Head of Legal, Aimee Fabri joins Alice and Malcolm to trace an unconventional career from the Aldi shop floor to leading Oakley Capital’s legal function. She explains why legal belongs at the centre of the firm (not the side lines), how to balance breadth versus depth in-house, the value of “usefulness over perfectionism,” and how to build a tight, trusted network that you can lean on when it counts. 

Episode highlights 

• Legal as an enabler, not a blocker: “We’re not here to say no, we’re here to say stop and think: how do we enable this the right way?” 
• In-house = breadth and judgement: Moving from deep memo-writing to decisive, business-critical calls made in minutes. 
• Healthy pride & healthy tension: Ops/Legal should benchmark outward against the market not against investment teams across the floor. 
• Capacity and sustainability: Boundaries, trusted external counsel, and clear operating models prevent duplication and burnout. 
• Networks that work: Small, reciprocal, “in-the-trenches” relationships beat noisy groups and notification overload. 

Key takeaways 

• Integrate early. Legal adds most value upstream, shaping decisions rather than rubber-stamping. 
• Codify and share. Use legal’s vantage point across deals to spot patterns and reduce friction. 
• Set scope and escalate. Clear operating models and escalation rules protect capacity. 
• Benchmark outward. Take pride in function; compare with market peers, not internal counterparts. 
• Curate your network. Quality, reciprocity and real-world pressure-tested relationships > large noisy groups.