Team size: 25

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?

In times of instability, we need to balance legal rigour with business pragmatism. I believe the role of in-house counsel goes beyond mitigating legal risks—it requires enabling business continuity and supporting organisational resilience.

With respect to the contracting space, the priority is to ensure contractual flexibility (which most clients would require) and agility in decision-making. Examples include reinforcing force majeure and exit provisions, as well as implementing continuity frameworks for critical suppliers and strategic clients.

Moreover, Accenture’s focus is on innovation, trust, and long-term partnerships. We try to reflect this focus in our contracting strategy by supporting the business with innovative contract models and structures (which may include value-based compensation models or a combination of services and asset/share transactions), and by continuously developing the team to act not just as legal experts, but as true business advisors.

In this respect, regarding people management, I aim to ensure that legal professionals can focus on what is most relevant to the firm and bring value both internally and to our clients. To support this, we also leverage technology—e.g. instant NDA generation and contract assistant tools for review.

Finally, resilience is built through collaboration. Therefore, my team works closely with other relevant stakeholders (such as compliance and operations) to ensure that legal is not a bottleneck, but rather an enabler of adaptability.

What are the major cases or transactions you have been involved in recently?

The major transactions I have been involved in during this fiscal year include:

(i) The creation of a minority joint venture with Fincantieri, which will act as a captive IT provider for the Fincantieri Group. This was combined with a services agreement between Accenture and the JV, regulating the provision of IoT, connectivity, cybersecurity, and data management services to create new digital products and services for shipowners. The contractual structure also included a secondment agreement for the deployment of Accenture personnel into the JV.

(ii) The execution of an outsourcing agreement with ICCREA Bank regulating the provision by Accenture of infrastructure services, including hardware/software and connectivity. This was accompanied by the transfer of a business branch from ICCREA to Accenture.

What emerging technologies do you see as having the most significant impact on the legal profession in the near future, and how do you stay updated on these developments?

VB: I believe that AI and generative AI (GenAI) will have a significant impact on the legal profession—and this is already underway. We have started developing and using solutions (such as Copilot) to support contract reviews, summarise key risks, and draft emails to counterparts.

GenAI solutions are also being used by our Compliance colleagues, for example through a chatbot to help navigate the Code of Ethics, and in the litigation space. The next frontier, which we are already exploring, is agentic AI.

Accenture has established a multidisciplinary working group dedicated to this area, which is organising extensive training, and preparing guidelines and documents to ensure that legal professionals stay updated on the latest trends.