Natalie is a senior TMT lawyer qualified in Hong Kong and Australia. Before joining SmarTone as General Counsel, Natalie worked at top-notch international law firms and Fortune Global 100s, advising on some of the most high-profile and complex matters, including artificial intelligence (AI), e-commerce, regulatory investigations, competition and corporate transactions.

Natalie possesses a proven track record in strategic international market entry, having unlocked markets comprising over 1.5 billion consumers. Her achievements include securing groundbreaking e-commerce platform qualifications for Alibaba in South Korea and a landmark prepaid SIM distribution licence for SmarTone in Mainland China. Beyond market entry, Natalie has navigated complex Sino-Korean frictions, particularly during two national inquiries and high-profile antitrust investigations in South Korea.

Natalie has been at the forefront of AI by introducing a cutting-edge “hybrid human-AI collaboration” model that strategically pairs each human lawyer with at least one AI agent and accelerating adoption of Gen AI across legal operations. Under her visionary leadership, she led the legal team to vibe code and automate content reviews and the legal team was recognised as a finalist for the prestigious Financial Times Asia Pacific Innovative Lawyers in 2026. Notably, she won LexisNexis ELITE Award and is named LexisNexis 40 UNDER 40 for three consecutive years.

How has the role of General Counsel evolved in recent years, and where do you see GCs creating the most value today?

The role of General Counsel has evolved from traditional risk adviser to a strategic, multi-dimensional leader. Modern General Counsels create the most enterprise value by acting as pathfinders to unlock markets, tech enablers to increase speed to market and risk foreseers to pre-empt major risks in a complex and fast-changing global landscape.

AI is a gamechanger. Small teams can match the throughput of a Fortune 500 legal department by leveraging AI to deliver faster, higher-quality support that directly reduces time to market and drives competitive advantage. Looking ahead, I expect to increase the multiplier effect through AI–human collaboration, i.e. each human lawyer is upskilled to supervise AI agents and their output and focuses on high-value and business-critical work; and AI agents can seamlessly handle workflows and review tasks.

Given the complex and fast-changing landscape, international lawyers can turn each shift into opportunity and secure competitive advantage ahead of the market.