GC Spotlight: Pav Gill, Chief Legal Officer, Zipmex.

Pav Gill is Chief Legal Officer at Zipmex, a digital assets platform. Prior to moving in-house, Pav worked at Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, and King & Spalding, where he advised governments, banks and MNCs on international capital markets transactions.

For his role in exposing the Wirecard scandal, Pav has been awarded the 2021 Blueprint for Free Speech “Special Recognition Award” for integrity and bravery in the public interest, as well as the 2022 ACFE “Cliff Robertson Sentinel Award” - one of the ACFE’s highest honours bestowed annually on a person who, without regard to personal or professional consequences, has publicly disclosed wrongdoing in business or government. His contributions served as the primary focus of the documentary “Wirecard – The Billion Euro Lie”, produced by Sky Studios and NBC Universal, and which was one of the nominees of “Best Documentary” in the 2021 German Television Awards.

In this GC Spotlight, he talks about his life as the CLO of Zipmex. Let's dive in! 

1. Hi Pav! Tell us a little about yourself. What does your role entail?

I'm currently the Chief Legal Officer of Zipmex - a digital assets platform with offices across the Asia-Pacific region. The role entails everything possibly expected of a general counsel with supervision of all legal and compliance matters within the group.

2. What have been your biggest challenges during the pandemic?

Biggest challenge would probably be building a team virtually and keeping everyone bonded thereafter. Zipmex grew from around 40 employees when I joined in Feb 2021 to over 400 within a year and the Legal & Compliance department was no different with 15 hires during that span. Most of the hiring was done remotely with little in-person engagement subsequently given the pandemic and emphasis on flexible/remote working. Fostering team spirit and ensuring that everyone in the team stays motivated and engaged are a few of the things that get my mind working.  

3. What are your key priorities for 2022?

Ensuring that we build on a phenomenally successful 2021 would be the main priority.      

4. What do you think about the use of LegalTech, data analytics and process optimisation to improve your legal department's value (e.g. data relating to contracts, risk, tracking workflows, performance metrics, costs)?

All these tools are great but the challenge is communicating their existence and benefits to legal departments. Only when there is an understanding of their utility would there be an increase in their adoption and efficiency.

5. What developments or trends do you expect to see in the legal services industry in the next 5 years?

Increased focus on flexible working and a work-life balance; the evolution of a whole different category of lawyers focusing on the digital assets space.