INTERVIEW PEAR INSIGHTS
Editor-in-Chief
Ben Cooper meets
with Richard Stephens
MBE, senior partner
at Proelium Law, to
better understand the
vulnerabilities that exist
within companies
22
PEAR INSIGHTS | Winter 2016/17
Q
Could you tell us a little about your career
so far? How did you come to be a Partner
at such a unique law firm?
A
My professional career started with the Royal
Marines in 1986. I retired in 2009 having
served for 23 years, which included a lot of
time on operational deployments across the
world. Seventeen of those years were spent with
specialist military units, so I got to see and do
a lot. Since leaving I have been employed on a
number of high-level consultancies, most latterly
including the investigation of contemporary
war crimes. My business partner Adrian, who
I’d known for a while, was the Chief of Staff of
the War Crimes project, and it was there that we
decided to set up the law firm.
Q
Proelium Law specialises in high risk and
complex jurisdictions. We can all think of
the obvious examples of such places: postconflict oil ventures in Iraq, or mining
concessions in Sierra Leone, for example.
But, there are elements of the complex in
all overseas ventures aren’t there?
A
Of course, but the ‘edgier’ areas that we focus
on bring heightened complexities. In addition
to the friction of working across cultures,
dealing with matters ranging from commercial
contracts to data protection, and within the
boundaries of anti-money laundering, counter
terrorist financing and bribery and corruption
acts, there are other factors to consider.
The prevalence of violence, absence of rule of
law, warlord or gangsterism, all make it difficult
for international development organisations to
function effectively. Having been there and lived
through some of the issues, we consider ourselves
qualified to offer advice.
However, our offering is broader than servicing
those who work in difficult countries, as we
support those who supply specialist skills into
those areas, such as hostile environment training
providers, specialist equipment manufacturers
and the like – those enterprises who support the
field operations from the home base.
Q
One area that reaches across physical
jurisdictions of course and one that
is certainly complex is cyber risk.
How high on the list of priorities
would you put that issue for
most major corporates
operating overseas?
A
I’ll say what everyone else does – it’s a vast but
ill-defined threat with a lot of confusing and
unhelpful language. A lot of the conversations
around the cyber-threat actually finish at the
doors of the insurance world, and it’s not clear
yet how they will approach the subject. We also
see a lot of confusion for clients distinguishing
cyber threat and data protection. The two are
clearly linked but some see them sitting alone. A
cyber threat represents a risk to the data you have
in place, so protect it.
We heard a theory from a friend in the cyberthreat world the other day, who said that in
10 years’ time the core of risk-management
companies will be dealing with cyber and the
physical security that we know so well today
will be the sideshow. Now, that’s an interesting
thought.
Q
There are a lot of great law firms out there
and a lot of your future clients will have an
existing relationship in place, what kind
of concerns should make them come and
see you?
A
We talk their language. What do I mean by
that? A lot of our clients say they feel a sense
of comfort when they come to us, because we
understand their issues first-hand. For them that’s
a huge cost saving, as we get to the heart of the
issue quickly, and it minimises their legal risk, as
we truly understand the context on the ground.
Q
International development organisations
and risk management companies are
typically deeply involved in high-risk
jurisdictions and complex environments
– are there common areas that tend to be
overlooked by them?
A
We see a lot of firms who have overlooked
the basics of their own internal company
structures, which is setting out to fail at the most
fundamental level. When it comes to delivery in
the field, the issue of duty of care is frequently
misunderstood, which could be a significant risk
should something go wrong. Another area of law
that companies and individuals struggle with are
the realities of anti-money laundering/counterterrorist financing and bribery and corruption.
These are subjects that will close down even
the biggest of organisations, yet can be dealt
with quite simply with a little knowledge.
Richard Stephens
MBE, Director of
Proelium Law, served as
a member of the British
Forces for 23 years.
WWW.PEAR-INSIGHTS.CO.UK
23
INTERVIEW PEAR INSIGHTS
We offer a legal risk mapping service to help
people understand this all better.
directly affect us or our clients too much, as yet.
There’s a sense that Syria is coming to an end,
in whatever form, so that is certainly an area of
deep interest for us. Mind you, we could equally
be waiting for some kind of resolution there in
10 years’ time.
Q
What is a legal risk mapping service?
A
Q
We take an overview across 11 themes ( including
company structures, contracts, host nation
laws and the like) and translate that into an
overview of the legal risk that the organisation
may be carrying in each area. As with any risk
mitigation activity, the first step is understanding
where you may be vulnerable and that’s what
we provide. For our clients it only takes about an
hour, it takes us about a day to then process the
data – we offer that service for free.
I come from an industry that focuses on
the risks to people’s health and security.
What part of legal good practice can
ensure people are protected overseas?
A
The travel risk industry is, whilst not new,
emerging as a clear discipline in the security
industry and the issue here is travel risk being
part of an end-to-end process. That process has
to start with companies or institutions being
organised at the internal legal structural level.
– without that, little else has a chance. However,
with proper internal structure core issues, issues
such as duty of care, can be properly addressed.
Duty of care really stems from healthy internal
governance, because it means someone is looking
at how seriously the company takes risk and its
approach to issues surrounding the potential
Q
2016 certainly reminded us we can’t
always predict the results, what will you
be keeping a close eye on in 2017, apart
from President Trump’s Twitter account,
of course. It’s cyber again, and how Lloyds responds to the
emerging threat. Brexit is fascinating but doesn’t
for a negligence claim. So, companies shouldn’t
just look at one trip or one deployment, look at
all your processes. Time well spent now looks
persuasive to a judge should the worst happen.
Q
You’re a very well travelled man, what
one piece of good travel safety advice
would you offer our readers?
A
Behave like you belong there, be confident, look
in control, act purposefully – it can be the best
defence from opportunistic harm. And eat the
yoghurt when you arrive, it lines your stomach
with good local bacteria (apparently).
Allan & Associates , a Hong Kong-based security risk management
Inis2016,
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us IAB
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Pre-TAPAtravel,
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Hong Kong
Allan & Associates Limited
Tel: (852) 2987 7926
E-mail: [email protected]
Melbourne
24
PEAR INSIGHTS | Winter 2016/17
London
Allan & Associates Limited
Tel: +44 (0)207 523 5393
E-mail: [email protected]
www.allan-assoc.com
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