What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Lloyd’s Register has divested aspects of its business over the last few years, including the energy and management system and inspection side, making it a busy time. My team and I have been coordinating the Asia and MEA aspects of this, including setting up entities in various jurisdictions, share and asset transfers, lease transfers, employee transfers and compliance.

Considering the company’s primary focus on marine, two major themes for the business are digitalisation and decarbonisation. On the decarbonisation side I have advised on the Silk Alliance MoU, which is an initiative to accelerate decarbonisation in the marine sector focusing on the creating a green corridor cluster, for the development and construction of the world’s first deep sea-going Ammonia fuelled tanker by 2025. On the digitalisation side we have been guiding the business on the use of company’s terms and conditions in the various customer platforms in a way that is easy to use for clients, and straightforward for the business.

Additionally, the team has been leading efforts on anti-bribery and corruption compliance within the area, with a particular focus on training, gifts and hospitality, internal investigations, whistleblowing, and due diligence.

Did the pandemic lead to a lasting increase in the interaction your legal team has with the strategic plans of the company?

The pandemic allowed the team to add value and have a greater presence and visibility in areas outside of the traditional legal ones. For example, I sit on the silver team, which advises on responses to the pandemic within the Asia-MEA region, including aspects such as working from home, mindfulness, mental wellbeing and work-life balance. On this theme, our legal teams have had regular catch-up chats where we check-in to ensure that everyone in the team is doing well.

As we enter the next decade, what skills will a corporate legal team need to succeed in the modern in-house industry?

Understanding the business will always be a key focus as we need to understand the complete settings of our industry. It’s also important to be conversant on the finance side of things, and familiar with financial statements and the associated language. For us, championing compliance is fundamental.

Given the mental wellbeing and work-life balance aspects outlined above, I think that emotional intelligence is also crucial to having a happy and productive in-house team. An area which I have been leading relates to identifying skills and interests within the global legal team, so that we are aware of the expertise we have, as well as ensuring that resources are being shared within the global team so that time and effort is not duplicated in re-doing work. Lastly, I think a desire to constantly be learning and improving is, and will remain to be, essential for any in-house team.