Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense? 

In the last year and a half, the legal department has focused on trying to educate and provide its internal stakeholders with tools that promote their independence. For example, the use of daily legal tools. Since the company underwent significant restructuring in previous years, there have been many junior entrants into key areas of the company, from marketing to sales to the cross-functional digital team. As a result, the legal team felt the need to assist by providing more customised contract templates. 

These various stakeholders, as we are an international group and work primarily in both English and Italian, could provide colleagues with a tool to be more responsive to the needs of their clients. This is certainly a tool that we conceived from scratch as a legal team, involving stakeholders at very low cost because we developed it fully internally. There was a joint decision to proceed in this direction with the top executives of the various functions involved. The templates were written with their input; we included all the legal and compliance aspects, but we listened to the business’s needs that they wanted to reflect in the contracts. This made it somewhat the standard for those specific activities requiring contracts, primarily related to content production services and copyright-related contractual matters. 

Managing rights in the assignment of work has certainly been a project we are proud of because the result has been a lightening of our workload and improved performance of our internal stakeholders, who are now more self-sufficient. 

Can you foresee any key developments to the way general counsel work over the next five years? 

For years, the general counsel has been seen as a partner. In my opinion, this partnership between the legal function and management and business functions will become even more entrenched in the future. This is mainly because, at least in our group, legal and compliance are becoming increasingly intricate and complex. Individuals in management and business roles, aside from lacking the expertise to address these complexities, also lack the time. Therefore, I believe the role of the general counsel is destined to further evolve into a business partner who translates the new, increasingly stringent compliance standards and regulations. 

Furthermore, these regulations are often supranational, primarily of European origin, which each country is required to implement. 

So, the general counsel, once again, no longer behaves as an external consultant with legal expertise who simply applies the law. Instead, they become experts who understand their own corporate reality and are knowledgeable about legislative requirements. They translate these requirements internally in a sustainable manner, aiming to create added value rather than being viewed as a cost or a problem.
How do you prioritise diversity and inclusion within your legal department, and what initiatives have you implemented to foster a more inclusive and equitable work environment? 

I contributed as a founding partner to establish the Diversity and Inclusion team in Italy, which did not exist before. I am very pleased and proud of this. The team is composed of several individuals, and I simply volunteered to set it up. However, there was a positive response from other colleagues who immediately stepped forward. We set some goals — this year, in addition to its formation and the launch of certain activities, we partnered with the Volunteers Association for a day of volunteering entirely dedicated to a charity that supports women in their reintegration into the workforce. These are women who, for personal or professional reasons, have found themselves outside the job market and need to reintegrate. However, they face significant challenges because they have been out of the job market for years.  

We also focused on gender diversity and sought to infuse various departments with content that we typically generate. Since we are a publishing company, we mostly produce content related to the female universe, and we aimed to raise awareness and promote the development of these topics. We also engaged in volunteer activities and other initiatives aimed at promoting a more inclusive language. Developing greater awareness of language that is as inclusive as possible in our daily lives. 

So, coming back to the topic of the legal team, it is about thinking a bit outside the box and going beyond the traditional categories of a lawyer but putting them in the service of a very important area that is not  entirely legal but, in fact, needs to be influenced by other functions.