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Milestone For NI’s Largest In House Legal Team
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Northern Ireland’s largest in-house legal team marks 15 years of strength at Citi
Citi in Belfast is gearing up to celebrate 15 years of its in-house legal team, the largest of its type in Northern Ireland. General Counsel Lauren McCoy discusses Citi’s Belfast Global Legal Office and its approach to providing challenging roles which allow Citi’s lawyers to constantly develop when they live locally and work globally.
“As Citi’s largest legal department in EMEA, the 170-strong team in Belfast is an integral part of the global Citi Legal function, providing legal advice and support to key business areas through document negotiation, product advisory, transaction facilitation, project execution, corporate governance, and regulatory expertise. In addition to these core responsibilities, the Belfast Legal Department also instruct, liaise and work closely with external counsel, many of which are globally recognised magic circle law firms,” said Lauren.
The Belfast legal department is made up of several legal teams who support the full range of Citi’s core global businesses including those working within Citi’s Institutional Clients Group (ICG) areas (Markets, Services and Banking), the Corporate division (IP, Sanctions and Global Legal Solutions), the Personal Banking & Wealth Management area where the primary goal is to serve as their clients’ most important and most trusted banking partner and there is also a Litigation support team.
Whilst many of the solicitors working for Citi are qualified to practice under English law, the company has long had a pathway for Northern Irish qualified solicitors to join and retrain into banking and corporate law practice areas. Several private practice solicitors have entered Citi’s Legal department over the years, taking advantage of the stability and growth opportunities offered by one of the world’s largest global investment banks. As Northern Ireland ‘leavers’ who have established careers in England and further afield consider moving home, Citi has also welcomed solicitors who are seeking career options to work internationally via Citi’s global team, an approach that Citi refers to as ‘living locally, working globally.’
“Just as Citi has challenged the perception of finance and banking professionals over recent years by creating non-traditional pathways to enter the profession, Citi has opened doors to a new type of legal career for a wide range of applicants here in Northern Ireland over the last 15 years,” comments Lauren.
“We are now at a level of maturity where we have more advisory and senior roles being advertised in Belfast. We already have over 60 qualified solicitors working within the department, many of whom we have trained ourselves. We are very proud of our ability to develop and retain talent with 3 out of 4 of Citi’s legal directors in Belfast having been with the organisation from Day 1. We believe this showcases how Citi is not only a great place to work due to our commitment to ensuring our people unleash their full potential but also the abundant development opportunities that we have to enable job growth through high quality legal work.”
Ensuring a plentiful pipeline of talent into the team, Citi Legal has made a significant financial investment to provide professional legal training to their Belfast staff as a means of recognition and to enable further progression. The company has qualified 30 solicitors with another 14 concluding training contracts and a further 7 staff on the pathway toward qualification through the new SQE model. The legal team also fosters new talent through the employment of 4 legal placement students per year from Ulster University and Queens University Belfast’s law programmes.
As growth continues Lauren adds, “During the pandemic the legal team saw a 20% increase in our headcount. This shows no sign of slowing as we recruit for new types of roles, and future opportunities within our in-house legal team can often seem limitless, with no obvious cap on where our growth can take us, provided we continue to find the talent to fill the roles.”
General Counsel Lauren McCoy, Citi Belfast
Currently Citi Belfast advertises over 20 roles ranging from a Cyber Security Lawyer to a Regulatory Advisory Lawyer to a Legal Automation Specialist. To explore the full range of legal roles available at Citi Belfast visit jobs.citi.com
Succession planning for family companies
Covid 19 has prompted many family business leaders to think about their plans for the future and successfully managing the process of transferring the business to the next generation is now a hot topic.
Research published by Legal & General found that only 30% of family businesses survive the transition to the second generation and only 10% make it to the third generation.
The main reason for this is the lack of planning, with only 42% of family-owned businesses having any form of succession planning in place.
There are 2 key areas to consider in deciding the future of a family business – management and ownership and these do not always have to be the same people or group of people.
In terms of management, it is vital that the future management of the business has both the right skills and capabilities to run a successful business. In many instances the correct person to head up the business may not be a family member.
In deciding who should take over the management of the business, the current owner should objectively try to determine who is best placed to take the business forward. As far as possible, emotions should be kept out of such a decision.
Questions that should be asked in determining the successor could include
the right skills and abilities? actually want to take over?
Early open discussions about the future ownership of the business reduces the risk of future conflict.
As it is not always possible or practical for all future owners of the business to be involved on a day to day basis, many family businesses are changing the way important decisions are made. A board of directors may run the business, but a family council or constitution may be set up to help resolve disputes and improve communications.
Although these family constitutions may not be legally binding, they can be important in articulating a family’s values and may include a stewardship declaration which can include rules about managing family and business assets, the policy for dividend distributions, personal financial planning, succession planning and family members’ obligations to a business.
In determining the future ownership of a business, parents have to think through what is right for the family and what is right for the business and recognise that there may not be a perfect solution.
Any succession plan will need to consider the tax implications. The good news for families is that the UK tax system for transferring business assets or ownership of a business is fairly generous.
It is possible for a business owner to pass on their business free of tax during their lifetime or after their death. Care is needed to ensure that the reliefs are available, maximised and where appropriate, claimed.
The worst thing a business can do in relation to succession planning is bury its head in the sand, so please take professional advice at an early stage.
