Lorraine Johnston

Partner

London

+44 20 7859 2579 | +44 7766 835 841

Lorraine.Johnston@ashurstperkins.com

Overview
Experience

Introduction

Lorraine advises banks, wealth managers, fund managers and consumer finance businesses on the regulatory challenges arising from growth, digital innovation and sustainability.

Lorraine Johnston is a partner in the firm's financial regulatory practice in London, where she leads significant mandates for global financial institutions navigating complex regulatory landscapes.

Lorraine advises across a broad range of financial regulatory matters, with particular depth in banking authorization and expansion, governance, consumer credit, mortgages, savings and investments, and sustainability in financial services. Her clients include leading global banks, fund managers, wealth managers, fintech lenders, and retail financial services providers.

Lorraine has a strong track record of advising clients on strategic growth initiatives, including cross-border banking expansion, obtaining new regulatory permissions and licenses, and launching innovative consumer products. She is particularly experienced in advising on the regulatory implications of digital transformation in financial services, an area undergoing significant market reform, particularly through the use of AI.

Lorraine is committed to delivering advice efficiently and is an advocate for the use of legal technology to improve client outcomes, having delivered substantial cost savings for clients through technology-driven solutions and AI.

Beyond her practice, Lorraine is the UK co-lead on sustainability within the firm and a regular speaker at industry events on governance, conduct and sustainability and financial services.

Professional Experience

One of the Largest UK Banks | Advising on its governance and senior managers and certification regime (SMCR) processes for conduct rule breach determination and fitness and propriety assessments.
Large APAC headquartered bank | Advising on conduct related matters and investigations arising from internal grievances and reports.
Recognise Bank | Supporting UK SME specialist lender on its implementation of consumer duty and ongoing governance arrangements.
A global bank | On the establishment of a European branch and consideration of subsidiarization in Europe.
A global bank | On its launch in a new market, including identifying and mapping all its legal and regulatory obligations to ensure compliance.
US investment adviser | Lead adviser on FCA authorization of corporate finance firm, supporting its growth into new international markets.
AlTi Tiedemann | Legal adviser for various UK and EU matters, including new joint ventures, business strategy, internal investigations and operational change.
General Atlantic | As lead sustainability counsel on launching BeyondNetZero, a new venture targeting growth equity investments related to climate change, as well as its acquisition of Actis, a leading global investor in sustainable infrastructure.
Equitix | Advising on the deployment of a new approach to sustainability governance and compliance with obligations under EU and UK ESG Regulations (including SFDR, ESG Ratings Regulation and taxonomy disclosures).
Debenhams Pay+ | Lead adviser to the Debenhams group on the establishment of its own FCA authorized consumer credit embedded finance entity, the first to be authorized following the introduction of the consumer duty in the UK.
Leading UK Consumer Finance Digital Lender | Lead regulatory adviser for unsecured lending, credit cards, and secured lending asset books and general regulatory compliance adviser, including on the restructuring of the business for the purposes of supporting growth of the business (moving from core firm to enhanced firm)