GSV questionnaire

Background narrative:

• We are being asked to do more with what we have.

— New products: crypto, deFi, DAOs

— New risk environment: more volatility (energy, crypto, equities, inflation), more risk of default (archegos, GameStop, evergrande, supply-chain disruptions

— New/fracturing regulations: Brexit aftermath, China clampdowns, regulatory investigations in aftermath of Greensill, Archegos, etc

Additionally there is new management (CEO and GC), new focus on agility, recognition that we have an excellent, senior team with deep institutional knowledge that may be bogged down in lower value work and that we can get better value out of.

Realistically scope to grow our current capacity is limited: headcount are likely to be static; possibility of attritional headcount loss if departures not replaced.

Opportunity to reassess/redefine legal role against that background to be:

• More strategic
• More advisory
• Identify process waste and overproduction
• Reset incentives inside the firm

Organisational principles

Legal is advisory, for edge cases, novel situations, crisis response and situation management

• Operational interaction is to structure documentation processes to be seamless, standardised, low-touch, and to manage and centralise legal risk from documentation.

Goals:

• Not to defend as necessary everything you currently do, or everything you like doing, or everything you feel you ought to do. To identify ways to better deploy your skills.