Team size:  8

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

During a crisis, the legal team should operate under a streamlined and coordinated approach to ensure swift and compliant resolutions to emerging issues. A well-functioning legal team can contribute significantly to an organization’s resilience and stability. Key actions for a legal team to take into account include: ensuring that the legal team is involved in crisis preparedness initiatives. This includes participating in the creation and updating of crisis management and business continuity plan; continuing to take decisions on a timely manner. Legal teams should also regularly conduct risk assessments to identify potential legal risks that could arise during a crisis. Understanding these risks allows us to develop strategies to mitigate them effectively.

Teams should also define key priorities within the legal team and assign/delegate precise tasks; ensure that the company remains compliant with any changing regulations and laws, especially those specific to crisis situations; and ensure that all actions and decisions are well-documented during a crisis. This documentation can be critical in defending against potential legal challenges post-crisis.

The crisis or instability may prevent the company to comply with its contractual obligations with its clients or suppliers: the legal team will need to assess with the stakeholders any potential impact of the crisis or any potential claims on the company (including financial losses, reputational damage, and operational disruptions), negotiate for instance contract amendments and handling any potential disputes with suppliers or clients.

AI has been taken seriously as a potentially revolutionary technological change in the legal world for a number of years now. Has it had a meaningful impact in how your legal team works in this time?

Yes. We are using AI tools to perform legal research more quickly and accurately than ever before, providing lawyers with more precise information and relevant case laws. Such tools leverage natural language processing to understand legal questions and deliver relevant insights.

Our tools will shortly include the following AI components: automation of the contract review process by identifying key clauses and risks, ensuring consistency and compliance across documents; and the ability to flag potential issues in contracts that might need further legal scrutiny.

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?

When deciding whether to use external legal services or handle matters in-house, several factors influence the decision, and specific criteria are used to evaluate their performance. Here are the key considerations and criteria: if the legal issue is particularly complex or involves specialised expertise that the in-house team lacks; the risk involved with the legal matter may dictate the need for specialized external advice to mitigate potential liabilities; urgent matters that require immediate attention may necessitate external legal assistance to expedite processes; and the availability of in-house resources, including time and personnel, is critical. If the internal team is overloaded, outsourcing becomes a viable option.

Criteria for evaluating external legal services’ performance include efficiency: timeliness and quality of service delivery. Expertise is key: the level of expertise and specialisation the external lawyer brings to the topic is considered, as is cost management, as adherence to our budget and transparent billing practices is important. Communication – clarity, frequency, and effectiveness of communication with the in-house team – and outcome – the ability to deliver favorable outcomes or resolutions to legal issues – are also essential.

In any case, we need to regularly review and update criteria and benchmarks for evaluating legal services to align with evolving business needs.