What are the most significant cases, projects, or transactions that you and your legal team have recently been involved in?

Over the past year, my work has spanned complex external engagements, internal legal transformation initiatives, and high-stakes regulatory and risk governance matters, reflecting the increasingly integrated role of in-house counsel.

Internally, I have been closely involved in a broader legal transformation program aimed at strengthening operational excellence and technology enablement within the legal function. As part of this effort, I actively supported the negotiation and pilot testing of an AI-enabled legal solution designed to automate and standardize contract review across frequently used agreements, ensuring alignment with internal policies and governance standards. In parallel, I designed and led a flagship internal initiative known as the “SOW Roadmap Agility”, for which I am the global owner. This initiative addressed a gap in how new statements of work and project contracts were assessed, particularly for complex engagements involving heightened risk factors. The roadmap is a visual, interactive tool that mirrors the standard intake form and translates it into a clear decision-making framework, providing step-by-step guidance on risk assessment, escalation paths, stakeholder involvement, required approvals, and key contractual focus areas. The pilot phase was successfully completed and endorsed by legal leadership, and the initiative has since become one of the most visible and positively regarded projects within the legal department. It has been identified as a priority for full rollout in the first half of 2026 and was a meaningful contributor to my 2025 performance evaluation.

In addition, I volunteered to participate in a global risk and compliance initiative focused on aligning legacy and ongoing project deliverables with U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) requirements and the firm’s related obligations in the coming years. Working alongside a small group of senior legal leaders, I contribute to the review of high-risk project deliverables classified as Tier 1 due to their complexity and potential regulatory sensitivity. My role involves assessing whether project outputs could be characterized as material recommendations under applicable standards and supporting the preparation of formal internal memoranda submitted to the global risk committee for second-level review. This work informs governance decision-making and the firm’s coordinated response to DOJ-related requirements and requires the exercise of careful legal judgment in highly sensitive and confidential contexts.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

Periods of instability require the legal function to evolve beyond a reactive or purely technical role. In my experience, organizational resilience depends on the ability of in-house counsel to act as a forward-looking business partner, anticipating risk, enabling informed decision-making, and helping the organization adapt quickly while maintaining legal, ethical, and regulatory standards.

Over the past year, I have seen my role evolve significantly in response to these demands. Supporting the business during moments of uncertainty has required strengthening skills beyond traditional legal analysis, including risk prioritization, regulatory interpretation, stakeholder management, and the ability to translate complex obligations into clear, practical guidance. A key shift in my approach has been moving from remediation to prevention, focusing on identifying potential risks early and embedding legal judgment into decision-making before issues escalate.

I am currently operating fully immersed in this type of environment, which has reinforced the evolving nature of the legal function within the organization. In practice, this means that our role extends beyond risk identification to active participation in business decision-making. Legal is increasingly expected to act as a decision enabler, providing clear, objective assessments of risk and viable paths forward, while ensuring that legal rigor does not disrupt the regular course of business. This requires the ability to anticipate issues, take informed decisions, and support execution under time and commercial pressure.

A concrete example of this approach has been my work during the period following the firm’s global settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice. In practice, this has meant operating in an environment of sustained regulatory oversight, where legal judgment plays a more central role in shaping business decisions. This period has materially transformed the legal function within the organization, as well as the way our partners and consultants, who are the firm’s primary stakeholders and business enablers, engage with legal and risk considerations.

In this context, my role has involved supporting the reassessment of sensitive projects and deliverables, helping identify potential risk indicators at an early stage, and ensuring that matters involving heightened exposure are escalated through the appropriate governance channels. This work has taken place alongside a broader strengthening of compliance frameworks, governance processes, and internal policies, aimed at reducing the risk of control bypass and ensuring transparency around sensitive activities and formal recommendations.

Overall, navigating this period has reinforced my view that legal resilience is built through anticipation, clarity, and close alignment with the business. These principles now underpin how I approach my role both in moments of instability and in day-to-day legal support, with the objective of strengthening the organization’s long-term resilience, credibility, and trust.