Team size: 19

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

A key project over the past twelve months has been the design and implementation of the Legal & Compliance Hub, a new matter intake and workflow platform for the EMEA Legal & Compliance teams. The objective was to create a more structured, transparent and scalable way for internal clients to submit requests, for work to be allocated across the team, and for matters to be tracked through to completion.

My role as GC was to sponsor and shape the project from both a strategic and operational perspective. This included identifying the business need, defining the governance and workflow requirements, ensuring that the platform would work for legal and compliance colleagues across EMEA and focusing the team on practical adoption by the business. I was particularly keen that the Hub should not simply be an administrative tool, but a way of improving service delivery, visibility and accountability across the function.

The Hub now gives internal clients a clear route for submitting legal and compliance requests. Matters can be allocated to the appropriate team member, tracked in real time by the business and monitored centrally by the legal and compliance leadership team. It also creates greater resilience within the team because colleagues can see what work is in progress and can pick up matters when team members are on leave or capacity is constrained.

The impact has been significant. The Hub has created a single source of truth for incoming work, improved transparency for internal stakeholders, reduced reliance on informal channels and individual inboxes and enabled more consistent allocation and prioritisation of matters. From a management perspective, it provides valuable data on the volume, nature and source of work coming into the team, which helps me identify pressure points, understand demand patterns and flex resources more effectively.

The outcome is a more efficient, responsive and data-informed legal and compliance function. It has strengthened how we support the business, improved continuity of service, and given the team better tools to manage workload, capacity and risk. More broadly, it reflects the direction in which I believe modern in-house legal teams need to move: using technology and process improvement to deliver legal advice in a way that is accessible, measurable, collaborative and aligned with business priorities.

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

In addition to launching and embedding the Legal Hub as a key self-service resource for the business, the Legal & Compliance team has continued to advance several strategic initiatives designed to enhance efficiency, strengthen governance and support the firm’s growth across the EMEA region.

Key areas of focus include artificial intelligence (AI) enablement. The team has been trialling an AI-powered contract review tool to assess opportunities for improving the speed, consistency, and quality of contract analysis, while maintaining appropriate legal oversight and risk management.

In parallel, we have been developing a comprehensive governance framework to support the responsible use of AI across the firm. This framework is intended to establish clear accountability, risk controls, and usage standards, ensuring that the adoption of AI aligns with the firm’s regulatory, ethical, and professional obligations.

The expansion of legal and compliance capabilities across EMEA has been another key focus. We continue to invest in and develop the Legal & Compliance function to ensure it is appropriately structured and resourced to support the firm’s growing business requirements across the EMEA region. This includes enhancing specialist, local capabilities, improving regional coverage and ensuring consistent support for business stakeholders.

We have refined the structure of the Legal & Compliance team to create greater flexibility in resource allocation, enabling the team to respond effectively to changing business priorities and fluctuations in demand. This model allows us to deploy expertise where it is most needed across the region while maintaining high levels of service and operational efficiency.

These initiatives reflect our broader objective of building a modern, scalable and commercially focused Legal & Compliance function that not only manages risk effectively, but also actively supports the firm’s strategic ambitions and growth agenda.

What key trends should in-house counsel be monitoring over the coming months?

In-house counsel should be closely monitoring the continued expansion of regulatory scrutiny, particularly around data, AI, ESG, sanctions, employment practices and cross-border business conduct. The pace and complexity of regulatory change mean that legal and compliance teams need to move beyond reactive advice and become embedded partners in risk identification, governance and decision-making.

AI is also a major area of focus. It creates clear opportunities for efficiency and insight, but it also raises important questions around confidentiality, accountability, privilege, bias, intellectual property and appropriate human oversight. Legal & Compliance teams will need to help organisations adopt AI in a way that is responsible, controlled and commercially useful.

More broadly, in-house counsel should be alert to geopolitical volatility, changing stakeholder expectations and the increasing convergence of legal, reputational and operational risk. The modern legal function must be able to interpret these trends practically and help the business make decisions that are both commercially effective and sustainable.

The role of the GC has evolved significantly into that of a strategic business partner. How do you balance commercial objectives with legal risk?

For me, the role of the GC (as opposed to head of legal which I believe is a different role) is not to sit outside the business and identify problems in isolation, but to help the organisation make informed, defensible and commercially sensible decisions. That requires understanding the business strategy, the commercial drivers behind a particular decision and the risk appetite of the organisation.

Balancing commercial objectives with legal risk means being clear about what is legally required, what is commercially negotiable and where the organisation may be taking on risk that needs to be consciously understood and managed. The most effective legal advice is practical, timely and framed in a way that enables decision-makers to weigh options.

It is also important to distinguish between risk that can be mitigated and risk that is fundamental. In some cases, the legal team’s role is to help structure a solution that achieves the commercial objective with appropriate safeguards. In others, it is to be clear that a particular course of action is inconsistent with the company’s values, obligations or long-term interests. The GC’s credibility comes from being both commercially constructive and prepared to give firm advice when necessary.

A practical example is supporting entry into a new market or jurisdiction. The commercial opportunity may be significant, but the GC needs to ensure that the business understands the regulatory, sanctions, employment, tax, contracting and reputational considerations before proceeding. The value of the GC is in helping the leadership team assess whether the opportunity can be pursued safely, what conditions should be attached and where escalation or board-level visibility may be required.

I see the GC’s role as helping the business achieve its objectives in a way that is legally robust, ethical and sustainable. That means understanding the commercial goal, identifying the real risks and then working with the business to develop a solution that is proportionate and practical. The key is not to eliminate all risk, but to ensure that risk is visible, understood, appropriately mitigated and consistent with the organisation’s values and risk appetite.

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?

The modern GC needs strong legal judgement, but that is only the starting point. The role also requires commercial awareness, integrity, resilience, communication skills and the ability to build trust across the organisation. A GC must be able to operate at both strategic and operational levels — advising senior leadership on complex issues while also ensuring that the legal function is responsive, efficient and aligned with the needs of the business.

Equally important is the ability to exercise judgement in ambiguity. Many of the most important decisions do not have a perfect answer, and the GC must be able to assess risk, consider stakeholder impact and provide clear guidance, even when the facts are incomplete or the environment is changing.

For example, during a fast-moving regulatory or reputational issue, the GC may need to bring together legal, compliance, communications, finance and business leadership to form a clear view of the facts, identify immediate risk controls, and ensure that decisions are documented and defensible. That kind of scenario demonstrates why the modern GC must be calm under pressure, commercially literate and able to provide clear guidance amid uncertainty.

For those aspiring to be an in-house lawyer, my advice would be to develop curiosity about the business and not define yourself solely by technical legal expertise. It is important to understand the strategy of the firm, where its risks arise, what its people need and how legal advice can support responsible growth. Build relationships, communicate clearly, be pragmatic without compromising your standards – credibility is earned through judgement, consistency and trust.

Have you had any particularly unique or defining experiences during your legal career? What has been your biggest career challenge or highlight?

One of the most defining challenges in my career has been establishing the role of the general counsel as a true strategic partner to the executive leadership team, the board and the wider business. That transition does not happen automatically, and it requires much more than technical legal expertise. It requires consistently demonstrating that legal judgement can support commercial growth, strengthen governance and help the organisation make better, more informed decisions.

For me, the challenge was to move beyond being seen solely as the lawyer in the room and to be recognised as someone who understood the business, its strategy, its financial drivers, its clients and its appetite for risk. That meant investing time in understanding the commercial context behind decisions, engaging early with leadership on business priorities and giving advice that was not only legally sound, but also practical, balanced and aligned with the organisation’s long-term interests.

A defining moment for me was when executive leadership first sought my view on a business issue rather than a purely legal question. That was a clear signal that the GC role had evolved from adviser on legal risk to trusted counsel on broader strategic judgement. It reflected the trust that had been built over time and reinforced the importance of showing up as a business leader as well as a lawyer.

That has been both a career challenge and a career highlight. It has shaped the way I approach the GC role: with a focus on being commercially constructive, clear on risk, protective of the organisation’s values and reputation and fully engaged in helping the business achieve its objectives in a responsible and sustainable way.