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 organisational resilience?

When things get unpredictable, my philosophy is that legal cannot operate in a vacuum. We cannot just hand down opinions from a distance; we have to roll up our sleeves and get deeply involved in operational decisions. For me, crisis management is entirely about anticipation. I try to look ahead at where the market or regulations are shifting so we can prepare long before a problem actually lands on our desk. To do this effectively, I make sure I am closely connected to our executive and leadership teams during any major transition. By tracking regulatory changes and economic pressures early on, we can build practical, pre-approved guidelines and contract templates. When a crisis does hit, the business does not have to wait days for legal clearance—they already have a safe, pre-vetted playbook to run with immediately.

Ultimately, true resilience means making sure legal advice supports where the business actually needs to go. I never want to be seen as a bottleneck or the “person who just says no, we cannot do it.” Instead, I work to understand our leadership’s actual risk appetite in real time. I adapt my strategy to match what management needs—whether that means speeding up contract approvals or finding creative, compliant workarounds. By keeping our legal framework practical and adaptable, I protect the business while helping it move quickly.

What do you see as the biggest challenge or opportunity for in-house legal teams in 2025, and how are you preparing for it?

For me, the conversation around generative AI is not just hype any more—it is the most significant shift that I am navigating. I see it as a massive opportunity, but only if I manage the transition carefully.

On the positive side, AI has the potential to handle a lot of our heavy lifting. When we use secure, dedicated tools for routine tasks—such as parsing through large volumes of contracts, running initial document checks, or carrying out basic regulatory look-ups—we save an incredible amount of time. My goal here is to take the repetitive work off my plate so that I can focus on what I actually enjoy and do best: negotiating and drafting complex deals, and solving problems that require real human judgement and empathy.

That said, the challenge of keeping our data safe is what keeps me up at night. If people across the company start plugging sensitive business information into public AI search engines without any oversight, we face real risks around data leaks, copyright issues, and simply relying on inaccurate or fabricated answers.

To tackle this, I am taking a very practical approach with the help of the Company. Internal, cross-functional groups have been created to review and approve any AI tools before business units adopt them. We are also actively testing and training on secure, professional-grade legal technology within our own department. I want to make sure I am not merely reacting to these changes, but that I am confidently leading the way in using them safely as well.