What is the size of your legal team and how is it organised?
We have around 20 lawyers organised into three teams, broadly aligned to our business functions and the type of work undertaken.
What are the main industry issues you face in your department?
Keeping pace with technological developments and relevant legislation. To name but two, we have the advent of telematics based insurance and the forthcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation to grapple with.
To what extent have you been able to use IT to streamline your work? How will this develop in the future?
On a day to day basis, operating without paper is a definite benefit, as is remote working - particularly for those within the M25. Attending webinars for training is, of course, very handy too. For someone who completed university essays with a pen and paper, it's very difficult for me to predict the future, but good advice and sound judgment will hopefully always be at a premium, however it is rendered.
Which parts of your job do you enjoy most?
I have to say the variety, which I guess is the most common answer from in-house counsel. In any one week I can be advising on a new product launch, IP issues, litigation and beyond. I also very much enjoy being an integral part of the business and not just a separate advisory function.
What do you see as your department’s main achievement or two in the last couple of years?
Without doubt, supporting the legal and physical separation from RBS Group to become Direct Line Insurance Group plc.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself as a lawyer?
The law chose me at a fairly tender age, due to my exposure to "Crown Court" as a young child. This was an hour long fictional court case usually shown at lunchtimes on ITV and featured many of the prominent UK actors of the time. I studied and trained in Glasgow, before making the move to London in 2001 after gaining my LLM in IT law from the University of Strathclyde.
I joined what was then RBS Insurance just before the economic crash of 2008, although I am fairly confident that the two events are unrelated!
I am very interested to see how law in particular and life in general adapts to the digital revolution, but I'm reassured that there will always be a place for experience and good judgment, whether this is rendered remotely, digitally or otherwise. At present, I particularly enjoy those areas of the law which are related to technology and data.
Direct Line became the first UK insurer to use the telephone as its main channel of communication after it was founded in 1985.
Next issue: Fergus Speight, General Counsel, Royal London
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