Grania Baird

Grania leads the financial services regulatory and funds practice at Farrer & Co. She has over 20 years of experience acting for clients across the sector, including private banks, wealth managers, asset managers, and more recently payment services firms and Fintech businesses.

Grania has advised clients on the significant legal and regulatory changes impacting the financial services sector over the years. Recent examples include advising on the Senior Managers & Certification Regime (SMCR), the impact of the Asset Management Market Study (AMMS) on authorised fund managers, continuing to advise clients on the impact of Brexit and advising clients on the changes introduced by the FCA and PRA to address the impact of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Grania regularly advises clients on conduct of business matters including drafting and reviewing terms of business, product governance issues, distribution and outsourcing arrangements. She has advised many private banks on the regulatory environment for retail lending, including advice on documentation and procedures. Increasingly, Grania has been working with clients on ways to enhance the client experience including advising firms on the use of technology consistent with legal and regulatory requirements.

Grania advises authorised fund managers, particularly those who manage FCA authorised funds such as UCITS, NURS, QIS, ACS and CAIF funds. Her practice covers advice on changes to fund documentation whether due to regulatory changes or product changes, suspensions and terminations of funds, changes of manager and depositary, as well as schemes of arrangement.

Grania regularly speaks at seminars, webinars and other events on financial services law and regulation.