Maria Leistner
Managing director and EMEA general counsel
Credit Suisse
Maria Leistner joined Credit Suisse in 2004, when it reorganised its operations into a ‘one bank’ model to ensure collaboration between its private banking, investment banking and asset management divisions.
Leistner is full of praise for the model that Credit Suisse has promoted and expects the same holistic approach from law firms. ‘We are encouraging our lawyers to take a more generalist approach, which was not the custom in the big finance houses until very recently – you would traditionally bring in different partners to work on different projects, and there was not so much cohesion,’ she says.
Law firms used: Credit Suisse’s EMEA panel includes Allen & Overy, Ashurst, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith Freehills, Simmons & Simmons
2004-present: Head of the banking legal team, then managing director and EMEA general counsel, Credit Suisse
2002-04: Senior associate, LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae
2000-02: Senior associate, Weil, Gotshal & Manges