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? 

We make sure to stay on top of the latest legal trends and changes in the law and gather information from a variety of sources to help better understand expectations going forward. We encourage the organisation to remain nimble and flexible to allow us to pivot based on changes in business or operating conditions. We also work to maintain strong relationships with key outside counsel to help advise on more difficult issues as they arise, which includes strong relationships with local counsel in the communities in which we operate. Regarding legal strategy, we take the approach that it should be driven by broader business strategy. We work to guide the company and key stakeholders to achieve business goals in a way that minimises risks and ensures compliance with laws. We generally use a risk-benefit-based approach when guiding the company through difficult decisions. 

In your opinion, what are the main trends affecting your work now ? 

Business and market-based factors are the biggest drivers of legal initiatives as the company works to responsibly grow and meet customer and community demands. This includes supporting efforts with development at existing facilities, evaluating M&A opportunities, and assisting with financing activities. We work to ensure that the company has the correct processes and procedures in place to help support this growth and steer through potential roadblocks. 

We also continue to monitor how the results of the recent U.S. elections will impact our business and the markets that we serve and monitor how recent Supreme Court case law might impact the regulatory environment. 

What strategic priorities are guiding your legal team into 2025? 

Our strategic priorities for 2025 will be similar to those in 2024. We will continue to support the growth of our business in a way that identifies risks early and works to minimise liabilities. We will achieve this, in part, by ensuring that we are fully ingrained in all aspects of the business to allow us to collaborate with various cross-functional groups and to think strategically across the business as a whole, not just through the lens of the legal department. 

We will also work to highlight the value of the legal department’s contribution to achieving business goals. Finally, we will continue to evaluate ways to be more efficient in our support of the business, through AI and other means, and will look for opportunities to use lower-cost external service providers where it makes sense. We will strive to ensure that we are using our investors’ funds wisely on external counsel.