EY has announced the appointment of six new Partner and Associate Partner hires to its UK legal practice as it expands its financial services team. Monica Gogna and Gita Shivarattan both join as Partners to lead EY’s Legal Regulatory team and EY’s Legal Data Protection team respectively. Andrea Ward, Peter Given, Alex Mason and Rowan Armstrong all join as Associate Partners, boosting the firm’s data protection and commercial law expertise.
These appointments demonstrate EY’s commitment to building a leading financial services legal practice focused around three core competencies: Data Privacy, Commercial Law and Financial Services Regulation. The growing team will support EY’s financial services clients in the UK and across EMEIA and will also work alongside EY’s consulting practice to provide a fully integrated, multidisciplinary offering.
These latest appointments illustrate the strong growth and capabilities of EY’s UK Law practice. Since the summer of 2020, EY Law has added an energy team to its existing sector specialisms in financial services and technology and strengthened its legal consulting team to support a fast-growing Legal Managed Services offering. Over the past year, more than twenty-five new lawyers have joined the UK practice, which now consists of twenty-four partners leading almost 250 lawyers. Globally, EY has more than 2,500 lawyers and another 1,100 legal professionals across more than 90 jurisdictions.
New Partner and Associate Partner hires
Monica Gogna is a leading financial regulation specialist in banking & capital markets, investment management and FinTech, with over twenty years’ experience. Monica has a magic circle background, working at Clifford Chance, and has previously held partner roles at elite US law firms. Monica is recognised as a Legal 500 ‘next generation lawyer’ and has been commended as a FT leader in innovation. Monica is a trustee of the Diversity Project Charity and is currently a co-head of the race & ethnicity awareness working group at The Diversity Project, a city-wide initiative to accelerate progress towards an inclusive and diverse culture within financial services.
Gita Shivarattan, a data protection legal specialist, joins EY as a Partner from international law firm Ashurst where she was Counsel and led the UK data protection practice. She has extensive expertise in a range of technology, commercial and data protection law matters with a particular focus on data protection compliance in emerging technologies, data breaches and data commercialisation in financial services. Prior to joining Ashurst, Gita practiced at Addleshaw Goddard and also spent five years at Citibank as an in-house counsel within their technology legal team. Gita is recognised as a rising star in Privacy and Data Protection by Euromoney Legal Expert Guides and recognised in The Legal 500. She is a co-author of UK Chambers TMT guide on data protection.
Andrea Ward is a data protection lawyer, with almost twenty years’ experience in UK employment law. Andrea joins EY as an Associate Partner from global law firm Squire Patton Boggs where she spent the last three years advising clients on UK and EU data protection and privacy laws, including the GDPR, Data Protection Act and ePrivacy legislation.
Peter Given, a data protection specialist with particular focus on the financial services sector, joins EY as an Associate Partner from transatlantic law firm Womble Bond Dickinson, where he was a Legal Director in the firm's Data, Privacy and Freedom of Information team for over seven years. Prior to that, Peter was a data protection lawyer at Allen & Overy. Peter is ranked as a notable practitioner in the Chambers Legal Directory.
Alex Mason joins EY as an Associate Partner from IBM, where he was the UK Financial Services Regulatory Legal Lead. Alex has considerable experience in complex commercial and technology transactions, data privacy and GDPR compliance. Prior to IBM, Alex was a Consultant in the IT/Commercial Department at Baker McKenzie. He also spent twelve years at Accenture as a Director of Legal Services, leading its Outsourcing Sales Legal Team in EMEA.
Rowan Armstrong joins EY as an Associate Partner from the UK law firm Travers Smith where he worked as a Senior Associate for over five years. Rowan’s specialism is in commercial law and is centred on advising on a range of commercial contracts, including outsourcings, which often have a technology focus.
Chris Price, UK Head of EY Financial Services Law, comments: “I am delighted that Monica, Gita, Andrea, Peter, Alex and Rowan are joining our high performing legal practice as we boost our financial services offering. There is a growing demand for top legal advice in the current market as businesses carry out cutting-edge digital transformation and respond to the new, post-Brexit regulatory environment. Each of these new Partners and Associate Partners brings with them a wealth of experience and will play a key role in demonstrating EY’s growing legal capabilities and value.”
Monica Gogna comments: “I am thrilled to be joining EY as Head of EY Law’s UK Financial Regulation practice. I very much look forward to working with EY Law’s Managed Legal Services team and its globally recognised regulatory consulting practice to assist and offer clients something different at this unique pivot point, as the financial services industry looks to the future, past the pandemic and Brexit, with increasing focus on issues such as sustainability and technology.”
Gita Shivarattan comments: “I am very excited to be joining EY to lead its data protection legal practice for financial services institutions. The opportunity allows us to bring a unique offering to the market by partnering with EY's established technology and information and cyber security practices. It is thrilling to be part of a firm that has recognised and invested so heavily in its data practice and I am looking forward to working with the whole team. I’m confident we will build a best-in class data practice focussed on helping financial institutions navigate the increasingly complex regulatory environment in a fast-moving technology and data driven world.”
Andrea Ward comments: “I am delighted to join the growing financial services law team at EY. Data privacy and protection are vital areas for organisations to get right and expertise in these areas is crucial. It is exciting to become part of a firm with such strong vision and growth plans dedicated to ensuring our financial services firms receive the very best advice and support in an increasingly digital world.”
Peter Given comments: “It is hugely exciting to be joining EY’s legal team at this point in their growth ambitions, as they invest in the development of a data protection practice. I look forward to working with EY’s high performing financial services team to help clients comply with ever evolving data protection laws.”
Alex Mason comments: “EY’s legal practice has really exciting client-centric expansion plans, particularly in the digital transformation space, so I’m really pleased to be joining the team at this time, providing EY’s financial services clients with the highest quality support and counsel.”
Rowan Armstrong comments: “EY’s brand in the legal market is growing rapidly and I am thrilled to be joining the firm at such a pivotal moment of expansion. Innovation and technology are driving considerable change to the financial services sector and I look forward to playing my part to ensure EY has a leading role of assisting clients on this journey.”
