Team size : 4 (including myself)

What are the most significant cases, projects and/or transactions that you and/or your legal team have recently been involved in?

From a transaction perspective we successfully signed, inter alia, a purchase agreement for the sale of eight logistics properties to a Chinese investor worth approximately €220 million by way of a share deal.

From an administrative perspective, we successfully oversaw the implementation of a new centralised document management system and were able to convince our colleagues of its necessity and advantages.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

In times of instability or crisis the rapid assessment of legal risks is imperative, as such times bring along with them hazards as well as opportunities. Keeping up with changing regulations, guiding colleagues with consistent communication and working cross-functionally with different departments is key to overcoming such times.

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?

By updating the digital infrastructure of the company (implementation of a new document management system), following the latest trends in legal technology developments, constantly updating compliance guidelines and processes and continuously monitoring processes to maintain efficiency and regulatory compliance.

Have you had any experiences during your career as a lawyer that stand out as particularly unique or interesting?

As a lawyer specialised primarily in real estate law, observing the shifts in the market in the recent years has been a very fascinating experience. At the beginning of my career, while working at a law firm, it was a proper seller’s market and several of our clients were extremely opportunistic in their approach to business. In the past years, the ongoing trend has shifted the approach of market participants, resulting in the possibility of being highly creative during negotiations and, more and more often, in completely different forms of contracts compared to a few years ago.

Given the current geopolitical shifts and growing uncertainties around international free trade, has your company’s risk profile evolved, and are you taking measures to address these challenges?

Working for a company which is 100% owned by a sovereign wealth fund, we have always been very cautious about our risk exposure. In the past years, we have increased our use of (transaction) insurance to cover, inter alia, the liability regime under purchase agreements, indemnities in regard to environmental risks, or even the financial standing of our contractual counterparts.

Based on your experiences in the past year, are there any trends in the legal or business world that you are keeping an eye on that you think other in-house lawyers should be mindful of?

I truly believe that with the rapid advances in the field of legal technology, and how such tech can potentially revolutionise the way we work as in-house counsel, it is imperative that we keep up with the latest developments in the field. There is a wide range of legal tech available, and the potential applications are numerous (and very individual). For that reason, we have designated a colleague who is responsible for testing a wide range of legal tech solutions and who shares her experiences with the team once a month.

How can general counsel foster a corporate culture that supports ESG principles and compliance across all levels of the organisation?

Starting from the top, general counsel should actively advise the upper management on ESG-related duties, regulatory expectations, and risk exposure. As a follow-up, the inclusion of ESG risks should be worked into the existing compliance frameworks, resulting in enforceable policies and procedures. As a further step, it is imperative that the message is received in every part of the organization, which could, inter alia, be achieved by including it into performance evaluations and incentive structures.

AI has been taken seriously as a potentially revolutionary technological change in the legal world for a number of years now. Has it had a meaningful impact in how your legal team works in this time?

Even though we are keeping a close eye on the development of legal tech, we have so far not been able to identify an application which could clearly improve our work. However, during the previously mentioned migration to a new document management system, AI has assisted us in the process of filtering and migrating tens of thousands of documents to a satisfactory result.

What is a cause, business or otherwise, that you are passionate about? Why is this?

As a real estate lawyer working for a real estate developer and investor, I am particularly interested in improving my real estate business understanding, both to better assist my colleagues by comprehending their methods and motivations as well as for my personal development. For this reason, I went back to university to participate in an Executive MBA in the International Real Estate program. I am currently working on my master thesis, which revolves around legal as well as commercial methods to safeguard a (real estate) transaction from the risk of insolvency of either party.

What factors influence your team’s decision to use external legal services versus handling matters in-house, and what criteria are used to evaluate their performance?

We generally outsource work based on complexity, risk, specialization, capacity, and cost considerations. Performance is evaluated on quality of the legal work, business understanding, cost control, responsiveness, judgment, collaboration, and overall value delivered, rather than outcomes or fees alone.

How does your team contribute to the overall business strategy of the company? Can you share an example of a recent legal-led initiative that had a significant impact?

The legal department supports the overall business strategy by enabling growth while managing risk. We advise on transactions as well as regulatory compliance, negotiate contracts to increase value, anticipate and mitigate legal risks, and provide guidance that allows our commercially focused colleagues to make confident, compliant decisions.

The implementation of our new, centralised document management system has increased collaboration between all departments, enhanced data security, process consistency, cost efficiency as well as audit readiness.

Looking forward, what trends do you foresee in the legal landscape over the next 5–10 years that companies should prepare for?

Companies should prepare for more complex data privacy and cybersecurity obligations, expanded ESG reporting, increased regulatory oversight under antitrust laws, evolving labor laws, stricter trade controls and greater regulatory fragmentation requiring proactive compliance strategies.