Interim General Counsel — Transactions and Governance (Asset Management)

Eighteen months towards a single legal voice

The year and a half is shaped around one outcome: when the board hears from legal, it hears one judgement rather than three. Over the first ninety days, a single legal view across transactions, disputes and governance should be agreed with the Audit Committee Chair, with an accountable lead for each. Around month nine, live transactions and disputes should be reaching the board with combined legal and governance judgement and a clear request for decision, not as separate updates the board has to reconcile for itself. By month 18, advice on transactions, disputes and governance should be reaching the board as one legal judgement in the ordinary course, with exceptions reviewed on cadence.

Why the three belong together, and the authority to join them

Legal advice at board level often arrives in pieces. The deal team explains a transaction's terms, the litigation team separately reports on a dispute with a counterparty to that same transaction, and the company secretary raises a governance point about who approved it. Each is correct. Together they describe a single risk that nobody has priced. A general counsel's distinctive contribution is to see the connection and present it as one judgement the board can act on.

The appointment carries executive authority. Under it, the rules for legal decisions, the limits within which local managers may act and the measures that steer spending, people and control are all yours to set. You will rule on which commitments go on, are held or end. Proposals that offload cost or risk onto no one in particular will stop with you, and investment cases that omit adoption, operating dependencies or downside will be turned down. The legal leadership structure, and the way problems are raised, will be yours to approve; you will also broker disagreements between the committee and the business heads, and decide how often directors see progress, exceptions and unresolved matters.

A general counsel who has priced delay

In funds and asset management you have made legal calls where each week of delay had a measurable price, and you have let evidence redirect people, capital and management attention. You can name a well-liked commitment you closed, the facts that justified closing it and the capacity that came free. Those choices were made in organisations spanning three countries, employing 400 or more people and earning at least $305 million. Selection will examine your digital transformation, joint venture and turnaround experience, and look for governance ethics at level 4, with level 3 in transaction legal work, in disputes and investigations, and in board and stakeholder management. A general counsel who needs country leaders to agree unanimously before a legal commitment can stop, or who wants influence without 18 months of accountability, will not fit.

A brief selection

Selection is short. In week one the Audit Committee Chair speaks with you confidentially over video; the Regional President sets you a practical case to work through in week two; and week three is an in-person discussion with the full board of directors. Each stage is answered within four working days.