What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

We support the company’s aim to consistently maintain profitability and streamline business operations to ensure optimum efficiencies across the Media Prima Group of Companies and serve our clientele better.

Transactions in the past year include entertainment content license contracts with global OTT players, restructuring or renegotiation of long-term contracts to reflect current business, and management of dispute resolution involving defamation and contractual claims, among others.

Additionally, the department’s regulatory affairs function manages and liaises with key regulators such as the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.

A key initiative we have participated in is organising legal and regulatory awareness sessions or masterclasses throughout the year, specifically designed for our media practitioners and business partners.

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?

When I joined Media Prima, I aimed to:

Enhance the efficiency of legal work and processes

Reshape the legal department’s culture and thought processes

Bridge the communication gap between the management of the company, its subsidiaries, and the legal department.

This involved a lot of rethinking, strategizing and subsequently, implementing systems and initiatives – which required teamwork, commitment, and consistency. I am very grateful that the team believed in the goals that were set and is still on track to consistently value add to the company’s aspirations.

What are some of your main tips for dealing with a crisis?

There is no one right formula to this. However, here are some of teachings I rely on during crisis management:

DO NOT PANIC!

Understand the issues and people surrounding the crisis.

Gather information from all available sources.

Have camera vision – assess the crisis and information from all sides.

Be the devil’s advocate.

Map out thoughts and scenarios to paint a clearer picture of what you are up against.

Be prepared – have back-up plans.

Be patient.

As we enter the next decade, what skills will a corporate legal team need to succeed in the modern in-house industry?

Apart from being agile and quick to adapt to changes, emotional intelligence, creative problem-solving skills, and commercial awareness are fundamental skills to possess.

While the future environment revolves around digital innovations like automation and AI, I believe that the human touch will continue be paramount to the success of a legal team.

The ability to manage a crisis, negotiate effectively, manage difficult people, regulate thoughts and emotions in a stressful environment, think innovatively to provide optimum legal solutions, and ensure the legal team and processes remain relevant and sustainable – and require the aforementioned fundamental skills to work in symphony.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners?

Through meaningful engagements. From my experience, this forges trust, and you will be able to read your business partners through conversations. I am an advocate for positioning in-house lawyers as confidants to business partners.

What is equally important is for in-house lawyers to do good, efficient, and consistent work with excellent service levels. This is key to establishing performance currency, which in turn, will position in-house lawyers to be valuable assets to business partners and the company.

What are some of the main legislative or regulatory changes that have impacted you?

The recent Employment (Amendment) Act 2022 in Malaysia has certainly made us rethink how we conduct ourselves in the HR landscape and how we contract with individuals as independent contractors.

Apart from that, for a media company, recent court decision trends in certain defamation cases on the quantum of damages have made us rethink how we manage our risks and exposures in reporting the news and stories.