Team size: 4

What are the key projects that you have been involved in over the past twelve months?

Gelato represents the world’s largest network of production and logistics partners and produces personalised products in 32 countries, reaching over five billion people. Gelato bolsters local economies and communities, providing technology that transforms global manufacturing from centralised mass production to local, on-demand production. With Gelato, items are only made when someone orders them, perfectly matching supply with demand and embracing local manufacturing. Instead of an item being made in China and shipped to a consumer in California, it will be made on demand locally in California, significantly cutting transportation emissions and eliminating the need for carbon-heavy shipping methods like air freight.

Over the past year, I’ve continued to lead the legal strategy behind Gelato’s growth as a SaaS company through Gelato Connect. This marks a fundamental addition to our business model, shifting from transaction-based platforms like Optimalprint and Gelato Create, to offering a scalable software solution directly to print production partners globally. The platform is now being rolled out to print production partners across over 30 countries, which has required ongoing development of MSA frameworks, service level agreements and data protection structures adapted to local requirements.

A growing focus has been on IP protection and content moderation. I initiated a cross-functional project to develop an AI-based content moderation tool for the platform, working with product, engineering and operations.

I’ve also been working on integrating AI into the legal and procurement function itself — building a Claude-based MSA assistant for contract review, developing standardised AI prompts, and creating a governance framework for how the team uses AI tools.

What do you think are the most important attributes for a modern in-house counsel?

For a modern in-house counsel — especially in the tech space — legal expertise is just the starting point. Today, we’re expected to be strategic partners, fluent in both the business and the technology that drives it.

Business acumen is one of the most important attributes: understanding the commercial landscape, product strategy, and growth levers of the company is essential to delivering relevant, actionable legal advice.

Technological fluency is also key, especially in a company like Gelato. Operating at the intersection of software and global production, legal must understand the tech stack — from SaaS architecture to data privacy and IP in digital environments. This year, that has increasingly meant understanding AI — both as a tool for the legal function and as a product feature that raises new legal questions.

Another essential attribute is strategic risk management: it’s not about saying “no” — it’s about finding paths forward, balancing opportunity and risk in a way that enables innovation.

Clear communication is also a necessary skill. Legal must be a translator — taking complex legal issues and breaking them down to simple terms for fast-moving product, tech, and commercial teams.

Integrity and ethical leadership are essential. Being a trusted voice in the room means leading with integrity, especially when the stakes are high or the path isn’t obvious.

As AI becomes increasingly integrated into legal teams, and the pressure grows to ‘do more with less’, how can GCs balance efficiency, quality and human judgement?

This is something we’ve been working through practically at Gelato over the past year. We’ve built AI tools into our daily workflow — for contract review, regulatory research and supplier due diligence — and the gains in speed and consistency have been real.

But AI doesn’t replace judgement on risk appetite, commercial context or stakeholder dynamics. The GC’s role is to know where to draw that line, and to build a culture where the team uses AI as a tool rather than a crutch. We’ve tried to do this by creating clear frameworks for when to use which tool, and by requiring human review on anything with material consequence.

The technology is moving faster than most legal departments can absorb, and getting it right takes experimentation and a practical mindset.