First, can you please give us an idea of the sort of work your team has done recently?

We work on all strategically important projects of the company that require legal support. Last year we were able to close two major transactions: we acquired Studienkreis, which is DACH’s leading, center-based tutoring company. This was our fourth and by far biggest acquisition. It is also the biggest acquisition by an Austrian scale-up to date. In addition, we raised EUR€ 85 mn from Deutsche Bank and existing equity investors. In a market environment where it is challenging for most tech companies to raise funds at all, this was a huge achievement for us. In addition, we worked on two major lawsuits in Austria and Germany and adapted the legal framework of our business model to make sure we comply with new regulatory requirements. We constantly work on and prioritise safeguarding, data privacy and AI governance. As a company we also had to accelerate the shift from hyper-scaling to profitability due to the changed market environment. As a consequence, the legal team had to work on the global restructuring of our workforce to make sure we complete this process in a legally compliant and respectful manner. All the hard work has paid off and we were just able to proudly announce that we are profitable. 

How does your legal strategy change during periods of instability or uncertainty?

The new market environment also meant that our legal strategy had to change along with the new priorities of the GoStudent group. Like the other departments, we were required to strictly manage our costs and work with a smaller budget. A major project for the legal team was the global restructuring of our workforce, where we had a leading role due to the legal complexity caused by the many different employment law regimes across various jurisdictions. In addition, we put particular emphasis on renegotiating our contracts with suppliers and landlords. We also worked extensively to resolve all legal disputes in the most cost-efficient way possible. Further, the strategic acquisition of Studienkreis was a major step to stabilise our position as the leading provider of tutoring services in the DACH region. This was a particularly important and significant step for us in the current market environment. 

Do you make use of any ‘legal tech’ products, and if so, for which areas of your job do you find it most useful? 

We use ChatGPT as an assistant for various tasks. So far, we found it particularly useful to provide suggestions for contract sections and text modules for internal and external correspondence, as a sparring partner to prepare a basis for decision-making and to develop negotiation tactics. In addition, we have implemented a legal ticketing system for the GoStudent group via Jira. We of course use DocuSign and various other tools used by the company, in particular Medius and Yokoy to approve invoices and other expenses and control our costs, Tableau to analyse data and set the right priorities, Hubspot to manage our customer relationships and provide legal support and Workday together with our people team.