How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?
In first place, Legal has to be deeply integrated with the business strategy and the context in which the Company operates. An efficient legal management requires understanding the political, social and economic aspects of our business and anticipating regulatory changes. The goal is to anticipate and mitigate legal risks to protect the company’s assets, reputation, and continuity, rather than simply reacting to issues as they appear.
This requires 1) a comprehensive risk analysis of the context and counterparties (suppliers and clients) to identify areas that require special attention, 2) a clear and deep understanding of our business, our client’s and suppliers’ needs and expectations and 3) A robust and adaptable legal framework, that involves building resilience into the organization’s legal foundation before a crisis hits. This means having strong contractual protections, including well-defined force majeure, hardship, and termination clauses. We must also ensure corporate governance is sound, with clear protocols for decision-making under pressure and defined responsibilities for management and the board
What emerging technologies do you see as having the most significant impact on the legal profession in the near future, and how do you stay updated on these developments?
Without a doubt, generative AI is changing the way we work on a daily basis. Not only for contract review and drafting, but also applied to risk analysis, negotiation and anticipation of litigation. We have implemented several of these tools and have seen a significant impact on the service we provide to the organization. These initiatives will scale to have a major impact in the short term. As lawyers, it is our duty and obligation to comprehensively understand and apply AI within our workspace, but also understand how other areas of the company interact and use AI to anticipate and mitigate risks that may impact the company’s reputation or assets.
We dedicate a significant amount of time to understand, research and learn about AI and how we can use it for our benefit, and for the benefit of our company. Without this decided dedication and the support of the Company, it is not possible to keep up with the accelerated development of AI applied to the legal field.
