Travers Smith LLP is delighted to announce the appointment of Sanjay Bhandari as Non-Executive Adviser.
Sanjay is a highly regarded professional, with long-standing experience working across multiple industries including, professional services, financial services, life sciences, consumer products and government and public services.
A qualified lawyer, he spent the first 15 years of his career specialising in litigation, fraud and white-collar crime at Herbert Smith Freehills and Baker McKenzie. In the course of his career, he has developed significant expertise in the use of technology and innovation to achieve competitive advantage in a variety of organisations, having founded the eDiscovery business at EY, and also having undertaken the role of Joint Chief Innovation Officer, UKI Tax & Law while a partner at EY.
More recently, Sanjay has been appointed as Chair of the Satellite Applications Catapult, an innovation incubator at the heart of innovation in the UK space industry. He is currently a Non-Executive Director of the Serious Fraud Office and Chair of Kick It Out, English football's leading independent charity tackling discrimination and promoting inclusion.
Sanjay will start a three-year term as Travers Smith's Non-Executive Adviser on 1 January 2022. In this role, he will join John Kerr, the firm's second Non-Executive Adviser, who previously held senior global roles at Deloitte Consulting and Arthur Andersen. With his deep commercial experience and wide-ranging, strategic views, John has provided valuable support to the firm's Partnership Board since his appointment in April 2019 and his term will be extended until April 2025. Olivia Dickson, who will successfully complete her second term as a Non-Executive Adviser to the firm will step down on 31 January 2022.
Under the new management team, comprising Managing Partner Edmund Reed and Senior Partner Kathleen Russ, Travers Smith has developed ambitious plans for growth focused on the continued investment in its people, clients and systems, and building on its core areas of legal expertise including Asset Management, M&A and Dispute Resolution & Investigations. As part of the strategy, the firm is emerging as one of the leaders in innovation in legal technology. It has also developed an impressive ESG agenda, backed up by a strong track record in advising clients on the full spectrum of ESG issues. A recently announced office move to Stonecutter Court, a new landmark 13-storey redevelopment, demonstrates the firm's intentions to build on its current success and reflects its confidence in the future.
Travers Smith's Managing Partner Edmund Reed commented: “I am delighted that Sanjay has joined our firm as a Non-Executive Adviser. It is important to us that we have a strong and experienced board and Sanjay's knowledge and business acumen gained from an outstanding career spanning a variety of sectors will be invaluable to us as we implement our strategy and ambitious growth plans over the next few years."
Travers Smith's Senior Partner and Chair of the Partnership Board Kathleen Russ said: "We were particularly drawn to Sanjay's experience in the use of technology and innovation. His focus and way of doing business are also fully aligned with our firm's approach and values. All of us on the Partnership Board look forward to working with Sanjay and John, as our new team of Non-Executive Advisers, in the next few years. We are also grateful to Olivia Dickson for the important contribution she has made to the firm in the last six years."
Sanjay Bhandari said: "I am really looking forward to working with Kathleen, Edmund and the team at Travers Smith. I have been really impressed with the focus, ambition and talent of the team. Having started my career in law firms 32 years ago, it is great to come full circle and this is something I have wanted to do for a few years. I hope I can bring the benefit of the variety of my experiences from outside law firms to support the team in achieving their growth ambitions.”
