British Business Bank: Nine years of legal resource support, one relationship

Client Profile

British Business Bank is the UK’s government-owned economic development bank, its mission is to drive economic growth by helping smaller businesses get the finance they need to start, scale and stay in the UK. It does this through a range of products and interventions that it delivers and manages.

As a public institution, the Bank works to strict procurement rules and does not endorse individual suppliers or brands. This case study is built on the shape of the relationship rather than a client testimonial.

The Challenge: Broad legal needs, charity budgets

As a government-owned institution, British Business Bank needs specialist legal resource across a wide range of disciplines: corporate and commercial work, structured finance, debt, data privacy and company secretarial support. It needs to stand up products and interventions quickly and obtain support to do this within the governance and procurement constraints that apply to public bodies.

That combination of speed, breadth, cost discipline and public accountability has meant a recurring need for flexible legal resource, not a single, one-off engagement.

The Obelisk Approach

Obelisk’s relationship with British Business Bank began in 2017 and has continued, with gaps and renewals, ever since. Over the years, the relationship has grown so that we could support the Bank across a variety of needs as they arise, spanning debt lawyers, structured products support, knowledge management, litigation, corporate and commercial secondments, and privacy work.

Each new instruction has been treated as part of the same relationship rather than a fresh start. That continuity has let us build a real understanding of how the Bank works and what good support looks like for a public institution of its size and remit.

What Happened

Since 2017, British Business Bank has come back to Obelisk for numerous separate job requests. We were proud to step in to support the Bank during the busy time of the pandemic and, since 2020, fourteen different consultants have worked on its instructions, delivering over 8,500 hours of support between them.

Placements have included full time secondments of six to twelve months covering corporate, commercial and privacy work, shorter engagements on debt and structured products, and knowledge management support. This reflects what a public institution of the Bank’s size and remit needs: not a single specialist, but the right person for each piece of work as it arises.

The Legal Resource

The Consultants placed with British Business Bank has ranged from senior banking and corporate commercial lawyers with public sector experience, to structured finance and debt specialists comfortable working on complex, cross-border transactions, to data privacy and governance experts managing DSARs, FOI requests and regulator engagement.

What has connected them all is the interesting work offered when operating inside the governance and accountability expectations of a government-owned institution, alongside the commercial pragmatism to keep the Bank’s day-to-day legal work moving.

The Results

Nine years and numerous requests, the relationship continues. What has kept it going is less about any single placement and more about being trusted to come back with the right person, again and again, whatever the Bank has needed at the time.