At Crafty Counsel, we like to get to know more about one of the members of our in-house legal community. This week, we speak to Anna Grafton-Green, Global Head of Regulatory, Legal at Blockchain.com.
Anna is a member of High Growth, our group for in-house lawyers in startups and scaleups. The group meets regularly for virtual and in-person events.
Anna Grafton-Green’s career background
Anna’s legal career began as part of Freshfield’s transactional Finance team, focusing on banking and restructuring work. When Anna made the move in-house she applied her transactional skills to the legal work. This involved supporting the “operational side of the business” helping the bank implement complex regulatory changes. This gave her the opportunity to work on some key regulatory changes shaping financial services – MIFID, ring-fencing and Brexit. It also taught her a lot about UK and EU financial services regulation, including Brexit.
From a Brexit lawyer to a crypto lawyer
Working on Brexit, Anna helped articulate and manage challenges faced by financial services firms operating from the UK into Europe. She noticed how difficult it was for them to move from operating in “a harmonised and clear, regulatory landscape across Europe to one that was fragmented and product specific.” In early 2021, attention shifted away from Brexit. With “Brexit lawyers” less in demand, Anna started looking for the next, big regulatory challenge.
Anna started to delve into digital asset regulation. She noticed that the crypto industry was positioned in a “really cutting edge area of quasi-financial services regulation.” It called for a similar skill-set to her Brexit work – untangling businesses along product lines, designing operational systems facing off to multiple regulators, and countless license applications. In the meantime, crypto regulation, especially in Europe, was evolving. To Anna, this was a quasi-Brexit in reverse.
It took another lockdown to make the change. But in 2022, Anna left behind the safety net of a big UK bank to move to an international crypto exchange. The work Anna does today, sees her deploying existing skills to face new challenges. Crypto has been hit hard in the last six months. With big players facing insolvency and scandal rocking one of the biggest exchanges. Anna anticipates that the regulatory journey for the industry is far from over. The industry is grappling with the maturity required to manage existing operational resilience and risk management imposed by global regulators.
“I’m proud to work at a company with robust legal and compliance teams that prioritises sound governance, regular third-party audits, and an experienced board of directors. Blockchain.com has all of the checks and balances that a global financial firm should have.”
Although her new industry is very different to her last, Anna spends a lot of her time answering the same question. “How do you operate a complex, multi-product, multi-jurisdictional business in a way that flows seamlessly across borders?”
[Related content: Regulatory challenges facing crypto markets]
Anna Grafton-Green’s favourite part about her role
Her colleagues and the industry are the highlight of the job for Anna. The tight-knit crypto community is one that includes really engaging, fascinating, and incredibly talented people. She says, it is also an exceptionally collaborative one.
Anna’s role is exciting, not just being part of the crypto regulatory landscape, but having a ring-side seat to real changes in English law.
“Being at the cutting edge of not just regulation, but, actually, the evolution of English law is really, really interesting.”
Anna says that her industry is constantly playing offense. Trying to find new markets, customer bases, and “push the envelope with what you can create”. It’s an ever-changing, unpredictable, and global role. It’s is a tough industry where “the highs are higher but the lows are lower.” Anna observes, “and occasionally you see some blinding explosions where people have tried to fly too close to the sun.”
What is something you’re really proud of?
Beyond her work, Anna says her “biggest life passion” are her three young sons, aged three, six, and seven. She says she is proud of making the jump from the safety of a “predictable law career” into the FinTech and crypto space. “I am proud that I’ve made that jump and have done it with really young children at home. The whole family has rallied around. They have been really supportive and engaged. My husband, in particular, has juggled being an amazing role model to the boys as an extremely engaged and present dad with being a huge emotional support for me in this rollercoaster industry” she says.
[Related content: Parenting & flexible in-house careers]
Work-life balance can be challenging, but Anna is very committed to spending quality time with her boys and the “grown-up job” of being a parent. “My boys and my family are absolutely my life’s passion and my most important job” she says.
What’s one cool thing that you’ve seen in legal recently?
“A lot of my peers are taking steps to do things that are different. I love the fact that there isn’t one career path for a lawyer anymore. I particularly love the fact that there is a real diversity of brilliant roles outside private practice.”
[Related content: Community Spotlight with Sophie McKibbin]
One of Anna’s favourite career transitions is Crafty Counsel’s founder Ben, whom she remembers from his days at Clifford Chance. “He probably has the coolest job of us all,” she adds.
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