What are the most significant cases and/or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Most recently, I was involved in the multimillion-dollar arbitration arguing effectively over two sentences. In my new role, I am finding that a lot of clients do not actually understand what arbitration is and my focus now is to educate them on the importance of the terms that they agree to, when they know what they mean but do not understand the investment needed to comply with them.

How do you feel the pandemic has changed the world of work for in-house counsel and the function of the general counsel?

The pandemic has changed a lot of business forever, particularly for life insurance and assumptions. Pandemics are not new, and yet governments, businesses seemed to think that they would not happen. The function of in-house teams is to help the business move to a more structured response, not ignoring the 1/200 events and helping them prepare for the next one.

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

Tech has and will continue to evolve. One thing we know is that computers cannot feel, or sense and as such, gut feeling is not available yet). The human element of law is critical at so many levels and good teams need to learn to work with technology and guide the business on ethical use and its boundaries.