Resolution Life’s legal chief on segueing from GC to a CEO role – and back again

Deals have been a constant thread through Resolution Life legal chief Claire Singleton’s career. From training at Jones Day in London during a corporate boom, to overseeing acquisitions and divestments at Legal & General, through to her company’s recent $10.6bn acquisition by Nippon Life, M&A has consistently defined her professional journey.

But with a recently expanded remit as chief people, partnerships and legal officer at the insurance group – a role that encompasses HR, compliance, sustainability and internal audit in addition to legal – she has little interest in returning to private practice to focus on deals.

‘I love the managerial and commercial side of running a business, as well as doing a legal role. I never say never to anything, but I really love being part of a team that runs a business,’ she tells Legal Business.

Singleton’s first in-house position was at Legal & General, where she spent 10 years working her way up through a range of senior roles both within and outside legal, culminating in a two-year stint as CEO for home finance at the insurer.

‘The thing that stands out from Legal & General was just the variety of different positions that I was able to progress into, and then moving from purely a legal role to business and CEO roles,’ she says. ‘I loved being a lawyer, but I would say I was keen to take on more. I was interested in the commercial side, and I took on more of a leadership role in transactions.’

‘I never say never to anything, but I really love being part of a team that runs a business’

Her leadership of the home finance division came after two years as CEO of the group’s mature savings division, a business which was sold to  SIX-listed insurance business Swiss Re for £650m. The deal, which Singleton helped steer, ultimately led to a reshuffle and redundancies.

Of the transition period, she explains: ‘It was a really good opportunity to lead through a period of change and a good segue from a legal role into a chief executive role. It wasn’t something I necessarily believed I had the skillset to do at the outset, but I was very lucky to have good mentorship from senior management at Legal & General.’

Following the successful sale of the business, Singleton moved to the home finance division and, two months later, was tasked with navigating the business through the global pandemic.

Two years later, she got a call saying that the GC role at Resolution Life was open, and decided to step back into legal.

‘I have always been interested in leading teams of people, leading projects, which I think set me up well to do CEO roles in the past, but I have always still been very much interested in being a lawyer. I like the problem-solving and technical aspects and like keeping that within my remit.’

When she joined Resolution Life in mid-2022, Singleton was thrown back into the world of M&A. At the time, the business was growing rapidly through strategic transactions.

‘It was building a business by way of acquiring or reinsuring other businesses, growing how we operate our systems and our processes. I was attracted to being a part of that growth and building a business at pace.’

Singleton picks out the ongoing strategic partnership with investment manager Blackstone, announced in 2022, as one of the highlights of her tenure so far. Resolution Life’s recent $10.6bn acquisition by Japan’s Nippon Life, which completed at the end of 2025, is another high from her time with the life insurer.

‘Nippon Life has historically been one of our very large shareholders, and we’ve now been acquired. A lot of my time and effort has been spent on the sale of the business and on how we integrate and run within the wider Nippon Life structure.’

While completing the sale was a huge achievement, seeing the legal team grow from just a handful of lawyers to around 45 over the last four years is something she is personally proud of.

‘I have always been interested in leading teams of people, leading projects, which set me up well to do CEO roles in the past’

‘If there’s one thing I’m proud of, it’s how we’ve grown and developed the team. I have a really strong legal team that has an excellent voice at the table and leadership roles within business projects. That’s been a big focus during the time that I’ve been here.’

Singleton tries to lead by example and empower her team around her, aiming to offer them the same support she received from her own mentors early in her career. She believes this support was invaluable in her own success.

‘I’ve been very lucky to have strong mentors and support throughout my career. I think people should never be afraid to ask for help or support, because other people are very willing to give that.’

Singleton also cites her early days in private practice as a strong foundation for her successful career in-house.

‘How did I manage it? I’m not sure I did,’ she jokes. ‘I found it hugely interesting and learnt a lot very quickly. If I’m totally honest, I worked really long hours and did an awful lot, but I would say it stood me in very good stead.’

One of the most formative moments of her time at Jones Day came when she worked with a large Russian oil and gas company, before discovering that transactions she had helped execute were part of a wider fraudulent conspiracy.

‘I’d done a number of corporate deals and JVs, and they were listed. As things went on, it was uncovered that some of the transactions were fraudulent. And so, I had unknowingly worked on transactions that were fraudulent or was being provided with fraudulent information.’

Singleton had been working with the client in question since her first weeks as a trainee and, once the fraud had been uncovered, she played a pivotal role in both reporting the client to the Serious Fraud Office and the investigation that followed.

 ‘It’s having the faith and confidence to push yourself into that slightly uncharted territory and to back yourself to do it’

‘At a young age, that was quite an eye-opener. You came to understand a lot more about what could happen in corporate life that maybe you couldn’t predict. We worked with the client through that period as they navigated dealing with the fraud and how they could recover some of the monies that were due to them.’

Reflecting on the experience, Singleton says: ‘That made me a much better lawyer both in my understanding of the corporate world, but also my resilience. You might think, did I do something wrong? I didn’t, but at the time, you did have to have quite a lot of resilience to manage through something very difficult and something that many lawyers don’t come across for many, many years.’

These days, Singleton is busy handling the aftermath of the Nippon Life acquisition, as well as flexing the broader skillset she picked up in her past CEO roles in her new remit as chief people, partnerships and legal officer, a role she stepped into at the start of the year.

‘It’s great to expand my remit and bring these functions together to increase connectivity and effectiveness for Resolution,’ she explains.

‘One thing that’s definitely served me well is that I’ve always been very open to doing new things. Many things have come across my desk as a new opportunity or a new role. Initially, you may think “I’m not sure I can do that” or “I don’t feel qualified for that”, but it’s having the faith and confidence to push yourself into that slightly uncharted territory and to back yourself to do it.’

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