Team size: 20, spread across four continents

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

It has been challenging to determine how to do more with less. This challenge comprises providing a customer-centric, comprehensive legal service, onboarding and managing new legal challenges – such as ESG, cyber risks, supply change constraints, digitalisation, and AI questions – all while meeting cost and efficiency targets in order to contribute to the balance sheet.

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?

We Introduced legal design thinking principles to transform our legal services for the organisation, the way we collaborate and interact with the business teams and the benefits this process brings to our internal clients. These principles – in a useful, understandable, and engaging way – influence the organisation, our external customers and how applicable solutions to client’s needs are created.

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

It is not enough to be an expert in a relevant area of the law combined with a broad, practical understanding of all potential legal and compliance risks in the business operations. It is also important to possess the emotional intelligence to understand business needs, combine multiple stakeholder interests and build trust to become a true legal business leader – this is applicable to in-house lawyers in general, irrespective of the industry.