Parastatal organisation Sentech operates as the signal distributor for the South African broadcasting sector. Executive head of legal services Zunaid Adams leads a team of two lawyers overseeing its activities, with the help of a non-lawyer support staff.

The small team suits Adams, who says that ‘not having a bloated structure has proved beneficial in that personnel development has been tremendous. Each of the members has taken a core area as their prime responsibility and as a secondary responsibility learnt and got involved in other areas in the division as an enhancement of their legal knowledge and experience. At present I can safely say all my team members can comfortably handle and deal with every aspect of the work that the legal division is responsible for’.

The legal division has also taken steps to ensure its small size does not prevent employees from accessing legal expertise, chiefly by building a complete contract and property database that spans over 1,000 contracts and is accessible to all relevant divisions in the company. Adams and his team oversee all legal issues facing Sentech, including its complete insurance and property portfolio throughout South Africa.

The rapid pace of technological change in the telecoms and broadcasting space can make it difficult for a signal distributor to remain up-to-date, meaning all parts of the business – including the legal team – have to contribute ideas and expertise toward the operational and strategic vision of the company. The legal team has also taken a lead in addressing piracy and encryption issues with cross-border implications and has created new comprehensive digital customer agreements.

Adams defines the legal division as a one-stop-shop that acts not only as a bastion of legal knowledge, but which has to ‘utilise and mix it with commercial flair thus becoming a promoter of excellent service offering to both internal and external customers. I think all in-house legal counsel have to somehow embrace this concept as businesses will increasingly require it from us’.