Team size: Seven

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

In periods of instability or crisis, my approach remains consistent with the examples above. I ensure a thorough command of the applicable law and engage specialists where required. I apply forensic discipline to facts and documents, translating complexity into advice that is commercially and strategically valuable. The value of the General Counsel lies not only in legal analysis, but in contextualising information through strategy, culture and institutional knowledge, so that Boards, executives and counsel receive practical insights. That translation is often the difference between escalation and resolution, and between losing and winning. Frequently, this equips me to achieve a win–win outcome, but it is equally effective in securing more wins than losses over time. The goal is always clear, though I remain adaptable in pursuing it.      

Based on your experiences in the past year, are there any trends in the legal or business world that you are keeping an eye on that you think other in-house lawyers should be mindful of?

Over the past year, I have noticed that many lawyers discuss AI with a degree of disdain, often stating quite proudly that they would never use it. I believe this starting point itself warrants reconsideration. When AI is viewed solely as a potential replacement for a lawyer or General Counsel, we immediately blind ourselves to its far more practical role as a tool.

A lawyer’s value extends well beyond research and drafting. It lies in the human ability to engage, understand nuance, exercise judgment, and respond with outcomes in mind rather than two-dimensional answers. Viewed through this lens, AI is not a threat. The more pertinent question is how AI can enhance our capacity for higher-order thinking.

For example, a General Counsel and Company Secretary might leverage AI through fully virtual statutory records or tools that can retrieve basic corporate information for the business without manual intervention. This, in turn, frees up time to focus on substantive matters such as assessing the merits of litigation or advising on strategy. Similarly, systems that automate reminders for meetings or dynamically manage and roll over board calendars could reclaim a significant amount of time for company secretaries.

AI is also not limited to tools like ChatGPT. It includes, for instance, digital notebooks that replicate the experience of writing on paper while seamlessly backing up information to the cloud. Evolution in this space is inevitable. The future leaders in the legal profession will be those who learn how to harness these tools to their advantage without compromising professional excellence or ethical standards.

What is a cause, business or otherwise, that you are passionate about? Why is this?   

I am passionate about reading. I believe that reading is a vital, empowering habit that shapes individuals, then families, then communities, then regions, and ultimately nations, directly linking literacy to ambition, understanding, and the ability to overcome self-sabotage. Once upon a time, mentorship, growth and knowledge could only be accessed by knowing certain people and having entry to exclusive spaces. Books are the great equaliser, whether by helping you dream — because research shows that you cannot be what you have never seen — or by helping you identify and manage self-sabotage, or teaching you how to show up. For each example, a book comes to mind. I encourage my team and mentees to read. The difference between those who adopt the habit and those who do not becomes apparent within a few months and compounds over the years.

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?    

Matters are handled in-house when they fall within our core competence, institutional knowledge and capacity, and when proximity to the business adds value. External legal services are engaged selectively for highly specialised matters, capacity constraints, jurisdiction-specific requirements, or where independence and credibility are critical, such as complex litigation, regulatory investigations, or material transactions.

We measure success primarily by the achievement of a sound outcome aligned with the company’s commercial and strategic objectives. In evaluating external counsel, we consider the quality and practicality of advice, including commercial acumen; historical performance; effectiveness in managing risk and delivering the desired outcome; responsiveness, accessibility and ability to operate as an extension of the in-house team; cost discipline and adherence to agreed budgets; originality and innovative thinking rather than a cookie-cutter approach; and the ability to anticipate issues and provide solutions rather than purely technical opinions.