Team size: Four

What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

The number one challenge over the past year has been trying to navigate the brave new post-Covid paradigm. We have had a workforce that has done an amazing task of bringing our business out the other side of the pandemic and they have lived through an incredibly stressful times in dealing with multiple lockdowns and restrictions on their freedoms. Our number one asset are our people and we have focused on supporting their needs in a world where we have moved out of lockdowns. We cannot forget what our team has been through, and we have doubled down on our efforts to support our staff in adapting to getting back to life. We have broadened out our EAP, provided additional managerial assistance, extended our flexible work policy and the result is a more engaged and satisfied workforce that has greater flexibility in the way in which they work than ever before. We have managed to turn a business risk into a culture of support and encouragement of our employees, which has led to greater improvements in productivity and employee well-being.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most?

I am seeing automation used more and more for easier, more routine repetitive legal tasks, such as NDAs, forms, and simple contract reviews. This has led to significant gains in productivity where in-house teams can focus on matters where they add true value. Automation is also completely transforming compliance. Tasks that used to take multiple people days to administer can easily be automated. But this revolution in automation has not seen the role of in-house counsel diminish. Far from it. The freeing up of in-house counsel has given them more time to assist the business in ways where they can truly add value.

What would you say are the unique qualities required to be successful as an in-house lawyer in your industry?

Adaptability is the number one unique quality to be able to succeed as an in-house lawyer within the insurance industry. You need to be a jack of all trades and master of them all. You need to be able to advise the board on everything from M&A transactions to employment disputes and guide the business through complex legal processes and issues. You are the organisation’s trusted adviser, and they lean on you to help simplify the often overly complex legal minefields of commercial transactions and ensure that the decisions that they make in running the business are both legally sound and commercial. There needs to be a healthy dose of commerciality and the recognition that risk is a normal part of doing business. Or role is to help mitigate that risk, often through our negotiation skills, our willingness to employ alternative dispute resolution and commercial drafting.