Australia 2019
General counsel and company secretary | Vocus Group
Ashe-lee Jegathesan
General counsel and company secretary | Vocus Group
General counsel and company secretary | Vocus Group
Ashe-lee Jegathesan assumed her current position as general counsel and company secretary of Vocus Group in February 2016, following the successful merger of Vocus Group and M2 Group. Prior to...
Vocus has had a very exciting two to three year period. In February 2016 , Vocus and M2 Group – both listed on the ASX – merged to create Australia’s fourth largest telecoms company. In October 2016, Vocus acquired Nextgen Networks, which owned and operated a significant fibre network in Australia, thereby creating an entity which has Australia’s second largest fibre network. In the first half of 2017 and then again in the last couple of months, Vocus became the subject of a number of failed takeover approaches, three from private equity firms and one from AGL. As general counsel and company secretary, I was heavily involved and led the legal effort for all of those transactions, as well as the integration of the merger and acquired entities.
Firstly, challenging the status quo of what in-house legal practice is all about and developing individual team members’ leadership and influencing skills. I had to change the mindset of our team members, as well as our key stakeholders. This involved putting ourselves out there and getting uncomfortable about operating outside of our comfort zone as technical lawyers, and seeing ourselves as business leaders with an equal voice within the broader enterprise team. Finally, adopting business focussed language and terminology when engaging with our partners, rather than legal terminology.
Identifying appropriate metrics to use, which is challenging in itself, and not getting distracted by noisy data. It is easy to fall into the trap of collecting data to demonstrate busyness or output volume, rather than value added to the outcome that was sought.
The ability to put yourself in the shoes of your business stakeholder, to understand what drives them, and then to enable the outcome. Strong communication skills in being able to distil very complex technology processes and/or terminology into simple concepts that non-technical people (and lawyers) can understand. Lastly, the need to serve several masters at the same time – some are external (such as regulators) and some are internal (business challenges).
The introduction of technology tools also helps us move up the value chain. For example, AI supported contract review tools, which accelerate the review of contracts or regulations, or help sift through material, will free us up to be able to provide more constructive and productive counsel in relation to the problem, challenge or negotiation that is being undertaken.
Process automation will also take away some of the more routine and less complex tasks legal teams are required to do, whilst the use of data and tracking will enable legal team leaders to better predict the areas of need, and therefore be in a better position to manage risks.
We should move away from being focussed on functional activity to being able to provide counsel to the business. In-house legal teams should be focussed on building the core IP of the business, rather than providing a function of drafting contracts or policies or processes, and of managing compliance. That core IP includes the company’s strategy (both long, medium and short term), execution against that strategy, helping the business build frameworks for navigating future challenges and risks, not just the current ones.
Our role as in-house counsel, and in particular, as general counsel, is fascinatingly multi-faceted. How we fulfil those roles depends not only on our individual approach but also on the willingness of the CEO and the board to give us as a seat at the executive and board tables and to embrace our contribution to the team. Where your personal passion for the role and the CEO and board’s expectations meet, the scope for you to bring and add value to the successful achievement of the company’s vision is limitless. An effective general counsel is so much more than a lawyer who works in-house and is an advisor to the company. He or she can be an enabler for the company’s core business growth with a positive and constructive engagement with the sales teams and with customers. He or she can be the customer’s advocate at the executive table. He or she can be a conduit to making sure that the company has an appropriately strong governance framework in place. He or she helps build and maintain an organisational culture that is strong, ethical and consistent with the company’s values, through their personal leadership style and reach. If they are lucky enough to have a legal team to support them, they lead that team to have a clear vision of their role in the organisation and not only their ability but their obligation to play a leadership role within the broader organisation and to have the courage to respond to the question “what should we do?” rather than “what can we do?” A good general counsel keeps everyone out of jail. A great general counsel helps build a company its shareholders, employees and the broader community can be proud of.
