What are the most significant cases or transactions you have worked on in the past year?

On operation front, we’ve been involved in the expansion of the Group manufacturing expansion initiatives, advised the Group on the legal aspects of these transactions and assisted in the drafting of the contracts to best protect the interests of the group. A major focus was the drafting and negotiation of multiple NDAs, commercial agreements, addendums, and supplier engagements to support business agility in a fast‑shifting environment. The team played a key role in supporting new product launches, marketing partnerships, and digital transformation initiatives, ensuring contractual robustness while enabling commercial speed.

Aside from the business operations of the Group, we’ve also had the opportunity to assist the Group in a few corporate exercises involving the disposals and acquisition of its assets. Amongst all these, the most notable corporate exercise is the disposal of business assets of one of the companies within the Group which includes real estate, intellectual property, and machinery. Due to the different types of assets (both tangible and intangible) involved, we were heavily involved in the negotiation and finalization of the key commercials, the timing of completion events, mechanisms of the completion and the payment milestones to best protect the company’s interest and easy to execute operationally. Coordinating the delivery of completion items post signing of agreement also brings the contract into life, allowing me to see how each clause affects the performance of the contract which then gives me fresh perspective to the contract provisions.

What are some key opportunities or risks in the legal world you have identified?

For legal work in general, AI poses both risk and opportunity to all legal practitioners. As everyone must have noted by now, amongst many professions that are predicted to be replaced by AI, legal professionals are one of them. Where there is a risk therein lies opportunities, I believe legal practitioners should embrace the technology and adopt it to not be left behind. Mamee being one of the first few local MNC to embrace AI invested heavily in technology allowing us to use AI in our daily work. With the investment in all the AI tools Mamee in-house team has then developed a competitive edge, to work faster and smarter aided by AI. AI is truly a game changer, do not fear it but embrace it.

How has the current global economic or geopolitical environment influenced your approach to legal risk?

The current global economic with the ever-changing policies, volatility in supply chains, currency fluctuation and geopolitical tensions makes it more imminent for us to develop a more anticipatory and scenario‑based approach to legal risk; the traditional reactive legal frameworks are no longer sufficient.

Our approach now prioritizes building contractual resilience into every major engagement through clearer pricing provisions, tighter force majeure provisions, clearer service‑level obligations, stronger termination rights, and supply diversification clauses. We conduct early risk mapping with the business, ensuring legal considerations are embedded at the planning stage rather than addressed only during execution.

I also focus on cross‑functional collaboration, ensuring the legal team understands the operational realities faced by procurement, finance, factory operations, sales, and marketing. By integrating legal risk evaluation with commercial strategy, we can guide the organisation through uncertainty while enabling the business to move decisively.

What are the most important attributes for a modern in-house counsel to possess?

A modern in‑house counsel must be more than a technical legal adviser, companies do not need you to recite the law or sit in and ivory tower drafting contracts and making sure that the boilerplates are replicated across the contract. They must be strategists, problem solvers, and trusted business partners. The key attributes include:

Commercial Acumen: Understanding the business model, financial drivers, and operational flow to provide advice that is pragmatic and solution‑oriented.

Proactive Risk Anticipation: Identifying issues before they escalate and guiding the organization through preventive action instead of reactive fixes.

Communication & Influence: Translating legal concepts into clear, actionable insights for the stakeholders and management team, enabling fast and informed decision‑making.

Integrity and Sound Judgment: Being the moral compass of the organization who balances commercial needs with regulatory and ethical guardrails.

These qualities ensure the legal function contributes not only to compliance but also to business resilience, growth, and long‑term strategic advantage.