Helen Browne, Group General Counsel of AXA.

SINCE SEPT. 1, 2016, HELEN BROWNE HAS BEEN THE GROUP GENeral counsel for AXA SA, the French holding company of the AXA Group, a worldwide leader in insurance, asset management financial protection. Browne joined AXA in 2001 to head its legal finance team.

AXA serves approximately 103 million clients in 64 countries, primarily in Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region. To a lesser extent, AXA also operates in the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.

The headquarters of AXA Group are located in the prestigious neighborhood of Champs-Elysées in Paris, which, according to Browne, is "very bad news for the GC's credit card."

What Browne says she likes most about her job is "being at the heart of the most strategic issues of the AXA Group and the insurance industry." She adds, "I also love the fact that I interact daily with a hugely diverse … and international group of people that all have one thing in common—they are seriously smart."

LEGAL TEAM: Browne says the legal team is composed of 18 lawyers and three assistants. Most of the lawyers on the team trained initially at major law firms, she says. The team is located in AXA Group's Paris headquarters.

OUTSIDE COUNSEL: "Insurance is a very niche area, and there are only a handful of really world-class experts," Browne says. "We do a lot of mergers and acquisitions across the world and use primarily the top insurance teams from Wall Street and the city [of] London, as well as local experts."

DAILY DUTIES: Browne says her daily duties often involve "trying to get to what was on my list of priorities yesterday while putting out today's fires. One of the most important things, however, is checking with the team to make sure they have the answers they need and can move forward proactively."

ROUTE TO THE TOP: Browne earned a LL.B in English and French law from the University of Kent at Canterbury and a law degree from the University of Grenoble. She was admitted to practice as a solicitor in England and Wales in 1991 and admitted to practice in France in 1994.

Browne served as of counsel to Linklaters, working in London, Brussels and Paris, handling initial public offerings. She also says she worked briefly in the fashion industry before joining AXA, where she has worked for 17 years.

Browne was head of corporate finance for the AXA Group from 2001 to 2010, when she took on the additional responsibility for mergers and acquisitions. She became the deputy general counsel for AXA in 2014 and was appointed to her present position as group general counsel two years later.

PERSONAL: Browne grew up on the west coast of Ireland, leaving her home country behind when she began her higher education. She is married and has two children, a boy, 15, and a girl, 11. "When I am not working, we can usually be found out and about in Paris or visiting other cities around the world as soon as we have a chance," Browne says. She says she swims to keep fit and, "to help find my inner balance," takes long walks or fast gallops along the Atlantic coast.

LAST BOOK READ: Browne says she simultaneously read the new edition of "How Google Works" by Alan Eagle, Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg and "Moone Boy: The Blunder Years" by Chris O'Dowd.

WHAT KEEPS HER UP AT NIGHT: "At the moment, nothing, as long as I don't read emails too late into the evening," Browne says. "I have a strong team globally and know they are in control." But Browne says she worries during the day about cybersecurity and "what we are doing to our planet," both issues that AXA takes very seriously.

PRIORITIES: Browne says her priorities are "gaining and keeping the trust of senior management, ensuring that my team adds value, recruiting the best people, which means as the businesses we do change, bringing in a different type of lawyer when necessary to support a different type of internal client."