Team size:Approximately 30

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?

Google operates in a dynamic global environment, necessitating a proactive and adaptable legal strategy, especially in times of uncertainty. Our multifaceted approach involves continuous assessment of legal and business risks arising from legislative shifts, new regulations, and societal expectations. This foresight enables us to anticipate and mitigate potential challenges. Our legal team plays an active role in local management and crisis management teams, collaborating closely with other departments to ensure a coordinated, legally sound response to any crisis. In certain complex areas, we establish general guidelines and governance frameworks to navigate evolving societal landscapes. For instance, as global discussions arose around AI’s opportunities and challenges, we proactively developed AI Principles that continue to guide our responsible technology development and define specific application areas we will avoid. Our commitment to a proactive, collaborative, and ethically grounded legal approach helps us navigate complexities and maintain our position as a responsible global entity.

What are the main cases or transactions that you have been involved in recently?

My most important recent project has been helping the company navigate an increasingly regulated environment. The European tech sector faces perhaps the most stringent regulations globally, with companies like ours needing to comply with hundreds, if not thousands, of different rules. A growing part of my role involves identifying, evaluating, and implementing the compliance requirements that emerge from new legislation, court rulings, and regulatory orders.

How have you integrated technology into your legal processes, and what impact has this had on efficiency and compliance?

Technology, particularly AI, is a core focus for us at Google. We’ve integrated AI into our products and services for over a decade, empowering our users. We’re now leveraging similar tools within our legal department to boost efficiency. One such tool, NotebookLM, acts as a personalised AI research assistant. I can only recommend others in the legal profession to check it out and to experiment with it as well. It can summarise complex legal documents like regulations, court decisions, and academic articles, and also explains intricate concepts, offers comparisons, provides cross-references, and generates new ideas. By uploading relevant documents and using effective prompts, NotebookLM delivers surprisingly helpful results, significantly improving our efficiency.

What do you see as the major legal challenges for businesses in Germany over the next five years, and how are you preparing to address them?

One of the major legal challenges for all tech companies in Europa, specifically in Germany, is tech regulation, its implementation and compliance. Over the last years the EU has prioritised regulating new technologies over promoting an innovation-friendly environment. In the last few years alone, 70-80 new EU digital policy laws have been passed, from the Digital Services Act to the Digital Markets Act to the AI Act or the European Media Freedom Act, to name just the most prominent examples. More than 20 other laws are currently being processed, from product liability and AI liability to content regulation, cybersecurity regulations, data protection reform and regulation of non-personal data to other consumer protection instruments such as the right-to-repair directive.

One of the great opportunities for Germany as a business location is the effective use of artificial intelligence, not only in technology companies, but in all areas of the economy and society, in industrial production, medicine, science, administration, etc. AI is a technology that is still in its infancy and thus harbors complexities and risks – the development and use of AI must take these risks into account. Therefore, it is essential for us as a company to operate AI responsibly. Responsible technology development also includes a good political framework. With the AI Act, the European legislator has created a regulatory framework that is based on a proportionate, risk-based approach, which is to be welcomed. However, the regulation is also extremely complex and detailed and is therefore likely to make it more difficult for companies in Germany and Europe to use AI and thus hinder rather than promote innovation. In order to make the best possible use of the potential of AI for the benefit of all, we will try to highlight not only the risks, but also the opportunities, and to work constructively with the European Commission and the future supervisory authority under the AIA in Germany.