Hydrogen Group

What does it take to build a legal career in one of the world's fastest-moving markets, and how is technology about to reshape what clients expect from their advisers? In the latest of our Changing World Conversations, Millie MacEacharn spoke with Tom Cochrane, Partner at Walkers and part of our Funds and Corporate Group, who has been based in Dubai since 2012 and now heads the firm's investment funds practice there. Tom reflects on a region defined by ambition and pace, where the appetite to reach big goals quickly sits alongside genuine, rapid growth. He is candid about what that has meant in practice, from navigating life as an expat to leading a team through COVID and regional uncertainty, and he credits the Middle East's openness to technology and to people from every background as central to its success. On the future, Tom is clear that AI will change the legal product itself, both what it is and how it is delivered, without removing the need for commercial, insightful lawyers. As he puts it, clients will increasingly want the best of both worlds: the human touch of a trusted adviser who also harnesses the tools now available. His advice to those coming through, along with his thoughts on the growing role of women in the region's legal profession, are well worth a read. Read the full conversation here: https://lnkd.in/eU-eRus2

Most financial services firms hiring their first AI governance lead are writing a brief they have never written before. That is the part Gráinne Costello sees underestimated most often. Internal talent teams are good at pattern-matching, but only against roles they have scoped before. For a first-of-its-kind remit there is no internal rate card, no shared sense of what "strong" actually looks like, and no track record to compare against. So the confusion shows up in the brief long before it shows up on the shortlist. Legal wants regulatory fluency, data wants technical credibility, the business wants commercial judgement, and firms end up with one statement of work trying to cover three roles at once. The harder problem is telling a title from a mandate. Plenty of people hold an "AI governance" or "responsible AI" title without the budget, team or authority behind it, and you cannot see that from a profile. Running several of these engagements at once is what makes the difference visible: who held real decision rights, and who was reporting into a committee that owned the call. Getting this wrong is expensive, and increasingly something boards are asking about. If your firm is scoping its first AI governance hire, or you want to compare notes with Gráinne on what good looks like, get in touch. #FinancialServices #AIGovernance #ResponsibleAI #Hiring #TalentStrategy

Boards have signed off the AI and transformation ambition. The real question now is how firms plan to resource the delivery, given the specialist roles that matter take three to six months to hire. As you scope your next AI or transformation programme, how are you resourcing it? Drop your answer below. If the honest answer is the last one, it is worth a conversation.

Most financial services firms have run their AI pilot, and the proof of concept works. The harder question is why so many programmes slow down when they move into live, regulated operations. The answer is rarely the technology, it's the governance and people around it. Live operations need a named owner for every AI decision, documented human oversight for every model, and an audit trail that holds up if the FCA or an EU regulator asks to see it. Most workforce plans were not built for that mix of pace and regulatory obligation. There is also the question of shadow AI, where teams adopt useful tools faster than governance can keep up. The opportunity is to bring that energy inside a framework rather than lose it. In his latest insights, Scott McCormick makes the case that AI governance belongs close to CEO or COO level, with genuine enterprise-wide authority behind it. The full piece looks at what is working across UK and European firms, including the roles proving hardest to fill: https://lnkd.in/eu_nFnN5 #FinancialServices #AIGovernance #DORA #FCA

Why the best client relationships need a chameleon. In this week's conversation, Mani Rakhra reflects on the time a former manager called him a chameleon. Back then it sounded like an insult, but he now sees it differently. The best consultants, he argues, are not the ones running the same playbook for everyone, but the ones who read each relationship and adjust. It is why he has followed some clients through three or four job changes over the years: the loyalty was never about the company or the job title, it was about them. "Client centricity isn't a value on a slide. It's a habit of noticing that every relationship is different and having the range to meet it where it is." So the next time someone calls you a chameleon, take it as a compliment.

A year ago, most conversations with executive teams opened with the same question: where do we find the talent? As Hydrogen COO Charlie Sell writes, the sharper leaders are now starting somewhere quite different, asking whether they truly understand the workforce they already have. Very few can answer with confidence. Most organisations know their structure, their headcount and their vacancies, but rarely the capability already sitting inside the business, or how it might evolve. In his latest piece, Charlie sets out the five workforce levers every organisation can pull. Capability can be bought through recruitment, built through development, borrowed through flexible talent or supported by bots. The fifth is the one he believes matters most, the ability to bounce, spotting the people already inside the organisation who can grow into new roles and contribute well beyond their current job description. The organisations that outperform over the next decade won't be the ones that recruit fastest or spend most on technology. They will be the ones that recognise hidden capability before their competitors do. Read Charlie's full article on Strategic Workforce Planning and Hydrogen's Agile Intelligence capability here: https://lnkd.in/dSgt_Hu8

Celebrating Women in Law: Meet Raya Alkhatib In our latest Women in Law spotlight, Raya, Corporate Partner and Head of the Corporate and M&A Practice at Bird & Bird's Riyadh office, shares a career story that spans The Hague, Amsterdam, Dubai and Riyadh, and reflects on the leadership lessons she has picked up along the way. She was among the first five women in Saudi Arabia to obtain a licence to practise law following the landmark legislation that opened the profession to women, a milestone she describes as deeply personal. From that moment through to her move in-house and back into private practice, her account is candid about what the journey actually asks of you, including the honeymoon she worked through and the days when it all felt too hard. There is plenty here for anyone thinking about the road into law, from why visibility at management level matters commercially as well as culturally, to the advice she would give her younger self about listening more than you speak. Read her full story, linked in the comments. At Hydrogen Group, we're committed to amplifying the voices shaping the future of law. Stay tuned for more inspiring stories from remarkable women across the industry. #WomenInLaw #DiversityInLaw #HydrogenGroup

We asked financial services leaders a simple question: where does accountability for AI governance actually live in your firm? The answers say a good deal about how far the sector still has to travel. Only 38% pointed to a named owner with a team and a clear mandate, which leaves 62% without a properly resourced home for AI governance. Some told us ownership exists but sits under-resourced, some described it as shared across functions, and a notable 35% said it is still being defined. The story is not that firms are ignoring AI governance, because most clearly recognise that it matters. The gap sits between recognition and resourcing, and that is the harder problem to solve. Shared ownership has a habit of becoming no ownership the moment a regulator asks who signed off a particular model, and "still being defined" becomes an exposure as expectations under the EU AI Act and DORA move from principle into day-to-day practice. The firms getting this right follow the same pattern. They give it a single accountable owner, a mandate that reaches across risk, compliance, data and the business, and enough resource to do more than write policy. So if your AI governance still sits in the "still being defined" column, the more useful question is not who should own it in principle. It is what that owner would actually need to be effective in practice. We've written a guide for FS leaders on exactly that: what a properly resourced owner looks like under DORA, the EU AI Act and FCA Consumer Duty, and the people gap most firms haven't yet filled. Link in the comments.

A polished CV used to be a strong signal. Now AI tools mean almost anyone can create a perfect one in minutes, tailored to the job description with compelling achievements written to order. That's a problem if the CV is what's making your hiring decisions. Christian Geiger has noticed the best AI hiring managers responding by changing how they evaluate talent altogether. The question is no longer how good the CV looks, but what the candidate has actually built, and it's shifting what companies place value on when AI talent is on the table. In a market where anyone can look impressive on paper, proof of execution is becoming the real differentiator. Christian shares what the strongest hiring managers are asking for instead in the video below. #AIHiring #AITalent #TechRecruitment

Only 1 in 4 financial services firms have a clear internal owner for AI governance at senior leadership level. DORA is already in force, EU AI Act obligations for high-risk systems land from 2026, and the pattern playing out across most firms is the same: a framework signed off at board level, and then a search begins for the people actually accountable for delivering it.   For most firms the conversation has moved on from whether to adopt AI to whether they have the right people in place to do it safely inside a regulated environment before a deadline makes the decision for them.   Where does your organisation sit?   Drop your answer below. If the results give you pause, it's worth a conversation.