As General Counsel for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Lance Bartholomeusz oversees a global legal team addressing some of the world’s most complex and urgent challenges. From supporting over 120 million displaced individuals to driving innovative solutions like blockchain payments and green financing, Lance’s role combines legal expertise with practical problem-solving.
In this interview, he shares insights into the dynamic scope of his work, how UNHCR ensures quality standards globally, and how his team fosters a culture of principled pragmatism to deliver impactful results in some of the world’s most fragile regions.
Merlin Beyts: Can you give some insight into the breadth and scope of your role?
Lance Bartholomeusz: As General Counsel of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, I lead the in-house legal team that gives legal support to UNHCR’s operations globally to protect, assist, and help find solutions for some 120 million forcibly displaced and stateless people. We mainly take a risk-based approach rather than a compliance-based approach. We identify and mitigate legal risks through operational advice in the areas of complex commercial and other agreements, human resources and the UN internal justice system, and status privileges and immunities of UNHCR and our personnel. We also support major reputational risk management.
I love the incredible variety in my role. We can both support and lead innovations within the organization. For example, we helped develop a blockchain digital payments solution for Ukraine in 2022. We co-led the development of an innovative online platform for victims of sexual harassment to record incidents and to find out if others had recorded the same perpetrator (NotOnlyMe.org). The platform was launched in 2023. We work on innovative finance solutions for humanitarian purposes, such as the Global Islamic Fund for Refugees, an endowment fund run on Islamic financing principles by UNHCR and the Islamic Development Bank. And we are an integral part of the UNHCR Green Financing Facility, which is solarizing UNHCR’s global operations. And there’s a lot more.
Merlin Beyts: As a global organisation that handles some highly intense issues among vulnerable demographics, how important is ensuring quality standards across the board, and how do you maintain that?
Lance Bartholomeusz: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has over 20,000 personnel who operate in over 140 countries and territories across more than 300 offices. UNHCR serves over 120 million displaced persons across the globe. Everything we think of is focused on how what we’re doing makes an impact on the lives of forcibly displaced and stateless persons. Wherever those people are, they expect to get good quality service. This is vital because it is what they deserve. But how are these services maintained?
The organization has a whole range of policies and practices to ensure we translate our purpose into effective, safe action. How does our in-house legal function contribute to quality standards across the board? We are regionalized (lawyers in Pretoria, Nairobi, Bangkok, Copenhagen, Budapest, Central America, as well as Geneva), not too small and not too big, to reflect the decentralized decision-making that’s favored by our organization. This ensures we can understand the politics and operational context where we work, which is critical to ensure quality advice. We work hard to share and build knowledge within the team, using a mixture of tech and regular meetings. This means we give consistent advice, no matter which lawyer is approached.
Merlin Beyts: As a legal leader, how do you ensure you’re able to instil a culture of practicality?
Lance Bartholomeusz: One of the highest compliments my team and I can have is to be described as operational lawyers or principled pragmatists. Our operations are in the most fragile parts of the world. Legal risk is just one of the risks our agency addresses in insecure, remote areas where the needs of people forced to flee are far greater than the resources to address them. This forces us to be practical and to work quickly and often with imperfect facts.
I aim to set an example for the team by being pragmatic, taking a risk-based approach, finding practical solutions, and responding quickly. The team follows the example. We enjoy this way of work. Our field colleagues give us good feedback on our approach. And so this becomes a virtuous circle.
Read the full LegalTech Diaries Volume 6: https://www.legaltech-talk.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/LegalTech-Diaries-Volume-6.pdf
