Team size: 16 (UK team) 

What significant projects or deals has the legal team worked on in the past year?  Can you provide examples of successful outcomes or major accomplishments?   

AI is a key strategic priority of the business which has accelerated greatly over the past 12 months, both externally through our customer propositions and internally through the adoption of AI tooling by our colleagues to assist their everyday activities. In both instances the Legal team has been at the forefront of providing the business with advice and guidance in this fast paced and evolving area.   

For our customers we launched Sage Copilot, our new generative AI-powered productivity assistant, in the first half of 2024. The Legal team played a crucial role working with our product teams on an accelerated timescale to bring the product to life, advising on the use of AI models, privacy and IP implications and to bring the product to market through integration with our products, with the preparation of appropriate terms and conditions and privacy notices, to ensure we adhere to our principles of transparency and creating trust with our customers. The work over this period has involved the Legal team colleagues rapidly upskilling themselves in this new and evolving area of law and regulation.   

To ensure Sage has strong governance in place around AI development, the Legal team co-created with our Data Governance colleagues, an AI governance framework and a set of AI and Data Ethics Principles to ensure AI product and features are comprehensively assessed against agreed ethics, legal, privacy and cyber security standards. Through the adoption of the NIST AI Risk Management Framework the design, development, use, and evaluation of our AI products are assessed throughout their development lifecycle. 

To enable colleagues to benefit from the efficiency gains created by the use of generative AI tooling, the Legal team collaborated with our IT colleagues on the creation and adoption of a generative AI governance process within Sage for the use of such generative AI tools and technologies, to ensure the relevant legal and commercial risks appropriately mitigated and managed. 

Can you sum up the team culture/ethos in one sentence? 

Our legal team is a collaborative, innovative and solution-oriented business partnering team, dedicated to achieving the best outcomes for all our stakeholders (colleagues, customers, investors and partners).  

We foster this collaborative environment by leveraging the strengths of each lawyer and their expertise and by encouraging open dialogue and communication and sharing insights across the global team. Innovation is at the core of our approach, and as a team, we seek to stay ahead of new technologies and regulation in the ever-evolving legal landscape. We are deeply invested in the development of our Legal colleagues, providing paths to qualification for junior members and ongoing development training, mentorship and opportunities for professional growth to ensure that they remain at the forefront of their fields. 

Are there any team members with expertise in niche areas that are critical to the company’s operations?  

Our legal team’s success is bolstered by our diverse expertise in several niche areas. Our colleagues include experts in region-specific privacy regulations such as GDPR, UK GDPR, Californian Consumer Privacy Act, and POPIA, alongside specialists in privacy operations. We also have substantial expertise in intellectual property law, encompassing both legal and technical aspects of patents and trademarks, as well as banking and payments laws and regulations. Also, many team members possess, or are obtaining, certifications in the governance of artificial intelligence. This breadth of knowledge ensures we remain at the forefront of legal innovation and service.