Sandie Okoro, Senior Vice President and Group General Counsel of The World Bank Group.

SANDIE OKORO IS SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL COUNSEL at the Washington, D.C.-based World Bank Group.

Okoro studied law and politics at the University of Birmingham, from which she received an LL.B., then studied at the Inns of Court School of Law, now part of City University of London, and joined Lincoln's Inn, qualifying as a barrister. She then re-qualified and trained as a solicitor. Prior to joining the World Bank Group, she was GC of HSBC Global Asset Management and deputy GC of HSBC Retail Banking and Wealth Management since 2014, prior to which she was global GC at Barings, an investment services company. In July 2014, she was awarded an honorary doctorate in law by City University London. This past July, she was made an Honorary Bencher of Middle Temple in the United Kingdom. "I have a passion for development," Okoro says. "I always wanted to do something that makes the world a better place. I kind of did some of that in my spare time, but the fact that I can now do something that I love as my day job and get paid for it is extraordinary." The World Bank is a specialized agency of the United Nations, a multilateral development bank and an international financial institution. It provides low-interest loans, zero to low-interest credits, and grants to developing countries. It focuses on eradicating extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity. "The Legal Vice Presidency Unit serves as the [World] Bank's corporate counsel, providing independent legal advice on all legal issues ranging from issues arising out of our policies, operations and financial transactions, to the creation of new concessional financing facilities—for refugees, climate finance or pandemics—the fight against fraud and corruption, or personnel issues. As GC, I am spokesperson for the [World] Bank on all legal matters," she says. "I also provide legal advice to our governing board and its members, which represent our shareholders."

LEGAL TEAM: The legal unit is made up of 180 staff members, including close to 130 lawyers, and 50 support staff, including paralegals. Some 75 percent of the staff is assigned to an operational portfolio, so most of their work involves negotiating loans, guarantees and grants directly with governments. The legal team is mostly based in Washington, D.C., except for 20 lawyers who work out of 14 country offices worldwide. "I have a large team of highly competent staff with decades of experience," Okoro says. "I am more of a macro-manager, so [I] delegate the bulk of the work to my team. My main interaction is with the board and senior management." She is based in Washington, D.C., but travels for her job. "Eight months into my mandate, I have been traveling quite a lot, but not as much as I would like to," Okoro says. "My priority has been to visit all my decentralized lawyers. I am just returning from a long three-week mission to South East Asia. Next on my list are Latin America and Africa."

LAST BOOK READ: "The World Bank Legal Papers" by Ibrahim Shihata, a former World Bank GC, and "Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin. "Both are riveting reads," she says.

WHAT KEEPS HER UP AT NIGHT: "Nothing," she says. "I always sleep very well. But as general counsel, a risk that is mine to guard and protect is the risk of legal liability for the [World] Bank; the risk that our immunities fail to protect us."

PRIORITIES AS GENERAL COUNSEL: "We need to re-evaluate the legal team's contribution to the [World] Bank's agenda and take more of a risk-based approach to lawyering. We need to be there at the table from the beginning, identifying and advising on legal risks at the same time as … protecting the organization, while retaining the flexibility and pragmatism we need to remember the importance of … delivering on our goals," she says. "This is all about 'smart lawyering' so that we can help the [World] Bank achieve its twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity. We must always have the goals of the [World] Bank at the forefront of everything we do as lawyers."

ROLE OF WOMEN IN LEGAL PROFESSION: "It has changed quite a bit from when I started my career," she says. "There are more women in leadership roles, but by no means is it 50/50. It should be 50/50 and until we achieve that, we cannot see anything we have done to date as a success. We should not ask for a seat at the table, we should take it. As half the population, we have a right to be represented. It's not the role of women that needs to change but the role of men," Okoro adds. "It's not the women that need fixing."