Each year, the City of London Law Society presents a Lifetime Achievement Award to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession. Travers Smith is delighted to announce that its long-standing member and highly regarded financial services regulatory expert Margaret Chamberlain received the award this year.
Margaret qualified in 1985 and became a partner at Travers Smith in 1991. She founded the firm's Financial Services and Markets Department. She has consistently been recognised as a leader in her field and the team she built, now led by Jane Tuckley, is widely acknowledged as a pre-eminent and thought-leading practice in the UK.
Margaret has a wide-ranging practice and particular expertise relating to investment management and the regulation of alternative asset managers and in relation to trading, clearing and settlement. She led the Travers Smith team which advised the Bank of England on the legal framework for the CREST settlement system. This resulted in major changes to UK company law to enable fully electronic dematerialised settlement and was the biggest change to City of London practices since Big Bang. The daily settlement value of transactions in securities is now in excess of £1trillion.
Margaret’s career has involved shaping the law as well as advising on it. She was Chairman of the City of London Law Society Regulatory Committee for over twelve years, a Council Member of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) for eighteen years and chair of the BVCA Regulatory Committee for fifteen years. These roles involved extensive engagement with Government, European authorities and regulators on the continuous stream of consultations on changes to the regulatory framework. Her expertise was recognised by the European Commission who appointed her to its European Securities Markets Experts Group, which was established to identify points of legal uncertainty which impair the functioning of securities markets and make recommendations to the Commission and to provide advice on issues of contemporary relevance in EU securities markets.
Her other roles include being the Deputy Chairman of and independent legal adviser to the Lloyds' Capacity Transfer Panel and a member of the Professional Standards Committee of Invest Europe.
In 2010 Margaret was inducted into the BVCA Hall of Fame, recognising her long term contribution to the representation of the venture capital and private equity industry to government and regulators and her success in her own field. The Lawyer magazine recognised Margaret in the 2011 edition of "The Hot 100"; she was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by the City of London Law Society for her work and service as Chair of its Regulatory Committee and in 2014 she received the Thomson Reuters award for Outstanding Long-Term Service to the Compliance Industry.
Margaret recently became a consultant at Travers Smith after 25 years as a partner, and whilst still working is also a trustee of two charities, Parkinson’s UK and Target Ovarian Cancer.
Travers Smith's Senior Partner Chris Hale said:
“Many congratulations to Margaret for receiving the City of London Law Society Lifetime Achievement Award 2016. Over the years, Margaret has made an outstanding contribution to the legal profession, the regulatory landscape in which we operate and the success of Travers Smith’s Financial Services & Markets practice. This highly-deserved award is a reflection of Margaret’s exceptional reputation and the respect she commands in the marketplace amongst her peers, clients and colleagues.”