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

Based on my past 20 odd years’ experience as general counsel, corporate secretary and government relations, the legal team that I have been a part or led, have participant in significant project such as:

– Divestment of one of the biggest composites (conventional life, general insurance and takaful business) integration in Malaysia’s most recent history with the ING insurance and takaful business integration with AIA some 10 years back,

– Integral member of one of South-east Asia’s largest regional insurance/takaful operator’s entry into Cambodia’s general and life insurance businesses (separate licensed entities -incorporation and regulatory applications)

– Involved in several past corporate exercise involving regional capital/shareholder restructuring initiatives/bancassurance/merger/acquisition proposals in Southeast Asia countries.

– Negotiations with financial regulators in several SEA jurisdictions, shareholders, business counterparties relating to the above.

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?

Internal contract management processes for a regional entity, several corporate governance related initiatives to manage regulatory compliance with governance expectations for trainings programs and talent pool of potential director candidates.

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

First and foremost remaining calm, identifying issues clearly and concisely what needs to be dealt with, in what level of urgency and in what order of importance or urgency. Also, what stakeholders need to be involved, why and when. Always being clear in terms of SMART (specific, measured, action based, realistic and time based) when executing a strategy to address a crisis, so nothing pertinent is missed out.

How do you see the general counsel role evolving in Malaysia over the next five-ten years?

General counsels will need to embrace agility to expand beyond classic GC roles to remain relevant value adding members of senior management:

– a general counsel needs to wear many hats at once e.g., as a financial industry general counsel – expanding skill sets to develop expertise as compliance, corporate secretarial, corporate governance, government relations and operational risk expert.

– it always is an asset to be as tech savvy as possible, if you have the agility to master simple coding/programming skills like Python or SQL go for it. Embedding this skill sets early in your team especially the younger generation.

– as general counsel, your evolving leadership skills need continuous harnessing and “sharpening of the saw”.

– ESG and DEIB (diversity equity inclusion and belonging) intelligence and centricity will increasingly be important agendas that are embedded into our roles and expectations from the stakeholders from us as general counsels will continue to evolve and gain traction in these areas.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most?

There are many facets to tech advancements:

– advisory aspects of legal/compliance/regulatory work: New and innovative AI “toys” will continue to evolve and disrupt how the world of commerce functions such as ChatGPT (in terms of making many aspects of traditional in-house support redundant, automated, predictive leaving in-house GCs to operate only on very diverse complex nuanced areas and with increasingly thin layers of internal team support.

– investigative legal work, through the continued use of predictive models aids better quality detection and ability to assist organisations to mitigate potential risks of fraudulent conducts which in turn assist legal teams to better manage potential cases, be it in preventing or managing the evidential trail for better outcome of disputes generally, legal action or legal suits.

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

Continue to have the value adding “how can I help attitude”, proactively anticipate and understand issues relating to the business of your organization, always improve your own knowledge to aid, simplify the legal and compliance complexities of your business for your stakeholders, and always be an ally to your business to guide hand hold coach and mentor as needed.