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‘The business comes to the legal team not just for legal advice but for strategic and commercial advice’, Shoshana Shields says. ‘We are often seen as thought leaders in the e-commerce space, and this filters to legal issues too’. Heading legal support to the brand’s regional business, eBay’s director of legal Shoshana Shields is highly respected by both internal clients and professional peers. ‘She is a smart, proactive GC focused on commercial outcomes while managing risk and building a strong team’, says one in-house source. ‘She’s very commercially orientated’. One of Shoshana’s biggest successes has been entrenching the function into business decision-making. ‘My aim is for the business to see us as a partner and advisor, not simply as a function to be consulted for approval at the end of the process’, she says. ‘Our legal advice must be robust. It also needs to take into account any better or alternative solutions’. When it comes to outside counsel, Shields looks for a similarly pragmatic approach. ‘The best lawyers I work with are direct and capable of forming an opinion, not just setting out a list of legal issues’.