Team size: 35

Based on your experience, what is the key to collaborating successfully with business partners?

As Chief legal counsel, the key to successfully collaborating with business partners lies in balancing legal risk management with business objectives. Based on my experience, here are some critical elements:

1. Understanding the business strategy: the legal department should not operate in a silo. Deep knowledge of the company’s goals, market position, and risk tolerance enables legal to provide strategic, solutions-oriented advice rather than just flagging risks.

2. Early involvement in decision-making:  this prevents last-minute rushes and allows for proactive risk mitigation, ensuring smoother execution of business initiatives.

3. Collaboration, building relationships and trust: the legal team should be seen as a partner rather than an obstacle. Approaching issues with a problem-solving mindset enhances credibility and fosters a culture of cooperation. Moreover, empowering business partners with legal knowledge, through training or guidelines, helps them make informed decisions and reduces unnecessary escalations.

4. Risk-based approach:  prioritising high-impact legal risks while allowing for reasonable business risk-taking fosters trust and efficiency in decision-making.

Which political, economic or regulatory changes have impacted your work the most in the past year?

As a Chief legal officer of a banking and financial group based in Morocco, and present in more than 25 countries through its subsidiaries and representation offices, I can say that the financial and banking industry has been really challenging over the past few years due to the complex regulatory environment, high compliance risks, and the speed at which financial markets evolve in Morocco and worldwide. In this sense, I would like to mention, on the one hand, AI as a game-changer for legal efficiency, compliance and risk mitigation. The issue is about determining, as a Chief legal officer, AI’s ultimate role in order to evolve the banking legal department in the right way with lawyers becoming AI-enhanced advisors.