Head of legal, Copenhagen and Oslo | Euronext Securities
Anne Kaas Hammer
Head of legal, Copenhagen and Oslo | Euronext Securities
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?
I am aware that a good Head of Legal can help transform challenges arising from instability or crises into opportunities that positively impact the bottom line, while also remaining vigilant about how such crises may reshape the regulatory landscape governing our business. It is crucial to think ahead and prepare for potential regulatory demands that could influence both ongoing operations and future planned projects.
First and foremost, I have raised the issue at management level to ensure that all managers are aware of the changes ahead and understand their significance. It is vital that everyone recognises the importance of the evolving threat landscape and its potential impact on our business and operations.
Within my own area of responsibility, I have thoroughly examined the potential consequences of this shifting landscape, both for existing operations and for future business. With respect to current services, for example, customers are increasingly raising demands in connection with the implementation of the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), often seeking measures that go beyond the strict legal requirements. By ensuring that the product owner and sales team are well-informed about the regulation, they are better equipped to respond in negotiations and offer the additional layer of ‘protection’ that customers are looking for, thereby enhancing trust and satisfaction.
Looking to ongoing and future projects, it is essential to assess whether the changed threat landscape might prompt regulators to scrutinise certain aspects of outsourcing more closely. At the same time, we must anticipate potential regulatory demands that are not yet fully visible. This proactive approach enables us to stay ahead of new requirements and ensure continued compliance.
What are the major cases or transactions you have been involved in recently?
Instead of mentioning one or two cases, I take the liberty to point out that throughout the year 2024, Legal has been involved in several cases where the team’s business-oriented advice has been appreciated and valued. The Euronext Group Strategy 2022–2024, Growth for Impact 2024, contains an ambition of ‘Pan-Europeanising the Euronext CSDs’. As part of this ambition, various ‘must-do initiatives’ related to harmonisation have been rolled out. Quite a few of these initiatives have been difficult, both from a commercial and legal perspective.
In a busy year, it has been important to utilise our various competences within the team in an optimal manner. I have not always been able to evenly distribute praise, recognition, and involvement in high-priority cases. However, I have addressed this transparently and have succeeded in turning it into something positive. I believe each team member feels they have contributed and played an important role. We have worked on admitting mistakes and learning from them. This was also evident in the project mentioned above. We were not sufficiently proactive in the drafting of the rulebook. We acknowledged the error and got back on track. We succeeded and received great praise from internal stakeholders.
In a busy time, I have made an effort to ensure that all team members feel empowered and use that empowerment, and today, I believe that everyone in the team feels they are allowed to act without consulting me.
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?
I am striving to create the ‘in-house legal department of tomorrow.’ This vision means that assistance from Legal should exceed expectations, making Legal the preferred business partner. The advice from Legal should contribute to bringing the business solution to a higher level. This happens when the legal adviser is able to combine business understanding, strategic thinking, and regulatory expertise. Legal must contribute to enhancing execution power.
Traditionally, Legal is perceived as a delaying factor. This perception may indeed be true, and as a result, in some companies, the business tries to avoid involving the legal department. While Legal has always been able to address this issue, there is now a tool that can help mitigate the perception of Legal as a delaying stakeholder: AI (such as ChatGPT, Copilot, and similar tools).
In my legal department, we are fully focused on practising the use of AI and constantly finding new ways the tool can assist us in providing legal advice. We collaborate and share insights on how to use AI, and whenever we discover new methods to streamline our work with AI, we share them among ourselves. From my perspective, an internal legal department cannot survive without utilising AI.
Over the past 20 years, in-house lawyers have transitioned from dictating their responses to typing them out on computers, and now we are moving towards having the computer draft the responses for us.
This raises the question: Do in-house lawyers still have a role? Absolutely! AI provides us with the opportunity to spend more time contributing as preferred business partners, rather than spending hours behind a screen drafting the perfect clause for a contract. Only the old-fashioned lawyers left behind on the station fail to see AI as an opportunity!
Head of legal, Copenhagen and Oslo | Euronext Securities
