Team size: Six

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

I approach crisis management by focusing on governance, risk prioritisation, and stakeholder engagement.

During periods of instability, my role is to help the business make informed decisions under pressure while protecting people, maintaining compliance, and preserving the organisation’s reputation. I ensure clear decision-making and escalation processes are in place, quickly identify the most critical legal, regulatory, operational, and reputational risks, and work closely with leadership and cross-functional teams to develop practical solutions.

I also place significant emphasis on transparent and consistent communications with regulators, employees, communities, and other stakeholders, recognising that an organisation’s response is often as important as the event itself. Finally, I focus on business continuity and lessons learned, ensuring that the company emerges from the crisis stronger and better prepared for future challenges.

What factors influence your team’s decision to use external legal services versus handling matters in-house, and what criteria are used to evaluate their performance?

Our philosophy is to keep strategic knowledge and day-to-day business partnering in-house, while leveraging external counsel for matters that require highly specialised expertise, additional capacity, or independent advice.

The key factors influencing that decision include the complexity and novelty of the matter, jurisdiction-specific requirements, potential financial or reputational exposure, resource availability, and whether external advisers can deliver specialist expertise more efficiently than developing it internally.

We evaluate external counsel not only on technical legal excellence, but also on their commercial judgment and ability to act as trusted business advisers. Key performance criteria include responsiveness, quality and practicality of advice, understanding of our business and risk appetite, cost efficiency, project management, and their ability to help us achieve business objectives while effectively managing legal risk.

Ultimately, we view our external firms as strategic partners and expect them to provide solutions that are legally sound, commercially pragmatic, and aligned with the long-term interests of the business.