Our REAL Model series showcases the diverse range of roles we have across our business and we hope to improve knowledge around what it means to be part of something bigger. We believe being part of ÀÏ˾»úÎçÒ¹¸£Àû (LN) means being part of the change you want to see in the world.
In this month's edition we meet:
Laura Spooner, Financial Crime Compliance Specialist.
Laura joined the company 13 years ago, on Valentines Day, after the launched its 'once in a generation' regulatory transformation to outcomes-focused regulation, or OFR, and Lexis PSL was in a period of rapid growth.
Before this, Laura had set up, and ran, a compliance department at an international law firm in London. Law firm compliance teams were a rarity outside the biggest firms, so Laura had a lot of practice developing policies and procedures from scratch, with little information or support. When the opportunity came along to get involved in the build and launch of PSL Practice Compliance with Allison Wooddisse, she couldn't resist.
Laura (and Allison) is still part of the PSL team working across our compliance offering – Practice Compliance, Risk and Compliance and Practice Management. She leads the Financial Crime Compliance content across the products and gets to work with amazing colleagues in the Corporate Crime and Financial Services teams, too.
At around 6:30am. I try to get out for a run at least three times a week when I'm working from home. I have multiple sclerosis (MS), so maintaining my fitness is incredibly important. I always grumble about doing it, but I hate it when I can't!
My morning routine really changed during the first Covid lockdown. My kids were deemed to be in 'priority year groups' and got back into school before many, and long before the school bus was reinstated. So, my husband, having never really worked from home and feeling like he needed a 'commute', began driving the kids to school every day. Now he's back in the office and I'm stuck with the 'commute'!
Usually starts with catching up on emails and a look at my to-do list. It's a messy, scribbled list in my very posh notebook (a gift from the team for a special birthday) with little tick boxes added – not weird. Really.
Financial crime compliance is a very active area, so there's always something to do on financial sanctions, anti-money laundering, anti-bribery, or something similar. We always brace ourselves when the government says something significant, or the law or regulations change – the regulators start to pitch in with their views on compliance, then the experts chime in, etc., etc. It's like dominoes. Cutting through all that noise to the real substance of any change is a big job.
We've got a huge content set across the practice areas, so reactive maintenance can be a struggle. It's not an easy area to stay on top of for us, and we know our customers struggle too, so being quick, accurate and pragmatic is key. Then it's a mix of team meetings, news coverage, customer engagements, content planning, and other projects. Fortunately, we have some superstar bakers in the team, who help keep all our spirits (and our sugar-levels) up.
I'm going to cheat and say two. Project management and effective communication. Of course, I expect to use these skills at work, but I've also been able to use them while clocking up my ERG and RELX Cares hours, too. It's only now that I realise how important and in demand these skills are in other settings that can't necessarily access them It's been a real privilege to be able to use and home those skills as a member of the brilliant Families Employee Resources Group, as a school governor and mentor, and later as a member of a local patient group, and even organising shopping and prescriptions for our elderly neighbours during lockdowns.
Going on my first bit of annual leave at LN and NOT having to take my Blackberry. Sounds like such a small thing, but life before LN had been very different. I was always encouraged to ensure I was contactable on my days off and holidays before. My Fridays' off with my small kids often involved stepping out of a room full of kids, fun and chaos to take a call about a client who just remembered they had a Swiss bank account...
I remember Allisson and I both taking time to adjust!
It's cliché, but it's genuinely true that the people make LN. It's incredibly motivating to work with such committed, super-smart people, both within my immediate team, and across the business.
Of course, the cakes are pretty good, too!
Changing my work laptop without first making note of all the apps, bookmarks, directories, etc. I needed. I'm still not convinced, two or three years down the line, that I have everything I used to have. Eek!
I try to finish on time, log off and close the door on the office (or virtual office). After that, it's nothing glam – usually sharing taxi driver duties with my husband, taking our son to cricket, rugby, golf, band rehearsal, or some other exhausting extra-curricular activity. If not, we're nagging him to do some homework, then cooking up something tasty (mostly), watching the latest TV series, chatting on the phone to our daughter, who's away at university, or heading off to the pub.
I was lucky, I always knew I wanted to do something in the law. My grandpa was a lawyer and came from a long line of lawyers. He used to tell us such interesting (and sometimes wholly inappropriate) stories over Sunday lunch when I was little, and that really sparked an interest for me. He also used to bring a big bottle of Shloer, which was a real treat in my house when I was growing up, and I wanted a job where I could buy Shloer!
I've been fortunate to work with some great managers almost everywhere I've worked, including LN.
But, before moving into compliance, I worked with Mark Hapgood, QC at Brick Court Chambers on various projects (including two editions of Paget's Law of Banking). He was incredibly supportive of my move into financial services, and then law firm, compliance. He would often take time out of his very busy schedule for lunch (and/or wine) to discuss what we were both up to on the work and family fronts. He always had such wise, supportive advice to impart, and introduced me to some seriously delicious wines, too! Mark sadly passed away in 2020 and I miss him terribly.
I owe this one to Allison – we can only do what we can do.
It's easy to get caught up in yourself when things seem unmanageably busy. What we do is important, and of course we want to do it well, but the world isn't perfect, and we can't always do everything we want to do. It's something I often repeat to the kids when they're stressed about something, or to my husband when he's under pressure at work.
We can only do what we can do.
"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt."
Charles M Schulz
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