Key team members: Jill Yow, Aieshah Nadia, Megan Tan, Lily Sazwani and Julia Chow.

Can you sum up the team culture or ethos, and give us a breakdown of what makes your legal team function so well?

Our team culture is aligned with our corporate culture of excellence and innovation. We identify risks but will always strive to find a reasonable and logical solution while remaining compliant and maintaining our corporate integrity. My legal team collaborates well and frequently with other departments of the company as we make it a point to learn the commercial aspects of the business so that we can address concerns not only from a legal perspective but also from the business/profitability perspective. When parties are speaking the same “language”, it is easy to integrate and share a mutual goal. My team will always be ready to challenge the status quo by asking targeted questions so that the business teams explore the opportunities a legal issue may present leading them to be more attuned to possibilities of improvement in processes as well as increased cost-effective methods of doing business.

As a team, we are responsible for the Asia Pacific region, as the company is Southeast Asia’s leading luxury goods and retail specialist with more than 400 stores located in countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Macau and Australia. Frequently dealing with cross border legal issues, the team hones its legal prowess dealing with different laws in not only brand agreements but also managing contractual aspects of leasing, logistics, competition, data protection and industrial relation matters among others.

Each team member is versatile and can take on different portfolios split by subject matters and countries so that anyone can stand in for the other should there be a need to do so. Typically, the workload is divided by countries with each member supporting a minimum of two different countries.