Team size: 20

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

The biggest challenge I faced this year was transforming the legal function from a collection of individual contributors to a digitally linked and enabled team across the region and across the globe. This had to be accomplished against a backdrop of the tentative exit from the pandemic, cost restrictions and increasing demands for timely, cost-effective legal services – during a time of profound social change, that raised public expectations of large corporations.

This is an exciting time to be a general counsel; we can predict the impact social and economic changes will have on the legal framework under which the business operates and therefore act as a strategy advisor. As in-house counsel, we have a greater opportunity to work with communications and government departments to help the company navigate and respond to critical issues.

Lawyers tend to be averse to change. Therefore, to achieve transformation, it is necessary to clearly demonstrate the value to both the organisation and the lawyers. As a leader, we need to accept change and champion it by investing time and effort in correctly implementing chosen solutions. For the change to make a lasting difference, it is crucial to embed the change in business processes and demonstrate its success through measurement and dissemination of empirical data.

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

The most impactful technical advancements will be in artificial intelligence and data analysis, two related but ultimately different fields. A major challenge faced by legal teams in using data software is the lack of user friendliness – lawyers are not usually trained to use these tools. Hence, it can be difficult to make different silos of data work together, cross reference them and then translate relevant data into a story that clearly communicates the information. That is why it is crucial to have trained data analysts with legal knowledge. We have successfully used them to consolidate spending, FTE and workflow.

Artificial Intelligence has amazing potential for the delivery of in-house legal services. Analysing past legal data will enable AI to provide insights into future outcomes in areas relevant to in-house counsel, through predictive analytics. This may range from predicting the outcome of a court case by analysing past results of similar cases in various jurisdictions to even drafting documents, with an understanding of the process involved.

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

The IT industry is at the forefront of technical advancement and there is constant pressure to be more time and cost-efficient as IT services are constantly becoming commoditised. In-house legal needs to be able to make timely decisions, while acknowledging that all business decisions involve a degree of calculated and acceptable risk. At the same time, in-house counsel must also be able to recognise risks that are unacceptable because they have damaging downstream business effects. As the IT industry constantly develops, in-house counsel must be adaptable and farsighted, with an appetite for continuous learning. They should be respected as business decision makers and be clear communicators.