2 The Battle of Women
At this stage, it is important to mention that there were only two of us women tasked with managing the technical problems and solutions related to our investigation, as our male counterparts were less inclined to delve into a complicated past.
Paola joined me during the investigation without really knowing what she was getting into. She had a great network of friends in the field of IT at the Investment Bank and was always up to date with the latest technologies. We were both motivated and highly supportive of each other. Our mottos were “You never know when luck will strike” and “Excel is our friend.” With Paola, everything was always well-organized.
Her only concern was not understanding why her desk was empty while our legal colleagues’ desks were cluttered with paper files (this was before the time of Covid). She made efforts to explain to them the advantages of a “paperless” approach, which was part of the Bank’s policy. On my part, I couldn’t comprehend why it was so difficult to predict the amount of the fine. The estimates provided by the lawyers ranged from 1 to 9 billion euros, the lowest to the highest fine imposed by the authorities for this offense.
Paola and I spent our free time building high-capacity data spaces to store and analyze all the collected information calmly. In doing so, we created the first Data Lake Discovery, which would later enable us to conduct various analyses using the immense storage and data processing capabilities available to us.
When the Bank organized its first entrepreneurship competition focused on using new technologies for the Bank’s benefit, we volunteered to participate in this venture. We proposed to our management a risk analysis tool in litigation, which would rely on both previous case law and the capacity of artificial intelligence to find causal links.
Our proposal was well-received by the Secretary General, who became our sponsor, and we were selected to participate in this entrepreneurial adventure. It was a unique opportunity to materialize our idea and implement it with the bank’s support. We formed a team with two other legal colleagues, and we immersed ourselves wholeheartedly in the development of our tool.
For 9 months, we worked tirelessly, refining our concept, developing our prototype, and conducting thorough testing. We met with experts, lawyers, and key decision-makers at the bank to seek their opinions and advice. Each day was a challenge, but we were determined to succeed.
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