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

Technological advancements are required for every field of law practice. Document automation, available due to artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, will be most effective to help lawyers with various steps of document processing such as drafting, extracting, and storing.

Nonetheless, such technologies are still very far from addressing the true challenges of the legal practice and, if not managed properly, can even impair legal support.

In the last decade, business terminology and legal terminology have merged, posing on lawyers an obligation to review and address all aspects of the business they support, whether legal or not.

In the meanwhile, legal technologies have concentrated merely on conservative legal practices while completely ignoring the progressive aspects of the discipline.

Therefore, technological advancements will truly become significant only when such technologies will correspond with all disciplines that the legal teams are collaborating with.

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

Prior to my current position, I served as the legal counsel of Mekorot – Israel’s national water company, for seven years, where I monitored regulatory procedures, defended the company against multi-million dollars class actions, and sensitive investigations by various enforcement bodies. In my current role as the legal counsel of Shikun & Binui, I monitor all the legal aspects of its diverse and high turnover activities. The group operates in different regions of the world and its activity is highly complex and diverse.

The role and mandate of the internal legal department extends much beyond providing legal counselling services in the narrow sense. Rather, the legal department is inseparable from the strategic configuration of the company, and serves as a platform for deepening the company’s knowledge and understanding in diverse, essential, and overarching areas. I promote an understanding of the legal department as a full partner to all the significant processes and major strategic decisions in the company. The company’s objectives therefore become the legal department’s objectives. This outlook encourages my colleagues to realise the immense added value of the legal department in reaching the company’s business goals, and not only to reduce exposure to risk or restrain them in various endeavours. They see the legal department as a true and valuable partner in the company’s path.

In light of the above, in-house legal counsel must operate while combining their dual role as, in their responsibility for integrating regulation and compliance into the modus operandi of the company, and also in fulfilling the company’s business goals. They should therefore be conscientious and resolute, with a magnitude of personality that grants weight and draws attention to their recommendations, not by force of their authority in the organisation’s hierarchy, but because they are respected and appreciated. The legal counsel’s very presence in the room should be of the sort that directs the organisation toward practices and policies that reflect core values, beyond specific rules of conduct.

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

In light of the very many aspects of regulation that every corporation faces today, the corporation must discover the very best external lawyers in a specific issue. This requires the corporation to develop legal expertise in countless areas, some of which require exceptional expertise and handling of complex litigation proceedings. In this framework, the external law firms are required to provide advice and treatment as if they were the company itself, with a sense of belonging and a real commitment to its results. Shikhun & Binui invests in the best offices in their field, who are committed to the company as a whole.