In-house In-touch

“We definitely aim to work with regulators,” Alberto says. “The sector benefits overall where we work towards a position where innovation is encouraged while consumers can be sure they are getting a fair deal.” 

Jess, too, has plenty of opportunity to come across regulators, albeit in the fast-changing area of fintech and other new technologies at Capita Scaling Partner, the corporate VC unit of Capita, the business services giant that helps clients across the public and private sectors run complex business processes. Capita Scaling Partner was designed to enable young, growing tech businesses to access the experience and access of Capita, whilst simultaneously giving Capita’s clients access to new, well-diligenced, innovative technology. 

Jess has held various roles there, and at various times been responsible for the origination of new investment partnerships, the management of two fintech partnerships, development of exit opportunities, and team operations. Origination was the area she most thrived on, spending as much time as possible meeting tech founders and advising on not just how to get their ideas off the ground, but how to help them take off. “I was always on the lookout for businesses aiming for growth which was solid and sustainable,” she says. 

She dealt with a range of tech companies, including those with specialisations in areas such as customer experience, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and social value. As part of this role Jess has sat as an investor director on the boards of two companies. And she’s led a number of their investment exits, including the negotiation of MBOs, secondary exits and strategic pivots. 

Delivering value 

Risk, balanced against commercial priorities is the paramount consideration for Alberto when advising the company’s separate businesses or considering new products. “It’s a listening exercise with the different company divisions, finding out the business priorities, analysing the legal risks of different courses of action and then coming up with clear plans of action. You need to contribute to the business.” 

That also helps when it comes to delivering value and overcoming the perception that the legal function is just a necessary cost. As a competition lawyer, proving that benefit can be difficult, Alberto says. “The value [of our contribution] may lie in staving off an investigation, which you can’t necessarily measure other than to estimate what the costs of an investigation might have been.” 

Alberto can, of course, draw on his extensive experience as a competition lawyer both with HSF and his previous firm. He looks back on his time with HSF as providing a fantastic foundation. Jess, too, acquired skills as a trainee lawyer that she taps on a regular basis. “I learned that while accuracy of the detail is essential when it comes to contracts, often what is most important is not what’s in the contracts, but what’s missing. Basically, that amounts always to spotting and weighing up the risks – so not that dissimilar to Alberto!” 

Both have found their career niches, which keeps them very busy. Outside of work, Alberto now devotes most of his time to his family, and particularly to his one-year-old daughter. “I can describe my hobbies before my 40th birthday, including playing sports and my love of reading historical novels, but they have taken something of a back seat,” he jokes. 

Having spent six years building Capita Scaling Partner, Jess is now starting to have a view to the future. She would like to help those with the germs of ideas, carry them forward and create successful businesses. She is particularly interested in the Life Sciences sector with its ability to create genuine progress in terms of ecological sustainability. And if she comes across the right idea one day, she might even start her own venture. Maybe another six months’ travelling the world will help her decide.