Team size: 120 lawyers across Asia Pacific

What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

This year the most challenging and one of the most rewarding aspects of my role has been leading the integration of our India member firm — over 15,000 professional staff — into our Asia Pacific firm. This involved navigating complex tax considerations, developing a legal structure that met local regulatory and legal requirements, supporting the expectations of all stakeholders, and respecting the geopolitical landscape we were operating in. As lawyers, we are trained to deal with the complexity of legal challenges, but operating in a far more globalised world means that our leaders look to us more and more to understand and advise on the intersection between geopolitics, competing for firm priorities and local regulatory complexities in cross border matters.

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

It is hard to go past AI and the impact that this will have and is already having on the corporate world. For an organisation like ours, we are always looking for more efficient ways of working and embracing technology is key to a future fit in-house legal team. AI will help us deploy our resources on the things that matter by creating efficiencies en masse and accessing the benefits of AI through external counsel on matters such as large-scale discovery. This will allow us to create new opportunities for our people, providing them with challenging and enriching work. Not only will it help our lawyers, but it will change the way we do business – which means that there will be new risks and new considerations for the lawyers to advise on.

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

The ability to develop deep relationships with multiple stakeholders, be a fast learner, have a commercial and pragmatic approach to legal matters and always try and find a solution to a business problem. The key is collaboration and agility – so that we can effectively partner with the business to enable or protect where needed. It is imperative that, as leaders, we are respectful of different cultures and the importance of diversity in our teams. We have lawyers based in over 30 different cities, speaking over 17 different languages, and all have a valued point of view to bring. Learning how to collaborate across borders virtually while respecting our similarities and differences has been critical to my team’s success in the global network. At Deloitte, we also care for the future of our business and aim to coach and develop the next generation of leaders and lawyers. We designed and implemented a targeted talent programme for our senior legal counsel, which was aimed at helping them ‘thrive’ at Deloitte and connecting them directly with senior executives from across the region. Our team members have varied career aspirations, so we must rethink our approach and design new options for our talent.