The many hats interview: Andre Bywater

Continuing our series of many hats interviews designed to show that there is no typical 'day in the life' of a commercial lawyer, today we speak with Andrew Bywater, Principal Adviser-European Regulatory at Cordery a specialist compliance practice. Cordery provides innovative ways of helping General Counsel, Compliance Professionals and Heads of Legal across industries manage compliance.

How did you end up being a commercial lawyer?

By going to work for law firms in Brussels. I originally qualified (in the UK) as a barrister and also spent time at the European Court of Justice and the European Commission and although all of these were excellent experiences each in their own different way, they were not really what you’d call commercial arenas. Through  “learning by doing “ I simply had to quickly get to grips with the commercial aspects of clients’ concerns.

What type of projects are you working on at the moment?

We cover a range of challenging and stimulating compliance issues. We’re dealing with internal investigations including supporting another firm on an investigation that they are leading on. Data protection matters of all different sorts come in regularly, including the topical hot potato issue of the right to be forgotten. I’m also frequently involved in due diligence, notably recently particularly in connection with the Russian sanctions regime. I am also dealing with a chemicals regulatory issue which has an EU and wider international dimension to it.