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In what ways do you see the in-house legal role evolving in your region over the next few years?

The in-house lawyer must constantly demonstrate value for the company and be the preferential advisor for the various business units. Using digital tools and legal tech in daily work will be crucial, relieving the in-house lawyers from cumbersome manual work, and thereby freeing up time for the lawyers to pursue the greater value-added tasks. Further, the in-house lawyer should understand the overall IT infrastructure in the company, and cooperate on digital solutions across departments in connection with projects, governance and contract management. Moreover, focus on cost optimisation will be the reality for most in-house legal teams going forward. The in-house legal teams must seek to balance the use of legal fees to external counsels, by way of handling the “core business” internally and limit outsourcing to specialised fields.

What would you say are the unique qualities required to be successful as an in-house lawyer in your industry?

In addition to providing high quality legal advice, the successful in-house lawyer in our industry understands the business, is pro-active, may communicate with various personalities and participate in strategic and commercial discussions. The in-house lawyer must also have a dynamic focus on their function, competence and tasks in line with the strategic development, digitalisation and the competitive situation within the industry. As an in-house lawyer, it is important to be a business advisor, supporter and strategist based on very good expertise and not least business understanding.

Do you have any effective techniques for getting the most out of external counsel, in terms of how to instruct them?

Our policy is that every contact with external counsels shall be initiated by the internal legal team. Prior to outsourcing a matter, the in-house lawyer liaises with the business unit to understand the need for advice, if feasible, transform commercial language into legal terms, and establish dialogue with the external counsel. The technique has proven to be effective for both the business units, the internal lawyers and the external counsels.

Have any new laws, regulations or judicial decisions greatly impacted your company’s business or your legal practice?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has had severely impacted Coop’s business, as Coop has approximately 1.8 million members (and owners) of which Coop process personal data, such as financial data and purchases made in Coop’s stores. To implement and be compliant with GDPR has been a major work in Coop, and will continue to have massive impact on our work going forward. In addition, with the second payment service directive in the EU (PSD 2) is about to be implemented in Norway, it is expected that the traditional ways of making payments in the retail food industry will be changed or complemented through “mobile wallets” and other payment means, and that the value chain in payments will be altered due to a new group of payment service providers entering the market.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most?

Digital services and solutions will impact how in-house legal teams work in terms of planning, storing, collaboration and dialogue. In addition it is expected that systems will be launched enabling processing and analysing of “big data” to assess likely scenarios, such as the outcome of a potential litigation and expected loss following breach of contract. Digitisation also enables “speed-to-contract” through design, process design and creative use of technology to support business priorities and enable colleagues to help themselves.

What can law firms do to improve their services to the legal department?

Expertise of the industry is important to be successful upon delivering legal services. In addition, sharing digital tools which may facilitate the joint work among the internal lawyers and the external lawyers, may be an advantage.

FOCUS ON:

Technology

The use of legal technology will be of major importance for us as an in-house legal department, both with regard to the sole legal system, but also with regard to systems which are part of the core business of Coop. We have to work more streamlined with the business, and technology is crucial to make this work. We are commencing a number of initiatives and projects to facilitate the use of technology to make our assistance to the business more efficient and to better assist in reducing the legal risk for the business at Coop.