Winner: Lesley Wan, Lloyds Banking Group

In a close vote, Lloyds Banking Group's Lesley Wan clinched the award for Legal Counsel of the Year for her role in driving a new facility for real estate borrowing.

Wan heads the corporate real estate legal department at Lloyds Banking Group, the largest property bank in the UK, and was the "driving force" behind the April launch of the Loan Market Association (LMA) facility agreement for real estate finance.

In addition to promoting this new facility and creating a forum for banks to discuss hedging principles for the UK real estate finance sector, Wan has also established a forum for in-house real estate finance lawyers to share legal knowhow and discuss market issues.

The forum is an innovative way of raising the bank's profile as well as ensuring the team remains up to speed with legal developments and live issues in the market.

Through a series of short videos, Wan has created a simple and innovative way to educate her colleagues about real estate loan documentation and give an in-depth knowledge as to how a facility agreement works in basic terms.

Another initiative has seen her drive through a number of document standardisation initiatives, all developed in-house.

Lloyds' entry states: "Lesley's commitment to training and her standardisation initiatives have created confident and knowledgeable colleagues/bankers, who can negotiate legal documentation with a clear understanding of the fundamentals, resulting in increased business productivity and success."

The judges were also impressed with Wan's work creating a new diversity programme aimed at giving disadvantaged young people the chance to spend a week in the City working at different institutions.