Team size: Seven

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?  

As I am a general counsel of an IT firm, my team and I are really feeling the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of the world. We are a key player in building secure IT bridges for the education and research community in Switzerland. We contribute to digitalisation, and we are passionate about the journey toward a more connected, secure, and advanced future. On top of this, we have been in an internal transformation process for three years, which makes day-to-day work even more complex, with no clear responsibilities and processes. Thus, legal aspects have increased while the business’s understanding of legal issues has not. I take it as my responsibility to close such a gap of understanding.  

In such a volatile and fast-moving world, leadership is even more important than ever. Therefore, I take my responsibility as a leader very seriously. For instance, I try to empower and motivate my employees. Furthermore, I invest in further education and make sure that we stay up to date on topics such as AI and legal technologies. Lastly, I try to keep my enabler mentality for the business to move forward but mitigate legal risks (which remains a balancing act).  

In terms of technological tools, my team and I just recently started using Jira Confluence including the Kanban Board. This enables me to better assess incoming requests, the workload of employees and priorities in the team. Also, we have just released an “AI Do’s & Don’t’s” guide. By doing so, we have addressed the business needs.  

What emerging technologies do you see as having the most significant impact on the legal profession in the near future, and how do you stay updated on these developments? 

Undoubtedly AI (ChatGPT as well as other models such as GPT-4) have the most significant impact on the legal profession in the near future, which is why we have released an extended internal legal guide thereto. Additionally, I follow many tutorials, read respective articles, and further educate myself and my team in this new field. 

However, it goes without saying that these models should not be used as the sole basis for legal advice or legal decisions. While these models can provide information on legal issues, they cannot consider the individual context, specific laws or judgments in a particular jurisdiction. Legal issues require careful analysis by qualified lawyers who have the necessary expertise and knowledge of the relevant legal system. It is always advisable to seek advice from an experienced lawyer to obtain sound legal advice. 

Consequently, I therefore try to sensitise the employees to understand the advantages of the new possibilities, on the one hand, and to propagate a mindful approach, on the other. Also, I try to explain why legal advice has not become a commodity and never will. 

How do you prioritise diversity and inclusion within your legal department, and what initiatives have you implemented to foster a more inclusive and equitable work environment? 

Diversity and inclusion have a very high priority in my legal department because I believe in the principle of collective intelligence. I follow a strength-based leadership approach, irrespective of gender, nature, or background. The individual is at the center. The collaboration between my team members and with other teams as well as psychological safety in the team is vitally important to me. In order to foster a more inclusive and equitable work environment, we clearly distinguish between sync meetings, content meetings and personal meetings. Also, we bond at various team events.