Senior, practical advice on all things risk, from AML to ethics, conflicts and the wider business. No templates, no jargon. I start with where your firm is heading, and shape the risk work to match.
The rules keep moving, the FCA is coming, and the honest answer to "are we covered?" is a shrug. The job is getting you over the line and letting you sleep soundly.
Being compliant should not disengage your fee earners or frustrate your clients. If it does, the work needs rethinking so it fits the business, not the other way round.
Three ways to work together, from a fully outsourced risk function to a second opinion when the stakes are high.
Your risk function, run by a senior hand, without a full-time hire. Start with fractional support, a bank of days you draw down as you need them, and build from there.
Independent audits, done properly, including Regulation 21, and the projects you do not have the resource to finish, done to a standard you can stand behind.
An independent second opinion when it matters, and a steady hand through an SRA process, from getting ready to putting things right.
Each is a focused diagnostic with a written output, clear priorities and timelines. Somewhere to start without committing to everything at once.
Pick one high-risk area and get a quick, honest read: strengths, blind spots, and what's coming. The easiest first step.
The six things the regulator cares about right now, and how your firm stacks up against each.
A review ahead of PII renewal, with your quick wins and the year's strategic focus, so you walk in ready.
Most consultancies hand you a template that gets you over the line and leave. I start with a straight conversation about where the firm is trying to get to, then give you clear, honest advice and let you decide. And you deal with me throughout, not a name you were sold and a junior you were handed. The job is to build your firm's capability and confidence, not its dependency on me. Compliance that moves the needle, not compliance for its own sake.
Four phases, and you can stop after any of them. That is the whole model.
Quick reads, diagnostics and independent audits that tell you the truth about today.
Policies rewritten, processes repaired, gaps closed, as scoped work with a price, never absorbed quietly.
Training, culture and habits, so the improvement lives in your people, not in a policy nobody opens on the intranet.
Fractional support, scoped retainers and independent board reporting, on clear terms.
One rule holds it together: improve always comes before maintain. No retainer ever starts on a broken baseline.
In-house leading risk and compliance, in private practice, and as a consultant. You work with me start to finish, and scope with me, not a junior you have never met. I know how hard it is to win over a board, pick the right battles and get the buy-in, because I have had to do it.
A short conversation is the best place to start. No pitch, no jargon, just a clear view of where your firm is and where it could be.
Let's talk