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?

An in-house lawyer’s role is critical during periods of instability or crisis as this is when the business looks to their trusted legal advisors to dissect and untangle a complex situation, prioritise the matters which need to be tackled first and identify the crux of the problems at hand so that together with business an appropriate and effective solution could be developed.

While we are very proud of our 250 years history in fine art auction, Christie’s continues to evolve and offer new services to our clients.  To name a few, we were one of the pioneers to offer an online only auction platform and the first to offer NFTs to our clients globally and in Asia.  Christie’s legal team will always be proactive in supporting or taking the lead in exploring the feasibility of these new business initiatives as well as producing the business guidelines and legal documentations needed.

Collectors buy and sell valuable and exquisite art and luxurious items through Christie’s because they trust Christie’s expertise, professionalism and reputation.  In order to maintain this trust, legal and compliance strategies play an instrumental role as the trust is based on having a robust due diligence process which verifies ownership, provenance and authenticity, a transparent auction platform with clear terms and conditions and corporate policies which guide the operations of the full range of transactional activities and provide our clients a consistent client experience.

We also send our lawyers to attend trainings which help build their business knowledge and communication, crisis management as well as management skills.  This will ensure our lawyers build business acumen and give legal advice which takes into account the laws and regulations, the latest global environment and business needs.  They will also be able to conduct internal trainings to our business team with the goal that everyone is aligned with the company’s best practice to minimise misalignment. 

Do you have a cause, business-related or otherwise, that you are passionate about?

Being a lawyer, a woman and someone who has lived overseas, I am keen to see the workplace provides an inclusive and level playing field to both men and women.  Since 2018, I started to get involve in Christie’s global gender pay gap committee.  Since then, Christie’s continues in their effort in developing a responsible culture and since 2021, I co-chair the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee for Christie’s in APAC.  Our committee helps facilitate conversations which encourage a more inclusive and supportive work environment as well as helping Christie’s to identify good causes in APAC which it can participate in promoting Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Our mission is to use our position in the art market as a positive force and strive to manage our people and practices responsibly to leave a positive, enduring impact on society, and to enhance the communities in which we live and work through cultural stewardship and arts advocacy. 

In the last few years, our APAC ED&I committee continues to grow and evolve, and we have been very successful in recruiting colleagues from different teams to participate in our ED&I activities or be involved as a member of APAC ED&I committee or even be the champions of the ED&I initiatives.  This has really helped incubate new ideas and expand the diversity within the ED&I committee and ensure the causes we champion stay relevant to our colleagues and the APAC region.  We have also involved all our regional offices in our ED&I initiatives and most recently we have collaborated with The Indonesia Autism Foundation Partnership in which we granted an award to 3 young inspiring Indonesia artists who demonstrated amazing talents.  In addition, we have put the representative works of these artists in Christie’s in-house charity auction to generate more funding to support these talented artists.

How do you balance being a legal risk manager with being a strategic business enabler, and where do you see the biggest tensions?

Besides being the expert in law, a legal risk manager must also be curious and interested about the company’s business.  It will also be immensely important for a legal risk manager to get to know their counterparts in business and internal clients.  When everyone is clear about the company’s objectives and has a strong professional relationship, there will be a common interest to find an acceptable business solution.  Furthermore, being transparent and consistent will also help colleagues to understand and accept the solution.