How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

Managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises requires a future-proof attitude and velocity in the face of adversities. ‘Impermanence’ is an inherent part of life, and acquiring new skills to navigate evolving external challenges and internal strategies is essential. As the General Counsel, it is my priority to align the legal services with Nikon’s strategy to contribute towards the resilience of the company during such periods.

Close collaboration with the Hong Kong-based Nikon APAC Internal Audit is crucial for ensuring that all stakeholders are aligned. Internal processes under my oversight, such as training programmes of such as trainings, a new reporting information system and automation of tasks are contributing to the visibility of the legal department’s functionality and efficiency, providing internal clients with user-friendly, value-added and cost-effective services and contributing more to the Nikon’s philosophies, DNA, vision and ESG three pillars.

My recent work in preparing and reviewing contract templates and cross-border data transfer matters for all subsidiaries in the Region and SEA has raised risk awareness amongst all lines of defence. The medical technologies sector faces intense competition and a range of legal, regulatory, legislative, and industry challenges. I have had the opportunity to contribute to strategic legal and business counsel throughout the medical and surgical device lifecycle — from inception and approvals through product debut and maturity. Additionally, I have provided transactional support and legal advice to the Healthcare Division in the Region and Southeast Asia.

How do you prioritise diversity and inclusion within your legal department, and what initiatives have you implemented to foster a more inclusive and equitable work environment? 

As an In-House legal Team, we are ideally placed to promote Nikon’s greater purpose of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) by factoring these values into our external counsel hiring process.

We believe that understanding the DEI policies of our external counsels will provide insights into their current diversity levels and highlight areas for improvement.  Our Engagement of External Counsel Policy outlines our requirements for ESG compliance, dedicating two pages to this topic, which will be referenced in our engagement letters.

We always make it a priority to tell External Counsels Leads when a diverse lawyer performs well and to ensure that DEI is added to the agenda of regular firm relationship reviews. We also seek to demonstrate our appreciation for the DEI efforts of External Counsels by increasing the scope of our engagement and recommending them to our fellow In-house counsels.

Given the importance of diversity in the legal profession, it is critical that we all work together as an industry to accelerate the pace of progress in the promotion of DEI and to find ways to implement these changes on a broader scale.