How to center a rotated element and align it to the top?

Question

* {
    box-sizing: border-box;
}

body {
    font-family: 'Poppins', sans-serif;
    margin: 0px;
}

.we-adopt {
    background-color: #8a8484;
    color: #ffffff;
    padding: 88px 0px;
    height: 100px;
}

.we-adopt-list span {
    display: inline-block;
    vertical-align: top;
    padding: 16px 60px 16px 24px;
    background-color: #222222;
    color: #ffffff;
    width: 100%;
}

.we-adopt-list li {
    color: #FFFFFF;
    font-size: 32px;
    font-weight: 500;
    letter-spacing: 1.6px;
    line-height: 24px;
    margin-bottom: 70px;
    text-transform: uppercase;
}

.we-adopt-list ul {
    display: inline-block;
    transform: rotate(-90deg) translateY(-50%);
    position: relative;
    left: 50%;
}

.we-adopt-list {
    position: relative;
}

.we-adopt-list li:last-child {
    margin-bottom: 0px;
}

<section class="we-adopt" style="height: 100px;">
    
</section>
<section class="we-adopt-wrap">
    <div class="container">
        <div class="we-adopt-list">
            <ul>
                <li><span>Mental agility</span></li>
                <li><span>Emotional agility</span></li>
                <li><span>Trust</span></li>
            </ul>
        </div>
    </div>
</section>

Whenever i apply transform- rotate property to my list section its overlap or some time its take space from above content.

Case 1

Case 2

After apply transform- rotate, I want to start list section just from above grey section with no spacing like below image.

Expecting Result

Is there any other way to create this kind of design?

Answer 1

Consider transform-origin and update the transform like below:

* {
  box-sizing: border-box;
}

body {
  font-family: 'Poppins', sans-serif;
  margin: 0px;
}

.we-adopt {
  background-color: #8a8484;
  color: #ffffff;
  padding: 88px 0px;
  height: 100px;
}

.we-adopt-list span {
  display: inline-block;
  vertical-align: top;
  padding: 16px 60px 16px 24px;
  background-color: #222222;
  color: #ffffff;
  width: 100%;
}

.we-adopt-list li {
  color: #FFFFFF;
  font-size: 32px;
  font-weight: 500;
  letter-spacing: 1.6px;
  line-height: 24px;
  margin-bottom: 70px;
  text-transform: uppercase;
}

.we-adopt-list ul {
  display: inline-block;
  transform-origin: top left;
  transform: rotate(-90deg) translateX(-100%) translateY(-50%);
  position: relative;
  margin: 0;
  left: 50%;
}

.we-adopt-list {
  position: relative;
}

.we-adopt-list li:last-child {
  margin-bottom: 0px;
}

<section class="we-adopt" style="height: 100px;">

</section>
<section class="we-adopt-wrap">
  <div class="container">
    <div class="we-adopt-list">
      <ul>
        <li><span>Mental agility</span></li>
        <li><span>Emotional agility</span></li>
        <li><span>Trust</span></li>
      </ul>
    </div>
  </div>
</section>