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

Being the legal lead in the country gives me extensive exposure to very interesting projects, not only domestically but also regionally, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate structuring and restructuring, compliance and data privacy matters, all with varying levels of complexity. One of the most recent projects involved the sale of a group of companies located in several jurisdictions and employing more than 500 people worldwide. It was a project encompassing numerous legal and taxation issues across different countries, which led to a great deal of brainstorming and many long working hours.

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

‘Embrace change with agility’ was one of Accenture’s mottos for a long time, and I truly believe in it. This, to me, is the quintessence of evolution. We cannot evolve without instability; we cannot grow, at times, without crisis. When you adopt this perspective—taking a step back to look at instability or crisis and recognise its potential—it becomes easier to respond effectively and help an organisation grow even further, becoming resilient to any crisis, whether imminent or unforeseen. This mindset, together with the team I have built over the years, has made me confident that managing any type of crisis is possible through honest conversations and by setting aside the notion of ‘impossible’. It is about finding solutions rather than merely pointing out issues or what could go wrong, as we lawyers sometimes have a tendency to do.

Have you had any experiences during your career as a lawyer that stand out as particularly unique or interesting?

Actually, the one thing that stayed with me over the years was that I was able to create the first international merger involving two countries in the European Union. For me, it was such an achievement to see that such a thing was actually possible that even now, after so many years, I remember it dearly.

What factors influence your team’s decision to use external legal services versus handling matters in-house, and what criteria are used to evaluate their performance?

We actually use outside counsel whenever possible. We generally prefer to use the same external counsel consistently. The reason for this is that, in doing so, the outside counsel also has the chance to get to know us, the way we operate, our values, our boundaries, and the level of risk acceptable to us. We have an agreed global outside counsel, but this is gradually changing because we need a more refined and customised solution for our local needs, which is sometimes difficult to achieve without the level of trust that can be built human to human, locally.

Looking forward, what trends do you foresee in the legal landscape over the next 5–10 years that companies should prepare for?

AI will still be the hype. We are trying to automate as much as possible and make our lives easier through its use. This will definitely not replace in-house or outside counsel; it will only enhance the level of support provided to companies and may also create space for better work–life balance for people in the legal world. At least, this is my hope.