Can you please give us an idea of the sort of work your team has done recently?

As head of legal reporting to the CEO, I am responsible for all company’s activities from a legal perspective with a focus on M&A, general contract negotiation and drafting, finance, risk management, litigation management, regulatory compliance, tax law, intellectual property, outside counsel management, contract administration, claims liability and employment law.

Looking at the last two years the highlights of my work have been the completion of the acquisition of Benkert Group (involving various jurisdictions in Europe and Asia), the establishment of a joint venture in the Peoples Republic of China, the successful defense in anti-dumping proceedings initiated by Indonesia, including interventions at WTO level and the legal works (regulatory and contract) relating to the construction of a new paper mill (brown field project) in the Czech Republic.

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

The COVID pandemic has accelerated the transition of in-house counsel from purely legal and compliance gatekeepers into a more complex role of a legal manager who needs to adopt a more business driven and risk-based approach when advising internal stakeholders. As general counsel or head of legal, one needs to make sure that internal processes are aligned to the legal department getting involved in the decision-making process in relation to new business strategies and business adaptations. This allows the legal department to take a more proactive approach as business enabler instead of a reactive approach which bears the risk of in-house counsel being viewed as primarily raising objections and preventing business.

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

In view of the current advances of artificial intelligence in data mining and data processing, I expect that in addition to the current contract life circle management IT software will become a valuable tool for the creation of contracts in relation to a wide range of standard business contracts. I expect that such new IT tools will not just be able to generate contract templates but also review and assess contracts with a view to industry practices and particularities of applicable laws governing the respective contracts.