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

I am group legal director at Storm Technologies Group Limited (STGL), responsible for company secretarial matters and performing the role of HR Director for STGL.

For Storm Technologies Limited (STL), key projects included the, with the assistance of external counsel, packaging and resale into the City of bundled multi-year software licensing receivables. I was also involved in normal business operations and the negotiation of well 100s new STL customer agreements, licenses, and amendments thereto.

Another key project was the successful defence of High Court action against Storm Procurement Limited (SPL) by a competitor alleging: conspiracy with and procuring their former employee to breach his confidentiality obligations; procuring their former employee to procure and provide SPL with their confidential information; and tortious interference.

I also led the structuring and negotiation of new joint ventures with local partners in both Ghana and Guyana and the establishment of business operations in the Australia, Angola, United Arab Emirates, Guyana and Australia.

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

We are currently developing a bespoke in-house AI to integrate into and assist with the STGL customer contracting processes.

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

Through experience and by learning to differentiate between the various types of risk, levels within the types, and by accepting that risk is ubiquitous in commerce.

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?

You will only be an asset to your employer client if you learn and understand the business of your employer’s business. Just being a lawyer alone does not of itself engender success.

Learn to be flexible. Only in matters pertaining to a principle of fundamental prominence should you stand against the tide. In matters commercial you must be prepared to give way.

Not every day is fun and games. Everyone fails, but failure is rarely fatal for lawyers. However difficult, always view adversity, and any work-related challenge, as a learning opportunity.

If you work in-house, and if coming to work every day does not make you happy and leave you feeling fulfilled, then you are in the wrong job. We spend most of our waking time in work. Being unhappy in your work will adversely impact your whole existence. So, move on.

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

Business is and always has been risky. A corporate legal function and every in-house counsel must understand that risk cannot be fully eliminated. Any in-house lawyer who takes it upon themselves to personally manage all risks will, certainly, fail.

I manage risk, perhaps counterintuitively, by not personally managing most. For too long in my in-house career, I strove to monitor/manage all risks. Those efforts, it could be argued, were not always conducive to the conduct of the legitimate commercial aspirations of my employers and, I can say with some certainty, that they were harmful to my personal health and mental wellbeing.

I now focus my time on detection and mitigation of serious commercial and compliance risks. Those that could result in a group company, or a director or employee thereof being accused of an offense; or which (for any group company) might be financially crippling, reputationally devastating, or indeed existentially threatening.

For any in-house counsel who might find my position on risk unpalatable I would offer that, as a board, we have ensured that as a maturing and responsible a corporate citizen our employer (my client) has the appropriate segregation(s) of duties, policies, and procedures to govern a multitude of risks (of lesser magnitude). I trust my company directors and our management to do their duty and thereby assist in risk management.

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

With little doubt one of the most defining experiences of my career was as a sole counsel in an SME. The episode began nine or so months into my employment and came to consume the better part of three years of my life. The episode involved the discovery of serious, corrupt practices within the organisation and it quickly became apparent it could evolve into a potentially existential crisis for the business.

With the support of the shareholders, I was given a unlimited investigatory mandate by the board, and we cleaned house. I appointed external counsel who, on my behalf, conducted an eighteen-month meticulous and in-depth forensic investigation.

The investigation showed that the contagion had an astonishing depth and breadth in the organisation. The shareholders followed my lead, and we remade the business and removed long-standing directors. We replaced the businesses gatekeepers, greatly strengthened governance, invested in new ERP software and instituted a business wide segregation of duties programme.

During the process I worked closely with external counsel and reported to the SFO, the NCA and the business entered a process of self-reporting with HMRC.

The company, I am very pleased to say, not only survived, but thrives to this day and remains a flourishing well- governed enterprise.

True cultural change is never easy to achieve in an organisation. I am truly elated that the business survived. That said, the thing I am perhaps most thankful for was the support I received from the shareholders and what I’m most proud of is the real root-to-leaf change in culture we achieved in the business.