Miss Harris, a qualified barrister, moved from private practice into the financial services sector 10 years ago. Since then she has held senior legal and compliance positions in regulated investment firms, including eight years as the head of legal and compliance and then general counsel of Abbey Capital Limited, an Irish multi-billion dollar alternative investment management company, with operations in the EU, the US, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.

Regulatory expertise 

Miss Harris’ expertise spans across all aspects of fund law and regulation, including product structuring, trading, corporate governance, regulatory reporting and marketing and distribution. With expertise in Irish and international fund law and regulation, her appointment will add local Irish legal and regulatory expertise to FundRock’s existing professional team, supporting FundRock’s clients in navigating the landscape of legal and regulatory obligations for Irish domiciled funds and their directors. 

Irish funds 

Ross Thomson, director of the Irish branch, said: ‘FundRock has been servicing Irish funds since 2012 and we continue to invest in our people and our knowledge in this market. Louise’s appointment further complements our experienced team and highlights our commitment to Irish market. Louise’s expertise will help us realise our objective to offer our global clients a value added solution for all their investment management needs in Ireland and across our other European locations.’

Standards 

Miss Harris said: ‘Funds domiciled in Ireland are required to be managed and governed to the highest of standards. FundRock, with its long heritage in fund governance developed over 80 years, is very well positioned in this regard. Its robust platforms were developed with an investment banking expertise and its governance systems continue to be developed with award winning innovative RegTech.'

Central Bank clarification on directors 

‘The Central Bank recently clarified the management and governance requirements for Irish funds and their directors in its consultation paper CP86. As a result, we are seeing more and more funds appointing management companies or designated persons to ensure proper fund management and governance. Seeing the positive steps that FundRock were taking in order to create innovative and robust solutions for their clients around new regulations in Ireland, UK and Luxembourg, was a major reason for joining the FundRock team,’ she added.