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?  

Since joining PwC, I have sought to enhance the legal team’s efficiency in order to optimise productivity while maximising our collective potential for growth and development. To accomplish this, we have reorganised the legal function to break silos wherever possible and to enable a more integrated approach. Instead of focusing on a single practice area and working within tight verticals, we instead began working (and thinking) more laterally. Team members who previously had limited contact with each other now started to collaborate and share knowledge on a regular basis.  

To some extent, this has meant venturing out of one’s comfort zone, but the results have been inspiring: litigators who might normally shy away from contract review find that their real-world experience is key to pinpointing whether a clause is truly high-risk, transactional lawyers with excellent drafting skills but less exposure to court pleadings make invaluable contributions through their precise articulation of legal arguments, and so on. This cross-pollination has been key to unleashing our full potential as well-rounded lawyers while ensuring that we grow together as a community and never stop learning.  

How do you balance your responsibilities as a GC with your involvement in dispute resolution and M&A matters?  

We are very fortunate to have within the legal function extremely strong and vibrant teams with deep experience in disputes and corporate matters. Their expertise has proved invaluable in helping to expand the business through a number of acquisitions (particularly in the tech sector), while also maintaining that growth trajectory by protecting the firm’s rights in court. 

Beyond skill, however, it is critical that we remain cognizant of the delicate balance that we must strike between acting as both guardian and partner. This means that although it is our job to minimise legal risks, we must also maximise business opportunities.  

Against that backdrop, my role as general counsel is to ensure that our team members enjoy a high degree of autonomy and flexibility so that they have the space needed to be nimble and creative. At the same time, my ultimate job is to be there with them at key moments, either to be consulted on a decision to be taken or – perhaps more important – because an obstacle needs to be cleared from their path. Overall, my mission is to help the team achieve the firm’s objectives, while remaining supportive and accountable, rather than to tell them what to do.  

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?  

Creating and maintaining a diverse and inclusive working environment is absolutely vital. Doing so is not only reflective of PwC’s values but also a way of honouring the rich cultural tapestry that we see throughout the Middle East. I am very proud to be working alongside colleagues of different national and ethnic backgrounds, all with their own life experiences, faiths, and perspectives, in a safe and communal atmosphere that enables each of us to have a unique identity while ensuring that all of us share a common identity. 

Achieving a harmonious balance is not only the right thing to do, it is also the smart thing to do: by having a diverse team where everyone is comfortable sharing their point of view and we are all empowered to give voice to our concerns as well as our ideas, we create the conditions for arriving at higher-quality legal and business decisions. Otherwise, we risk being unable to recognise our blind spots and fall prey to “groupthink” at the ultimate expense of our client as well as the common good.