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?

To effectively manage legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, we ensure that everyone is equipped to support each other across all relevant legal areas. By avoiding over-specialization, we prevent vulnerabilities and maintain a resilient team. Our legal strategy is closely aligned with the broader business strategy, ensuring coherence and unity in our approach.

Moreover, our unwavering purpose has always been to provide better sight and hearing for all, regardless of the crises the world faces. We are committed to maintaining this mission, adapting our strategies as needed to continue delivering essential services and support to our community.

What are the major cases or transactions you have been involved in recently?

The team has supported our leadership teams in Norway, Denmark and Sweden in recent years with the roll-out of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) machines across all stores. OCT machines are used by our optical experts to scan the back of our customers eyes and beyond, looking right back to the optic nerve. A layered image is created that gives us a very accurate picture of the eye and its structures, allowing us to check the health condition of the eye. The images are stored to allow us to note changes over time. There were many legal aspects to consider with this roll-out, including considerations within data protection law, health data regulations, marketing law and commercial law, which the legal team successfully supported with.

I have supported with Specsavers acquiring shares in The Norwegian Eye Health Clinic. This partnership allows us to establish a shared care model in Norway within the Ophthalmology sector. With this agreement, we’ll not only be able to help more people – but also to provide them with an even better service, and access to care to truly change lives through better sight.

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?

AI legal technology is set to have a major impact on the legal profession in the future. This shift will involve several key aspects, including the ability to control the quality and accuracy of content delivered, the transformation of traditional job roles, and the potential reduction in the need for lawyers. On the other hand, by harnessing AI, legal tasks can be performed more swiftly and with precision, ultimately improving the efficiency and effectiveness of legal services. We test new technology on an ongoing basis and make sure that AI is part of our everyday work on several aspects.