Rachel Kent of Hogan Lovells wins Most Innovative Practitioner award at The Financial Times Innovative Europe Awards
London, 25 September 2023 — Rachel Kent, Financial Services Regulation partner and chair of the International Regulatory Strategy Group’s UK regulation group, has been named Most Innovative Practitioner in The Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Europe 2023 for her role in shaping debate and influencing government and policy makers on the UK's post-Brexit financial services industry.
Maintaining financial services’ position in the global economy is crucial to the UK’s future prosperity and job creation, and The City has frequently turned to Rachel to guide it as it adjusts to a post-Brexit reality. Many aspects of Britain’s financial industry have been influenced by Rachel’s work alongside the IRSG – which includes co-authoring the IRDG’s reports on the post-Brexit landscape. Rachel also contributed significantly to the Kalifa report, looking at the future of the UK’s FinTech industry, and more recently chaired the Investment Research Review to promote better equity research aimed at promoting London as a boost to capital markets and a more favourable listing location.
José Maria Balañá, Regional Managing Partner for the EMEA region, commented: “Innovation is a core element of our firm's culture and we are committed to delivering innovative solutions that create value for our clients. Law firms are gradually embracing digital transformation including AI, and we continue in our efforts to lead in this area. Having our work recognised by the Financial Times Innovative Lawyer Awards motivates us to continue with our hard work ”
Additionally, the firm was ranked the 16th Most Innovative Firm in Europe, and also highly commended and commended in several other categories:
• 'Highly commended' - Innovative Lawyers in Energy Security and Transition – for our work auctioning wind farm leases for The Crown Estate.
• ‘Highly commended’ – Innovative Lawyers in Digital Assets and Blockchain – for the formation of a new, industry-leading Digital Assets and Blockchain practice group.
• ‘Commended’ – Innovative Lawyers in Cyber Security and Data Protection – for partner and Global Co-Head of our Privacy & Cybersecurity Eduardo Ustaran’s pioneering work on data security.
• ‘Commended’ – Innovative Lawyers in Impact and ESG – for our Pro Bono’s practice’s work Tackling biodiversity loss by creating innovative private / NGO partnerships.
• ‘Commended’ – Innovative lawyers in supporting refugees – for a joint submission with several other law firms for work done to support refugees.
The FT Innovative Lawyers Europe report has become one of the top legal rankings in Europe. Over the past fourteen years the FT has assessed legal innovation in over 50 countries from over 400 law firms and 400 in-house legal departments.
The full report can be found here.
