Team size: approx. 700 in 50 countries covering Legal, Intellectual Property, Compliance, Investigations and Corporate Security

What are the key projects that you have been involved in over the past 12 months?

As with any large multi-national company, GSK’s Legal function is presented with a broad range of legal, regulatory and geo-political issues. We pride ourselves in attracting and nurturing top talent in a complicated, purpose driven and high stakes sector. Our business is a tech and data enabled operation where innovation is encouraged throughout the Company. Remaining static is not an option for any function in the Company and Legal is no exception to that, with learning agility, a progressive and inquiring mindset and ever-present curiosity being an essential part of success.

Over the last 12 months, I have had the privilege of leading numerous teams on many significant matters, whether on material litigation to protect our intellectual property portfolio; acquisitions of biotech companies or the very significant settlement of material product liability litigation for up to $2.2bn; and more recently the legal work attendant to multiple Executive Orders from the the US Government, with a focus on ensuring readiness and compliance with potential industry tariffs on global supply chains, or compliance with changes to programs and culture driven by anti-discrimination laws. These examples all require large expert teams that can balance good legal judgement with the ability to operationalise change at scale in a way that makes sense to our people. These are just examples of the type of transformational work that GSK Legal is often at the cutting edge within the GSK value chain.

Stepping back, we as a Legal and Compliance function take pride in our internal culture work, whether it be our fabulous Emerging Talent program; our Senior Leaders Strategy meeting for our top 100; or the multiple development and learning opportunities provided across the function. No where has a cultural shift been so essential as with the importance of embracing the tech evolution that is gripping the world, including the Legal world.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

As General Counsel I approach the current environment with a clear understanding that the route to success for the Company is determined by the quality and nurturing of our people and the visible link to the Company’s purpose and role in society that should be evident to all of our staff in Legal and Compliance. This requires alignment of objectives with both the “what” ie. commercial goals, and the “how” ie. cultural alignment. Communication, consistency and alignment are vital. We supplement this with training and support to acknowledge the challenges in front of us and to support individual and team resilience.

What strategies do you employ to ensure the successful digital transformation of a legal department while maintaining compliance with your country’s data protection laws?

These two goals are not inconsistent and in fact, when combined, create confidence and build trust with end users and those operationalising change. Many legal departments have embraced the digital transformation journey. It is well understood that AI will not replace lawyers per se but may replace those lawyers that don’t use AI where it could make us more efficient. Maintaining compliance with data protection laws is a hygiene factor, a necessity for trust, reputation and mitigation of legal risk. GSK has a sophisticated programme and a dedicated specialist team to ensure compliance with date protection laws. It is the same team that advises the Company on its most significant AI and machine learning initiatives.

The pharmaceutical industry is an early adopter of new technologies in drug discovery, manufacturing and commercialisation of medicines. We have provided access to co-pilot to the majority of our staff within Legal and Compliance, we encourage usage of the Company’s internal large language model and are moving forward on a number of use cases, covering risk analytics, intellectual property, contracting and management of outside counsel spend. This is all underpinned with an effort to affect cultural change, focused on an acceptance and familiarity with incorporating technology into our daily roles.