Team size: Five

Mark has led the team through an unprecedented period of legislative change. The Online Safety Act, the Data (Use and Access) Act and the new consumer law regime under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act have all been implemented in stages over the past couple of years, and are all of significant importance to Autotrader’s products and services. Meeting these demands has meant engaging with the business early, working openly and constructively with regulators, and making internal changes to embed compliance in day-to-day operations. Alongside this, Mark personally negotiated several key strategic partnership contracts that will support Autotrader’s next stage of growth. Throughout, he has managed resources carefully and worked directly with colleagues at every level and in every part of the organisation, from the board to product, technology, commercial and customer-facing teams.

The most significant change within Mark’s team this year has been the rollout of Harvey AI across the legal function, which he initiated with the full support of Autotrader. He has taken a hands-on role in driving adoption – research, document review and first drafts are now completed much faster, which is beginning to lead to more time for the team’s lawyers to focus on judgement, strategy and supporting the business in more complex matters. Mark has made AI fluency a clear priority, with the aim of building on proven use cases to drive greater efficiency. His ambition is for the team to go beyond passive use and become builders and creators with the technology, designing their own workflows and solutions rather than simply consuming them.

What are the most important attributes of the modern GC and what advice would you give to those aspiring to be an in-house lawyer?

The modern GC needs commercial instinct as much as legal skill. The best in-house lawyers understand how their business makes money, what its customers care about, the importance of ‘doing the right thing’ and where the risks really sit, and they give advice the business can act on. Good judgement matters more than ever: the job is rarely to point out every possible risk, it is to say clearly which risks matter and how to manage them. A legal leader also needs curiosity, credibility with the business leaders and the confidence to have difficult conversations early.

My own route into the work I do now was not a straight line. I’ve worked in private practice and in-house, advising across a range of industries including videogames, sports, television, digital media and technology. Each move showed me that the sector you work in shapes the law you practise, and that understanding the product is essential.

My advice to aspiring in-house lawyers is to get a broad commercial grounding, to be genuinely interested in the business and not only the legal questions, and to build relationships across the organisation. Learn to write short, clear advice. Above all, become the person colleagues want in the room early, not the one they call at the last minute.

How do you use AI within your legal team to improve efficiency while maintaining quality, governance and integrity? How do you think AI will impact in-house legal functions more widely?

Autotrader is a technology-led business, so it makes sense for the legal team to adopt technology thoughtfully as well. We use AI to speed up first-pass contract review, summarise documents, draft initial versions of routine agreements and find information more quickly. This means more time for our lawyers to spend on judgement-heavy work and on supporting the business directly. As a team we are continuing to look for more ways of embedding AI into our daily life and enhancing our AI fluency beyond being passive users, to further drive efficiency.

However, governance matters as much as efficiency. A lawyer remains accountable for every output, confidential and personal data is handled only in approved, secure environments, and we are open with colleagues about where AI has been used. We treat AI as a capable assistant, not a decision-maker.

Across the profession, I expect AI to change the shape of in-house teams more than their size, with the role of lawyers being elevated in many cases. As routine tasks such as research, document review and first drafts are increasingly handled by technology, lawyers will be able to concentrate on what matters most: applying experience, judgement and a deep understanding of the business to add real strategic value. An AI-enabled world makes skilled lawyers more important than ever. AI can process information at speed, but it cannot replace the insight, context and commercial judgement that come from knowing an organisation, its people and its priorities. I see the lawyers of the future as business partners who use AI to sharpen their thinking and extend their impact, and who bring the perspective that turns information into sound business decisions.

Beyond your legal role, is there a cause or initiative you are especially passionate about?

There are many worthy causes and issues in the world right now, but social mobility and inclusion matter especially to me, particularly within the legal profession. My own background made it hard to enter the law, and that experience shapes how I work and how I approach recruitment. I want to make sure that talent and potential, not circumstance, decide who gets the opportunity to build a legal career. I’m proud that Autotrader has backed this commitment wholeheartedly, which allowed me to recruit a legal apprentice in 2022. With the support of my brilliant team, that apprentice is now on track to qualify as a solicitor in 2028, the first person at Autotrader to progress from apprentice to qualified solicitor. For me, that milestone shows what becomes possible when organisations open their doors more widely, and it’s a path I hope many more people will follow.