Five priorities for building an in-house legal team in fintech
In today’s rapidly changing business landscape, having a legal function that is both diverse and well-rounded is crucial for driving innovation, managing risk and enabling strategic growth. The insights shared by Anastasia Evans, Group General Counsel and Company Secretary at IFX Payments, Dipali Sahni, General Counsel at DEMICA and Ehsan Haque, Head of UK Legal and Compliance at Laser Digital weigh in on how legal teams can effectively scale up.
Prioritise generalist capabilities
When growing a legal team from scratch, particularly in smaller, fast-paced organisations, it’s important to ensure that team members have the expertise and the ability to handle a variety of legal challenges. Anastasia Evans stresses the need for flexibility in hiring. “When you are a small, lean legal team in a fast-paced organisation, it’s important to make sure that your team has focus areas as well as generalist capabilities,” she explains. This dual skillset ensures that legal professionals can quickly adapt to new and unforeseen challenges, even in areas of law they may not be familiar with.
Generalist capabilities are invaluable in environments where work is unpredictable. The ability to transition between different legal domains and respond to emerging issues is crucial for keeping the organisation agile and resilient.
Cultivate business acumen
For legal teams to truly add value, team members need to understand not just the law but also the business in which they operate. Evans explains, “I always make sure I’m asking in interviews to gauge their interest and understanding of the sector,” she says. “They have to be aligned with the business’s strategic goals, because if they don’t have that interest, they’re probably not going to fulfil that.”
By ensuring that legal team members are invested in the company’s success, organisations can tap into lawyers who think creatively about how to support business objectives. The Lawyers who understand the company’s products, goals and challenges will be the ones better positioned to offer relevant, timely counsel.
Leverage diverse backgrounds
Bringing together a diverse group of legal professionals can provide a broader range of perspectives, which is invaluable when navigating complex legal and business challenges. Dipali Sahni highlights the strategic importance of building a diverse in-house team with varied backgrounds. “When you’re in a larger organisation, you have more resources – and I don’t just mean money, I mean the people around you,” she notes. However, she points out that in smaller teams, it’s even more critical to hire individuals with the right mix of skills and experience. “Skills are extremely important, especially when you don’t have a liquid resource,” she adds.
Further, diverse experiences—whether from private practice, other in-house roles or even non-legal backgrounds—can inject fresh perspectives and new ideas into a legal team. “If you’re starting a business and don’t know what tomorrow holds, strategic hires become incredibly important,” Sahni explains. By diversifying the team’s skillsets and backgrounds, organisations can better navigate uncertainty and deliver strategic legal counsel.
Foster collaborative relationships
Building strong, trusting relationships within the team and across the wider organisation is key to ensuring that the legal function operates effectively. Ehsan Haque underscores the importance of cultivating relationships, even in remote environments. “If you build the relationship, then you can effectively communicate what you want done, how you want it done and you can translate your vision of how you want the team to operate,” he says.
His emphasis on building strong relationships from day one highlights the importance of investing time and effort into creating a foundation of trust and collaboration, which ultimately leads to greater alignment and clearer communication within the team.
Whether working in-person or remotely, fostering these relationships ensures a shared sense of purpose and cohesion, allowing the legal function to act as a unified, high-performing team.
Embrace continuous learning
In an environment where legal issues and business challenges are constantly evolving, a growth mindset is essential. Sahni highlights the need for legal professionals to be adaptable and ready to tackle new areas of law. “You’ve got to be able to handle anything that comes your way. I was never an employment lawyer, but I had to pick it up. You have to have that attitude,” Sahni says.
Encouraging a culture of continuous learning and development not only helps individual team members expand their skillsets but also ensures that the legal function remains agile in the face of change. This culture enables the team to stay at the cutting edge of legal practice, making them better equipped to address emerging challenges and contribute to the business’s success.
By prioritising generalist capabilities, cultivating business acumen, leveraging diverse backgrounds, fostering collaborative relationships and embracing continuous learning, organisations can create legal teams that are not only diverse in composition but also strategically aligned with business goals.
As Haque aptly summarises, “If you build the relationship, then you can effectively communicate what you want done, how you want it done and translate your vision of how you want the team to operate.” This holistic approach to team building is key to creating a legal function that is adaptable, high-performing and equipped to drive strategic value.
