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 my tenure as general counsel my role has evolved from focusing on mainly legal aspects, such as establishing our contractual framework and ensuring regulatory compliance, to a broader vision of establishing and maintaining a mutually beneficial relationship between the company and all its stakeholders, focusing on navigating legal and reputational risks. This mission and vision encompasses a wide array of tasks that range from leading our Crises Committee to ensure our resilience when faced with adverse situations or to successfully overcome crises, to serving as the main point of contact with governmental agencies, professional associations, educational institutions and NGOs that align with our organisations strategic goals.

How does your team contribute to the overall business strategy of the company? Can you share an example of a recent legal-led initiative that had a significant impact?

From our perspective, the role of an in-house legal team must serve as business partner and facilitator of its business’s practices, with a strong focus on spearheading or supporting initiatives aligned with its Environmental, Sustainability and Governance practices, thus driving and ensuring a lasting relationship with all stakeholders. Assuming your role of counsel from this perspective will allow the business to thrive whilst breaking away from the common misconception that counsels are referees or that legal is just the field where innovation dies. Our focus must always be that of ensuring all initiatives -that must of course comply with applicable laws and regulations- come to fruition, hence contributing to the company’s growth.

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?

It is currently impossible to not delve into Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its applications in the legal field, which allow us to better address repetitive tasks, filings and reports in an efficient and timely manner. We are currently looking at software that allows us to set up a legal helpdesk with automated and intuitive responses, to offer a quick answer to the most common inquiries of our internal departments, to focus our efforts on those more complicated tasks in order to better serve our organization.