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

M&A activity and standard-essential patent matters are constants for us and continue to demand significant attention. Both require close collaboration with the business and external specialists, and both sit at the strategic centre of what we do as a semiconductor company.

Beyond that, the past twelve months have very much been shaped by AI adoption. We have moved from experimenting with both general-purpose and lawyer-specific tools to using them as a natural part of how we work. Research, contract review, drafting, regulatory analysis: AI now plays a role in most of it. The shift I find most encouraging is a cultural one. For almost every matter that comes in, the team now instinctively considers how to use the tools available. It has become part of the working vocabulary rather than something separate.

We are currently exploring the next step, which is connecting our AI tools with existing systems like our contract lifecycle management platform. That is more complex than the initial adoption phase, and we are still learning what works. But the direction feels right, and the early productivity gains are real.

Is there a particular moment in your career as a lawyer that stands out or has shaped how you approach your role as general counsel?

The time I spent preparing and representing clients in court early in my career taught me a lot, though I am not sure I fully appreciated it while it was happening. Court preparation is demanding work, and there is no room for being underprepared.

What it gave me, over time, was an appreciation for the fact that there are almost always two credible sides to a case. Every argument you think is strong has a counterargument. Every document you think is clear can be read differently. That sounds obvious but really internalising it changes how you approach legal questions. It makes you more careful about testing your own conclusions and more honest about their limitations. Advice that has properly considered the other side is just better advice. That has stayed with me.

What key trends – and challenges – should in-house lawyers be monitoring over the next year?

AI is clearly something every legal team needs to engage with. As adoption progresses, I think one of the more interesting challenges will be integration: moving from standalone tools to systems that connect with contract archives, regulatory databases and other operational infrastructure. That is a different kind of problem. It requires not just good technology choices, but good structured data, and many teams, ourselves included, are still working on getting that foundation right.

It also requires genuine cooperation with IT and information security. At Nordic, we are fortunate to have strong in-house resources in that space. We have also found real value in being a forward-leaning customer, sharing experience openly with our external law firms and technology partners. Treating the adoption journey as something we navigate together rather than in isolation has made a meaningful difference.

I think the teams that approach this with curiosity and a willingness to invest in the underlying infrastructure will be well positioned. It is still early, and there is a lot to figure out, but that is part of what makes it interesting.