Team size: 13

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

I have overseen the negotiation of multiple consultancy agreements across a range of sectors and jurisdictions and led dispute management on multiple significant potential claims.

Please provide a brief description of any internal transformation/development projects within your legal team over the last twelve months.

A key project has been the incorporation of specialist legal AI into our workflows. This has been (and continues to be) challenging; the current market offerings have not yet reached their potential, so outputs require close oversight of appropriately experienced lawyers.

We are continuing to widen our (informal) panel of approved external advisers, with two or three firms added due to positive past experiences elsewhere.

What are the most important attributes of the modern GC and what advice would you give to those aspiring to be an in-house lawyer?

I’d consider the key attributes as commercial awareness and strong communication skills. Strong legal knowledge is a given, but it’s also crucial to understand the interests of the business at both a tactical and strategic level. All decisions need to be informed by the commercial balance of risk and opportunity, and the resulting positions communicated effectively with external clients, service providers and within the legal team itself.

I’d advise those aspiring to an in-house legal career of the importance of being practical and focused on offering solutions. In-house counsels should strive to be a partner within the business rather than being seen as a blocker.

Looking forward, it is becoming ever more important to be able to adapt to developments in new and potentially disruptive technologies such as AI.

How do you manage situations where legal advice and commercial objectives conflict?

A key role of any in-house lawyer is to manage the tension between commercial opportunity and liability exposure.

An in-house lawyer should enable the business to make consciously informed decisions about risk, reward, and mitigation. Risks and trade-offs must be effectively communicated to ensure understanding by decision makers. It helps to provide solutions, options and mitigations such that issues are addressed by Legal and Commerial working together, rather than an issue becoming one of Legal versus Commercial.

Issues should not be addressed in isolation but should be considered in the context of the whole. This all requires that an in-house lawyer understand the commercial objectives of the business, rather than solely understanding legal risks in a vacuum.

Beyond your legal role, is there a cause or initiative you are especially passionate about?

I’m passionate about supporting others to develop and grow in their careers. There is a huge personal and professional satisfaction in helping someone step up and take responsibility, in watching someone stretch beyond their comfort zone and develop confidence in a new skill and, most of all, in then seeing someone show that same interest and satisfaction in developing the next generation.

I try to create environments in which people feel encouraged to take ownership, to ask questions and to try new things without fear of failure, to enable lessons to be learnt from both mistakes and successes.

I take huge pride in watching current and former colleagues thrive in their lives and careers.