Team size: Nine

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?

CCB International (Holdings) Limited (“CCBI”) is the financial and investment arms of China Construction Bank (Stock Code: 939) and is a full-fledged financial services platform. Apart from its home base in the mainland and its headquarters in Hong Kong, CCBI has subsidiaries in world financial centres such as Singapore and London.

During periods of instability or crises, managing legal aspects proactively is crucial for our legal team in order to allow businesses to navigate successfully. We are cautious of keeping legal fees under control while maintaining quality legal services in a risk-controlled and legally compliant manner. To do so. we strive to go beyond mitigating legal risk and step into the shoes of our business and become their strategic partner in order to support the wider objectives of our businesses. In addition, we are committed to build strong relationships with external legal advisors so as to provide us with insights on industry-specific legal challenges. We also need to regularly revisit our legal strategy to ensure it remains aligned with the evolving business needs. Apart from that, we regularly conduct thorough review, gather feedbacks from stakeholders as well as maintain detailed records of decisions making process. 

Given the rapid changes in market trends, regulatory focus and technology, we need to stay abreast of the changing regulations and laws so as to identify potential legal risk and compliance issues and assess how these factors will impact our business operations and legal obligations. During challenging times, legal team plays an even more vital role within the bank to ensure we continuously and proactively assess the situation to allow business to achieve sustainability and resilience. Keep an open mind, be adaptive and receptive to changes, new ideas and technologies are our strategies and all our team members are dedicated to continuously support our organisation in a most cost effective way.

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

In my view, rapid advancement of technology and its implications for legal practices is likely to be one of the biggest challenges for in-house legal teams in 2025. This includes the increasing use of artificial intelligence and automation in legal processes, which enhances efficiency but at the same time also poses challenges in terms of ethical considerations, compliance, and the need for continuous skill development.

In order to prepare for these challenges, our strategies include upskilling and collaboration with our IT and business units. To do so, in-house legal teams should invest in training programs to enhance understanding of legal tech, data privacy, and compliance issues related to AI and automation. At the same time, cultivating strong partnerships with IT and other business units can facilitate smoother technology integration and alignment with business goals. Apart from that, building and retaining exceptional legal team with extraordinary people are also our goal. Internally, re-deploy, re-tasked and re-skilled is necessary. Moving away from specialisms to a more fungible legal resource pool of competent and adaptable lawyers and supporting staff. Externally, revisiting vendor selection process and panel sise. Vendor management is essential to ensure that the use of outside counsel is effectively policed.  By embracing and preparing for the challenges, we are confident that in-house legal teams can enhance our value in the evolving legal landscape.