On solid ground

Asian-Counsel: How did your career lead you to your current role as head of legal at HSBC in Japan?
Michael Hancock: I started out as a litigation lawyer with Lovells in London and was transferred to the Hong Kong office in 1988. The office was comparatively small and so the work diet was very varied, much more so than it would have been in London. After four fabulous years in Hong Kong I was returned to London and subsequently seconded for 6 months to Standard Chartered Bank where I gained invaluable insights on the in-house role in a major international company. Looking back this clearly had more impact on shaping my later career than I realised at the time. I then transferred to Japan where I worked both in the Lovells’ office and on secondment at the trading company Nissho Iwai (now Sojitz) where I switched to projects and banking work and developed my Japanese. My slightly eclectic career path provided a lot of core skills that are essential in the in-house legal role.

AC: What do you think those core skills are?
MH: The in-house lawyer is first and foremost a lawyer, so solid legal training and well-honed legal skills are critical. Having lived and worked in three very different jurisdictions as well as being on secondment to two major clients gave me a very broad appreciation of legal issues. HSBC’s ‘legal department strap-line’ is ‘Facilitating Business, Managing Legal Risk’ from which it is clear that a deep interest in the business itself is critical. My transactional experience had helped to foster a keen desire to know more about what factors impacted the analysis of business opportunity in the context of the perceived risk matrix, and especially legal risk.