Team size: 4

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

The density of laws and regulations in our industry is constantly increasing and becoming increasingly technical. Ensuring compliance with these changes requires a lot of attention from the legal team. Yet, the main challenge is not the formal legal analysis – we are all trained for this – but to implement the necessary, but not necessarily welcome changes within the company and its business processes.

The translation of legal language and requirements into a language understandable by the business requires a broad set of skills from the legal team exceeding beyond traditional legal knowledge. To name a few: a high degree of understanding of the industry and business, judgment of what is necessary, out of the box thinking to find creative and pragmatic ideas and communication skills adapted to the respective audience, project management and leadership. Moving forward and away from a purely formal legal department to a real business partner, project manager, leader and business enabler and continue to shaping this role has been and will continue to be one of the most important challenges.

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?

When steering a small legal team that works with a vast number of internal, external partners and stakeholders in all areas of the business and the law in a fast-changing environment, information and communication has shown to be key to provide advice and results efficiently and effectively.

To avoid the stereotypical role of the legal team as ‘dream-killer’, we established a culture with a high focus on clear information and communication paths and processes with our partners. We implemented processes allowing that before a major contract is reviewed, a personal exchange takes place between the business owner and the legal team to best understand the project and the business’ needs, risks and expectations. We ensure that the legal takes a seat at the table at key exchanges and that is systematically included in business, process changes and various business approval processes. This re-focusing of exchange of information and communication has allowed us to improve our ability to provide legal guidance from the very beginning and ensured our role as an effective and efficient business partner and enabler within the company.

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

Sound legal knowledge and talent are the foundation for any lawyer. Yet to make a difference and thrive as an in-house lawyer, personality and interpersonal skills are equally important. In today’s fast paced and dynamic environment, in-house lawyers must be ready to act as business enablers, be able to take on various roles going beyond that of a pure legal advisor, have an entrepreneurial mindset and sound understanding of the business and provide practical and actionable advice with creative optimism and the necessary degree of calculated pessimism. Successful in-house lawyers communicate appropriately on all levels and are good listeners at the same time. This together requires agility and versatility, openness to embrace constant change, a high degree of curiosity for continuous learning and personal development, and courageously leaving the personal comfort zone.