or less as usual – not considering regular missile attacks of course. As long as we’re alive we adapt.’

‘Business became more or less as usual – not considering regular missile attacks of course. As long as we’re alive we adapt.’ Timur Bondaryev, Arzinger

The first practice to bounce back was dispute resolution. Force majeure and bankruptcy claims quickly piled up, giving full-service firms the chance to rapidly pick up a healthy caseload. The courts, already primed to operate remotely, sprung into fully-digitalised action. Sanctions work was also booming. Bondaryev recalls: ‘Since Russian investors have traditionally been a huge presence on the market in every area, it was painful for each and every client.’ It meant firms were kept extremely busy, with related white-collar crime investigations relating to potential involvement with Russian money also picking up.

July 2022 – May 2023: Counteroffensive and hope

Through late summer and into autumn, Ukrainian forces liberated territory in the northeast and east of the country and, with the promise of a similar programme to follow in 2023, some opportunistic investors began to look again at Ukraine.

Tetyana Dovgan, an M&A partner at CMS in Kyiv, recalls seeing ‘the promise of deals in the infrastructure, logistics and telecoms sectors’. One such example was Nestle’s announcement in December 2022 that it was planning to invest just over $42m in a new production facility in Smolyhiv, in the western region of Volyn.

‘[Most in the industry felt that that lawyers had] a patriotic duty to work and pay taxes – this is the way for us to support the war effort.’
Olga Shenk, CMS

Throughout the winter and into spring 2023, a hopeful mood abounded. International financial institutions, tapping into the zeitgeist, resumed lending, as well as developing concurrent political risk insurance programmes. Some firms also saw their domestic clients taking the opportunity to widen their focus beyond the border.

Away from the transactional space, litigation continued to be a key driver of activity. Compensation for losses and damages caused by the conflict emerged as a core concern. Where previously there had been a lack of tangible opportunities for such claims, there was increasing optimism. In May 2023, the Register of Damage for Ukraine was established under the auspices of the Council of Europe, with Yulia Kyrpa, another of AEQUO’s executive partners, one of the current board members.

Firms were also picking up commercial and employment work, particularly in relation to military personnel.

Throughout this period, firms also continued to establish and adjust to the working patterns associated with their new reality. The barely forgotten realities of the pandemic proved useful, with Bondaryev noting that ‘Covid turned out to be a huge help, as everyone was trained to work remotely, including the public authorities’. Those who had previously been based in the eastern parts of the country, such as Aurum Law Firm, had no choice but to remain long-distance. But those in the western part of the country were seeing many lawyers opting to spend at least part of their time on the ground.

June 2023 – December 2023: Delay and disappointment

But by the end of autumn 2023, as it became clear that the counteroffensive was not progressing as had initially been hoped, even bolder investors started putting projects on the back burner once more. Bondaryev estimates that during this time, ‘maybe 10% of investors went ahead with projects, and only near the Western border’. As a result, firms experienced a slowdown in the transactional space.

With the situation on the ground becoming increasingly dire, many firms used the pause in deal-making to focus on the pro bono work many had been carrying out since 2022. CMS, for example, had launched a ‘Super Humans’ initiative, which sees practitioners assisting humanitarian and rehabilitation centres with their structuring and insurance matters. AEQUO, meanwhile, dedicated its efforts to providing prosthetics centres for veterans with free advice, as well as handling a spate of defence mandates for free on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Aurum Law Firm teamed up with a number of clients to create a fund that could be distributed directly to volunteers in the eastern areas of Ukraine, providing certainty that ‘every penny would reach its destination’. As Babych explains, legal professionals were eager to find their own ways of alleviating the suffering they were seeing, and ‘this was their contribution’.

During these darker days, firms continued to mine all possible sources of work. For some, like Ostrovskiy’s boutique, this meant leveraging their smaller and more flexible nature and ‘diversifying to conduct business not only in Ukraine but globally’. Larger, full-service firms, meanwhile, took on insolvency and supply chain related mandates.

Overall, as Olga Shenk, head of dispute resolution and compliance at CMS in Kyiv, explains, most in the industry felt that that lawyers had ‘a patriotic duty to work and pay taxes – this is the way for us to support the war effort’. Integrites’ managing partner Oleksiy Feliv, similarly, affirms that ‘law firms do make their contribution to Ukraine’s victory, and have been doing their job despite the ongoing war’.

‘Everyone hopes that the next year will be the one where there will be a ceasefire or a resolution.’
Anna Babych, AEQUO

January 2024 – June 2024: Pragmatism

With the war now into its second year, since 2024 the mood has shifted again. Bondaryev characterises it as: ’the realisation that this is a sprint and not a marathon’.

Firms have been operating in a war zone for nearly two and a half years, transitioning through various operational models to land on systems that work.

For those previously based in eastern Ukraine, such as Aurum Law Firm, partners and lawyers remain scattered around the world, with none currently working in Ukraine.

But firms in western parts of Ukraine have seen lawyers flooding back to the country and their offices.

At Integrites, only one partner out of 15 is now living abroad full-time, with the rest based either solely or partially in Ukraine.

‘Law firms do make their contribution to Ukraine’s victory, and have been doing their job despite the ongoing war.’
Oleksiy Feliv, Integrites

For the firm, this is ‘a conscious decision in order to try and be in Kyiv close to clients’.

The figures are similar for Arzinger, where only four of the senior practitioners are now working completely remotely.

Those who relocated their families abroad are now splitting their time between cities; Feliv alternates between spending one month at the office, and one with his wife and children. He jokes that ‘it’s great; as soon as you get everything sorted in one place you have to leave and can’t enjoy it, and then you move and there are 1,000 problems there which you sort out, then you have to leave again’. This picture is a common one for lawyers across the country.

But despite the difficulties, firms, like corporates and investors, have settled down for the long haul.

The major international players with a presence in Ukraine before the war are cautiously resuming operations, and hoping to seek opportunities in the rebuilding projects that are needed on a huge scale. As Babych explains: ‘Everyone hopes that the next year will be the one where there will be a ceasefire or a resolution.’

Ukrainian firms are keen to stress that life – and business – is still going on – despite an increase in the violence.

‘We are continuing to stay on the ground in Kyiv, working, supporting our teams, and bringing the victory closer.’
Tetyana Dovgan, CMS

As Feliv explains: ‘there’s often an ‘aha’ effect when we explain to people abroad that we are still working, because perhaps people think we sit back home in our cellars, hiding from missiles and doing nothing, but we understand that we must keep the economy going’.

Dovgan concludes: ‘We are continuing to stay on the ground in Kyiv, working, supporting our teams, and bringing the victory closer.’

If you would like to make a donation to aid efforts in Ukraine please go to british-ukrainianaid.org/

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For independent, full-service firms operating across the Benelux countries, the global uncertainty and turmoil of the last few years has served to highlight the advantages of their business model; being able to pivot between workstreams and react rapidly to changing circumstances has proven to be a concerted advantage. Antoine De Raeve, a senior banking and finance partner who moved from Baker McKenzie to AKD in May 2023, is quick to point out that his new firm is ‘naturally hedged against dips in the transactional market’. This has proven key in recent times, with deals slowing down right across the region because of the combined effects of ongoing conflicts and long-term impacts of Covid-19, despite the positive effects that Brexit appears to have had on the international stance of the Benelux countries.

In the Netherlands, there is reported reluctance at the higher end of the market to invest, with clients seemingly ‘waiting out’ the unpredictability of the current climate; Harmen Holtrop, managing partner at Loyens & Loeff, notes that ‘uncertainty in the market will have a bigger impact on the transactional practices than it may on certain others’, again highlighting the importance of wide-ranging capabilities if firms are to maintain their flow of work.

Over in Belgium, the upcoming federal election in June 2024 is another contributory factor towards a cautious market, with AKD’s labour law specialist Julien Hick pointing out that ‘clients tend to wait rather than act in these circumstances’. For investors, fundraising has become a longer process than it once was, while in the equity capital markets sphere, the volatility of interest rates and inflation globally have not lent themselves to a booming market. Independent firms have consequently made use of their agile structure to capitalise on an increase in work in other areas. A key example is the restructuring and insolvency sector; Stibbe’s managing partner Hans Witteveen comments that ‘the sentiment in the market was already turning but 2023 finally saw the awaited uptick in restructuring work’. This trend is likely to continue at least for the short to medium term, with continued supply chain disruptions looming.

Other fields which have remained buoyant for several years are also proving to be lucrative sources of work for those independent firms that are able to attract experts and grow their specialised departments. AKD’s office managing partner in Brussels, Timothy Speelman, picks out the two areas which have been generating particular buzz in recent times, commenting that ‘people talk about AI and people talk about ESG, so that’s already been on people’s minds and will continue’. Witteveen, likewise, is keen to emphasise the fact that the ‘phenomenon’ of AI and its potential impact on the legal market ‘shouldn’t be underestimated’. In the Netherlands, the fintech sphere is currently the one in which AI is making its influence most strongly felt; since Brexit, Amsterdam has become a key hub and network for such work, with Holtrop pointing out that the UK’s exit ‘continues to have an impact on continental Europe as a whole, as a significant number of headquarters have moved from London to the continent’.

As far as ESG is concerned, environmental considerations – next to the societal and economic ones – continue to be uppermost in clients’ minds. ‘Sustainability is becoming increasingly important because European companies are considering having production closer by,’ according to Holtrop. The impact of this market trend has been particularly noteworthy in such areas as private equity, where there is reportedly almost always some degree of ESG focus or interest. Further, in debt capital markets, the green aspect of bonds is increasingly becoming significant. In the Netherlands, the environment and planning sector itself is busy figuring out how businesses will work following the 1 January 2024 implementation of the Environmental Planning Act, which has been subject to significant delays; reportedly it makes the interpretation of European laws less liberal, so existing businesses may need to adapt while newly developing ones need to consider the effects of this legislation. Social and governance considerations are also coming to the fore across a range of sectors, partially owing to related legislation coming out of the EU.

‘Brexit continues to have an impact on continental Europe as a whole, as a significant number of headquarters have moved from London to the continent.’ Harmen Holtrop, Loyens & Loeff

Sensing the fast-moving dynamics of the market, therefore, clients are increasingly veering towards agile independent firms fielding specialised teams with international capabilities and lower prices, as opposed to automatically instructing globally renowned international firms. Holtrop remarks that ‘Dutch firms are becoming more robust and have an increasingly solid place in the market’, and the pattern is repeating all the way across the Benelux region. For such outfits, the key issue will be their ability to develop the best-calibre teams in a highly dynamic market; Witteveen notes that ‘the acquisition of talent remains very competitive despite the stuttering of the market’, while De Raeve points out that ‘nowadays there is less commitment to a particular firm or brand, even at partner level, with practitioners regularly moving firms’.

Provided that they can attract the best names, and retain them, the outlook is encouraging for independent firms in the Benelux region – no matter where the next flurry of activity comes from, they will be well positioned to pivot and adapt. LB

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Nearly a year after joining the Financial Conduct Authority as CEO in 2020, Nikhil Rathi committed to making the organisation ‘more innovative, assertive and adaptive’. Two years later, some of this change is evident – particularly in its leadership.

Former Herbert Smith Freehills partner Ashley Alder became Chair of the FCA Board in February 2023, after more than a decade as CEO of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). Meanwhile Therese Chambers, who began her City career as a commercial litigator, and former National Crime Agency director Stephen Smart took up their new posts as joint executive directors of Enforcement and Market Oversight shortly after, in April.

But while the leadership team has changed, questions still remain around how much progress has been made towards meeting Rathi’s goals and what any revamped organisation would look like in practice.

According to Katie Stephen, co-head of Norton Rose Fulbright’s contentious financial services group in London, Alder has joined the FCA at ‘a critical moment’.

In the post-Brexit era, when UK authorities have been steadily exerting pressure on regulators to change the landscape, Stephen believes Alder’s appointment is significant ‘not just because he joins at a time of a wave of new regulation but also from an internal cultural perspective given reports from last year regarding staff turnover’.

Alder himself stepped into the shoes of former Slaughter and May partner Charles Randell OBE, who stepped down as FCA chair earlier than anticipated, explaining in a letter to prime minister Rishi Sunak that he believed it was ‘the right time to hand over the oversight of the rest of the transformation programme to a Chair who can see it through to completion’.

Stephen anticipates that Alder will now ‘be keen to keep the momentum going with forthcoming regulatory change across sectors, whilst steadying the ship’.

Raza Naeem, a financial regulatory partner at Linklaters, has high hopes that Alder will be able to ‘bring more of an international perspective to the table’, citing his past experience as CEO of the SFC in Hong Kong as a particular positive given the UK’s need to ‘have its own rules which work in an international context’.

Regulatory change

It isn’t just the organisation’s leadership that’s changed though. The hotly anticipated new Consumer Duty came into effect in July 2023 and requires FS companies to act in good faith, avoid foreseeable harm and support customers in their financial objectives. Although financial institutions with direct retail or consumer customers have long been expected to achieve fair outcomes for them, the Consumer Duty radically alters the scope of this obligation, by extending it to firms that don’t have direct contractual relationships with customers, but who are in a distribution chain ending in a retail customer or where they are able to determine, or materially influence customer outcomes.

This extension means it now captures the overwhelming majority of FS institutions.

Norton Rose Fulbright’s Matt Gregory, who worked as a senior policy adviser at the Treasury before joining the firm as a financial services regulatory partner, believes that this change ‘requires a challenging new way of thinking and doing business’.

As an example, he highlights that the new rule that ‘all products and services provided to retail customers must provide fair value requires a holistic assessment of costs to a customer in accessing, using and enjoying the benefits of a product across the product lifecycle’.

According to the FCA, the Consumer Duty ‘sets higher and clearer standards of consumer protection across financial services, and requires firms to put their customers’ needs first’. In practice, Naeem argues that this means it ‘should be something firms live and breathe and think about proactively’. Gregory echoes this sentiment, suggesting that his clients ‘should now be embedding the Duty culturally within their organisations’. He argues that over the coming months they will need to focus on testing and monitoring outcomes in practice.

Given the ongoing economic challenges, high interest rates and cost of goods, banks and other financial services institutions need to pay particular attention to borrowers in financial difficulty, ensuring that they have robust policies and processes in place to identify and record vulnerability characteristics.

By summer 2024, institutions will need to have been awarded their first annual certification, confirming that they have acted to deliver good outcomes. In order to achieve this, Gregory recommends that firms ‘really put themselves in the retail customers’ shoes, and consider non-financial costs, as well as financial costs to customers when undertaking value assessments’.

Enforcement

On the enforcement side, the picture is still relatively cloudy. Therese Chambers and Stephen Smart, who joinly replaced Mark Steward as executive director of enforcement and market oversight, have a host of experience between them. Chambers has both retail and wholesale experience and has been at the FCA for more than 20 years. Smart meanwhile joined from the National Crime Agency so between them Chambers argues they have ‘all bases covered’.

For Nick Queree, a senior counsel in Slaughter and May’s disputes and investigations group, however, the change of directorship means ‘there will be a question around – as ever – resourcing and the conduct the FCA wants to target’. According to partners Steward’s time in office was characterised by an aggressive approach from the regulator, with a rapid increase in the number of formal investigations over his seven years in post. According to Rathi his tactics delivered: ‘significant enforcement cases across a broad spectrum, as well as the FCA’s data-led approach to market oversight’. Others though criticised backlogs in the system, with open investigations dragging on, leaving firms, individuals and regulators waiting for outcomes. Queree, therefore, suggests that under Smart and Chambers ‘greater focus might be appropriate’.

Whether Chambers and Smart will adopt a different approach – perhaps focusing on drawing out key themes and turning the tap down on volume – remains to be seen. While Chambers emphasised in a recent speech that the team will ‘appreciate and reward firms that do the right thing’, many partners are taking Smart’s appointment as an indication that there is likely to be a renewed focus on the criminal side. As Queree suggests, Smart may: ‘want to use criminal prosecutions to send messages to the market about the kind of conduct the FCA is worried about’.

‘As the regulation applicable to digital assets continues to develop, so do the opportunities for the regulators to take action.’
Hannah Meakin, Norton Rose Fulbright

For now, institutions must remain vigilant, with Stephen warning that they should be ‘mindful of the importance of immediate remedial action, as we are seeing a constant pipeline in internal investigations work across all sectors – from retail lending issues to international fraud’. In a climate where financial institutions are expected to manage significant regime changes, such as the Consumer Duty and Appointed Representatives Regime, as well as a cost of living crisis impacting both businesses and consumers, Stephen argues that: ‘it has never been more important for firms to ensure they are able to respond swiftly to intervention to mitigate or avoid referral to enforcement’.

Regardless of the exact approach Chambers and Smart end up taking towards investigations, some topics will undoubtedly dominate activity over the coming years. ESG is the buzzword across the board, and while environmental considerations are typically given the most prominence, Queree notes that ‘one development practitioners are seeing more of is claims around the S and the G, in particular cases on the governance side where claimants are holding entities to account around disclosure failings’.

Given the growing body of US securities law cases taking root in the UK – exemplified by the SFO’s investigation of Glencore’s practices across a number of African nations – a future in which regulatory resolutions could also regularly give rise to mass shareholder claims seems plausible.

Stephen, too, is keen to emphasise the fact that ‘good governance will remain a key focus for the financial services regulators and therefore for firms going forward’. She argues that it is therefore vital for banks and other FS organisations to ‘ensure the appropriate governance processes are in place and embedded throughout the business as this is key to identifying and responding to issues in a timely and effective manner’. According to Stephen taking this action now should mitigate against any ‘intervention and/or enforcement action for prolonged or repetitive breaches’.

The other space for financial services players to keep a sharp eye on is technology, with developments from AI to cryptocurrency coming under ever-closer scrutiny from regulators. Hannah Meakin, a fintech-focused financial services regulation partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, highlights that ‘as the regulation applicable to digital assets continues to develop, so do the opportunities for the regulators to take action where they see behaviour that undermines their objectives’.

‘Institutions must grapple with the extraordinarily fast-moving pace at which AI is developing and try to embed the appropriate safeguards.’
Katie Stephen, Norton Rose Fulbright

In a recent example of such expansion, June 2023 saw Parliament pass the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) (Amendment) Order, bringing cryptoassets within the scope of rules which regulate the marketing of financial products in the UK. For other areas, in particular AI, there is still some lag, as policymakers are left rushing to keep up with rapid evolution in the sector.

A white paper published by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology in March 2023 appears to endorse a pro-innovation approach to AI regulation – tying in with Rathi’s hopes for the FCA – but concrete principles and initial implementation guidance to regulators have yet to be issued. In the meantime, practitioners such as Stephen point out that ‘whilst this guidance will (eventually) be welcome by institutions, they must continue to grapple with the extraordinarily fast-moving pace at which this sector is developing and try to embed the appropriate safeguards within their governance framework to address any new risks or challenges presented by AI’.

The approach to developments in technology – which attempts to strike a balance between embracing new developments and providing adequate consumer protections – can be seen as emblematic of the current state of play, with innovation and assertiveness both guiding regulatory policy.

Exactly how Alder and Rathi will steer the FCA through these rocky waters still remains to be seen, but practitioners are keen to emphasise the need to think ahead, anticipate impact on consumers, and shore up internal procedures. As Queree points out in relation to the Consumer Duty, ‘if you haven’t thought about it now, you’re too late’. It’s a sentiment that applies across the board in these fast-moving times.

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Why did you want to become a lawyer? 

I always wanted to. I wanted to fight injustice. It began when I watched Crown Court on TV – although I wanted to be the judge rather than any of the lawyers. So, my first inclination was after watching a TV programme, and thinking ‘I want to do that’.

As I got older and realised the role lawyers play in helping people fight for their freedom it became very attractive.

You qualified as a barrister first, before switching to become a solicitor, and then moving in-house, going on to work for some huge names in the financial services sector. Why in-house? 

What wasn’t appealing about private practice was the time sheets and the grunt work you had to do at the beginning of your career. You didn’t always have access to clients and it wasn’t quite where I wanted to be. Then I found this fabulous job at Schroders. At that time, it was unusual to go in-house so early in your career – everyone thought that, as a proper lawyer, you had to be in private practice. In fact someone even said this to me. How different things are now!

I wanted to be a civil rights lawyer, but I had bills to pay so I ended up in the City and took to it like a duck to water. You have clients around you all the time and you can be part of creative solutions and be part of a team that’s bigger than just a legal team.

What has been the biggest achievement of your career to date? 

That’s a difficult question because there have been so many high points across the different jobs I’ve had, when we achieved things people thought you couldn’t!

One of the things I’m most proud of is launching a programme during my time at the World Bank called Empowering Women by Balancing the Law (EWBL) which had the aspiration of changing all the laws in the world that discriminate against women. The World Bank has a publication called ‘Women, Business and the Law’ which provided the data we needed on the laws that discriminated against women. We therefore knew exactly what needed to be changed – so we thought let’s get that going! These things always take a long time, and that vision is being carried through now. A former World Bank colleague recently said, ‘we’ve launched EWBL and it’s doing exactly what we hoped in The Gambia’.

Another is being appointed group general counsel at Standard Chartered and breaking that glass ceiling of being the first woman of colour to be in that position at one of the top 20 largest international banks. I’m really proud to work at Standard Chartered, whose purpose is to drive commerce and prosperity through its unique diversity, and to have the opportunity to launch a Taskforce in October 2023 with some of our Global Legal Panel firms to drive diversity and inclusion within the legal sector.

A third is when I was made Master of the Bench at Middle Temple – it was a complete surprise when they approached and asked me if I wanted to be an Honorary Master, so that was also a real highlight in my career!

And what has been the most difficult challenge to overcome?  

Everyone always has someone who gets in their way or is a bit of a thorn in your side but I realise now that I was my own biggest blocker. My biggest challenge has been overcoming my own self-doubt; the gremlin on my shoulder, my imposter syndrome. Although I always knew I could do it, I didn’t necessarily believe I could do it – and those are two very different things!

There may be all sorts of tangible blockers, but nothing is as big as the one in your head.

What have been the biggest differences between your work now at Standard Chartered compared with the World Bank?

First of all, there are so many similarities – both organisations have a global footprint and are built on value propositions. They are also a great bunch of people to work with and similar in terms of intellect and loving a challenge.

The real difference is that the World Bank had certain privileges and immunities and was not subject to local laws and regulations, but here at Standard Chartered that is the exact opposite. A big challenge is therefore the complexity of complying with various laws and regulations in over 50 countries. At the World Bank, of course there are internal rules, but coming back into a heavily regulated space has been the starkest difference.

There is still a lot of work to be done in social mobility. Where you were born, where you live, and your background can really dictate your success.

What issues do you think will be keeping you particularly busy over the next year or so? 

I think the things that will keep me energised as group general counsel will be pretty much the same as many other large international firms, be they banks or anything else.

Some of the current geopolitical issues are a challenge for everybody, no matter which industry they’re working in. Data sovereignty issues are becoming a challenge as well, as different nations want to claim sovereignty – quite rightly – over their data. I also think that in a post-Covid environment working practices have changed, and it’s not just a generational or gender thing anymore – so we have to adapt and get that right so we can attract and retain talent.

You’ve been very focused on championing social justice throughout your career. How much progress do you think has been made? And what are the key things which still need to change to improve things further?

Looking at when I started my career to now, I can see that lots has changed to allow someone like me to get where I am. When I was at school and was told by my teacher that little black girls from Balham couldn’t become judges, I don’t think she would have changed her mind if I’d said, ‘ok I’ll become group general counsel at Standard Chartered instead’.

Before, no matter how hard you worked, your ethnicity and gender would not let you get there. I think there’s a much better chance that your intellect and skill will get you there now. The opportunity has changed, and the things that used to hold you back are less likely to do so now. Not in every country in the world, but it is changing, and for the better.

There is still a lot of work to be done in social mobility. Where you were born, where you live, and your background can really dictate your success. That needs to be less so. I think there’s a lot to be done there.

If we focus on how to include rather than exclude people that would be a great step forward for humankind.

The other area to improve is around gender. In the past 100 years, there has been a stark improvement in gender equality, but there’s still a long way to go. We need to allow women to be the best they can be across the world – which involves contributing to their communities, their families, and their countries. We are lucky in some parts of the world that there has already been such progress. We also want zero violence against women – that is another thing to tackle which is very important. One in every three women in the world has faced gender-based violence at some point in their lives, and if we don’t tackle that, no matter what other things we put into place to help women succeed, it won’t work. It is ingrained in us that the world is a dangerous place for women, and how we make those choices needs to change. Everyone should feel safe, whatever gender they identify with.

When you look back on things, you realise that people are having similar conversations now compared to 30 years before, you just swap some words around. So discussions that were had previously about racial equality, we’re now having in relation to gender. If we focus on how to include rather than exclude people that would be a great step forward for humankind. For me, that has been the conversation throughout my entire life and career. When I started out, nobody thought I could do X,Y and Z. But as my life progressed, and the world progressed, things became more inclusive. I think we need to make everybody feel welcome – if people hadn’t done that to me, I wouldn’t be here now. But the people who had that powerbase included me in the conversation, and we need to pass that on. There should be inclusion in life.

What advice would you give to others who want to get to where you have?

Go for a bigger ambition than that! Have the ambition that seems impossible – that’s what I had. Don’t aim for the possible, aim for the impossible.

At a glance: Dr Sandie Okoro
2022-present  Group general counsel – Standard Chartered
2017-22 Senior vice president and general counsel – World Bank Group
2014-17 Global general counsel – HSBC Retail Banking & Wealth Management
2007-14 Global general counsel – Barings
1991-2007 Head of Legal for Corporate Services – Schroders

tanya.drobnis@legal500.com

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The Legal 500 rankings contain a wealth of information on the top firms for banking and finance, from those advising on big-ticket acquisition finance and restructuring mandates to those with focused expertise in specialist areas such as Islamic finance and high yield bonds.

This data special breaks down the market by a range of key benchmarks, including the firms with the most rankings, which firms are home to the most ranked individuals, and a look at how some of those numbers have changed over five years.

We’ve also crunched the figures to look at the impact of the impending A&O Shearman merger, a deal which brings together two firms renowned for their capabilities in the sector. Allen & Overy is already the top firm for banking and finance in the UK Legal 500 rankings, but the Shearman & Sterling tie-up will strengthen its position even further – all the details are below.

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Why did you want to become a lawyer and what drew you to the financial services regulatory side?

As much as the law itself, it was the draw of international work that led me to the City and to Herbert Smith, as it was then. I had read languages at university and was excited about the prospect of working on high-profile international matters.

I wasn’t disappointed: at the outset of my career, I worked on matters relating to the fallout from the banking failures of the 1990s – BCCI and Barings.

The insight those matters gave me into banking regulation and the operation of banks meant that, when the Financial Services Authority was established in 2001, I naturally gravitated towards regulatory matters relating to financial institutions.

You’ve worked both in-house and in private practice – what made you want to switch from one to the other? Do you have a preference?

Following a very enjoyable and fulfilling secondment, I took up a permanent in-house position at Lloyds Banking Group in 2007.

Working in a retail bank, I loved being directly involved in the application of regulation on people’s everyday lives. The other things I learned a lot about in-house were leadership and the importance of team spirit, not least through the global financial crisis in 2008.

During my time in-house, I enjoyed working with a number of law firms, but when I decided to return to private practice in 2010, I didn’t hesitate to take up the opportunity to come back to Herbert Smith Freehills.

I have always enjoyed problem solving, which I consider to be at the core of what we do as lawyers; this has been true both of what I did in-house and continue to do in private practice.

You’ve spent your entire private practice career, from trainee to global practice head, at Herbert Smith Freehills – what makes the firm special to you?

As a firm, Herbert Smith Freehills has a stated ambition to be the leading international firm for diversity and inclusion. It’s something that’s led from the top and is core to who we are.

As such, there isn’t an HSF ‘type’ and so, although I didn’t come from a traditional City law firm background, from day one, I was surrounded by people who respected each others’ differences. I am grateful to many senior partners (past and present) who believed in me and helped me believe in myself.

How has your day-to-day workload changed since becoming practice head? Was a leadership position always your goal?

I am immensely proud to lead our global financial services practice. My role involves facilitating connections and assisting our teams with supporting clients and growing practices regionally and globally. We have a simply brilliant global team, whose energy, innovative spirit and collaborative, client-focused mindset inspires me every day and makes leadership a pleasure.

I am fortunate to be able to divide my time between leadership and a busy personal practice, continuing to work with interesting clients to solve knotty problems.

What have been the top investigations of your career so far, and why?

My matters tend to be confidential. I get great satisfaction from completing an investigation – it’s a bit like a jigsaw, you start with lots of jumbled pieces. The difference between a jigsaw and an investigation though is that, with an investigation, the picture at the end is rarely the one you thought it would be at the beginning.

And which case has been the most memorable for the wrong reasons?

A big frustration in my job is the length of time it takes for the FCA to complete an investigation. While this is frustrating for financial services firms, it is particularly acute when an individual is under investigation. Their lives can be on hold while the FCA investigates. The statistics show that the vast majority of investigations into individuals close with no formal enforcement action, and it is not always clear that sufficient thought has been given to the appropriateness of those investigations taking place or to the timeliness of communicating discontinuance, where that is the conclusion reached.

What are the best and worst aspects of life as a City lawyer?

That no day is the same is both good and bad. I enjoy the variety of my job, but there is also pressure to keep up to speed with, and ideally ahead of, the next regulatory change. With regulation in a constant state of change, you are constantly learning. Luckily, I enjoy learning.

Maintaining a sense of humour and a sense of perspective is also essential to thriving in professional services.

What advice would you give to those who want to get to where you have?

Find an area of the law that interests you and cultivate your knowledge and profile in that area. Being the ‘go to’ person in a particular area helps you stand out from the crowd. If you are reluctant to ‘blow your own trumpet’, join forces with others who will do it for you, in return for you doing the same for them.

Maintaining a sense of humour and a sense of perspective is also essential to thriving in professional services.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the financial services sector currently, and how would you address it?

Our clients are faced with a tsunami of regulatory change. Just as it looks like the wave is subsiding, it returns with a vengeance. Interpreting the changes requires experience and judgement. In many areas, we have seen clients come unstuck, not because they have made a mistake or even a bad judgement call, but because they haven’t been able to evidence contemporaneous decision making. This should be an ongoing area of focus for all financial services firms, not least in the context of the FCA’s new Consumer Duty.

If you hadn’t become a lawyer, what do you think you would be doing now?

I expect I would have pursued something related to modern languages that involved travel – maybe interpreting
or teaching.

Jenny Stainsby is the global head of financial services regulatory at Herbert Smith Freehills. She has been a partner at the firm for 13 years, returning to the firm in 2010 after 2.5 years at Lloyds Banking Group during the financial crisis.

tanya.drobnis@legal500.com

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Across the CEE region, uncertainty was the watchword throughout 2022, and the pattern looks set to continue. Although independent firms remain well placed to make the most of booming practice areas, the ongoing conflict in the region, coupled with the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, has resulted in a volatile market.

In the Czech Republic, exorbitant oil and gas prices have hit businesses hard, and, although this did not cause an immediate drop in regular financing transactions, state and EU intervention is anticipated in 2023. Despite the strong start to 2022 and hopes of post-pandemic recovery across the board, the macro-economic challenges in the second half of the year have left a much emptier pipeline for law firms, with many major stakeholders waiting to see what unfolds. The domestic real estate market, meanwhile, is seeing stagnation following the overheating of real estate prices in the last few years, while current inflation means there are cumbersome restrictions on mortgages.

The start of 2022 saw an increase in cross-border M&A, characteristic of the period of frenzy which followed the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions. However, the advent of the war in Ukraine left many deals incomplete due to price mismatches. Those that are successfully closing typically show high complexity and value. Investors are reportedly apprehensive, with those based in the US viewing the region as precariously close to Ukraine. The shortage of capital has impacted most sectors, although technology-related M&A remains on the rise, in keeping with the wider technology boom across the entire region. Looking ahead, the implementation of the Digital Markets Act – aimed at establishing fair play rules for major digital companies by applying antitrust law principles to digital markets – is hotly anticipated.

Over in Serbia, 2022 shaped up to be ‘one of the best years for M&A’, according to Miloš Vučković, a senior partner at Karanovic & Partners. The outlook for 2023 is consequently optimistic, with predictions that it will be even busier than the previous year, despite the looming threat of sudden changes presented by the conflict in Ukraine. Although the turbulent situation makes rapid shifts a constant possibility, the nimbleness of independent firms ensures that, even if there were to be a slowdown in transactional work, they would be well placed to act on the consequent uptick in disputes and restructuring mandates. Practitioners such as Vučković therefore anticipate an active period ahead. More broadly, however, a major challenge has become ensuring the job satisfaction of junior lawyers, since competition is longer limited to other firms, but has expanded to cover banks, the Big Four, and other leading companies recruiting in-house lawyers.

Austrian firms, likewise, saw a pick-up in transactional work in 2022, and also predict that the number of deals in the market will remain robust in the face of external pressures. In keeping with jurisdictions across the region, pandemic-related work decreased throughout the latter half of 2022, only to be replaced by conflict-driven mandates. Encapsulating the mercurial nature of the market, and the adaptability of independent outfits, Andrea Gritsch, managing partner at Wolf Theiss, comments that ‘firms have to be resilient on the one hand, while at the same time remaining ready to seize opportunities lying ahead’.

Financing in the ESG space has begun to capture the Austrian market of late, as have capital markets and private equity mandates in the start-up space. The jurisdiction has also seen an increase in regulatory work across the banking and insurance sectors, as well as public procurement matters in the IT and media fields. Due to the volatile situation in the gas market, provision of restructuring advice in the energy sector has likewise emerged as an active area.

‘Firms have to be resilient on the one hand, while at the same time remaining ready to seize opportunities lying ahead.’ Andrea Gritsch, Wolf Theiss

A common theme uniting legal markets throughout the CEE region is the rapid emergence of sustainability and technology as dominant drivers of activity across the board. Poland is no different, and in the financing, construction, transactional, disputes and tax spaces, a significant proportion of mandates now have a nexus to the renewable energy field. More specifically, for projects-focused practitioners, offshore wind and photovoltaic developments, already long established as the major areas of interest for international investors, have become key targets for state-owned enterprises.

Even more than renewable energy, technology has come to undergird work in every major practice area. Most obviously, TMT lawyers have been grappling with an ever-growing roster of novel matters, with the metaverse and AI proving to be particularly hot topics of late. As technology has become so pervasive, firms have increasingly found themselves under dual sources of pressure: full-service outfits have felt a greater need to shore up their specific expertise; while boutiques have seen a need to expand beyond their niche offering.

As a direct consequence of this, in January 2023 the Polish market saw its first major merger between two highly regarded independent firms, namely Rymarz Zdort and TMT-focused Maruta Wachta; the resultant entity, Rymarz Zdort Maruta, is now led jointly by Paweł Zdort and Paweł Rymarz, and Marcin Maruta. The driving force for the headline-grabbing move was neatly encapsulated by Zdort, who says: ‘If you want to really service the upper quartile of the market, this breadth and depth is the only way.’

Following on from the tumult of 2022, the market continues to present a changeable face, with rapid expansion in certain sectors matched by uncertainty and hesitancy elsewhere. For independent firms, though, a natural agility means that pivoting to boom areas is always an option. Practitioners across the CEE region are looking ahead with confidence, ready to make the most of the coming period. LB

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* Data for Schoenherr is estimated FTE for the fiscal year 2022/23.

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