What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?  

Working for a company that operates an integrated resort, with hotel and casino components, is quite a unique experience as the industry itself is highly regulated, dynamic, and fast-paced. Our in-house legal team has been structured so that efficient mechanisms were put in place to respond to the organisation’s needs. At present, our in-house legal team handles regulatory compliance, corporate compliance (, litigation, intellectual property, contract drafting and review, data privacy compliance, and special projects, among others. Significant efforts are devoted to aligning the expertise of each in-house legal team member with the right set of deliverables to maximise the speed and quality of legal work. This has been a challenging yet thrilling endeavor as the Company belongs to the hotel gaming industry that operates 24/7 with voluminous transactions and activities daily. During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, several initiatives had to be put in place by the Company to protect the lives and livelihood of the employees and maintain harmonious relations with all stakeholders. This entails a significant amount of legal work revisiting and reviewing existing and future contracts, entering into new ventures with business partners, structuring deals, promoting corporate social responsibility, formulating internal policies and procedures to enhance control mechanisms without curtailing business prospects, and extensively collaborating with Senior Management and various internal units to drive positive changes, formalise best practices, and streamline certain aspects of the organisation to improve efficiency, productivity, and the quality of services to our guests and customers.  

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values? Are you likely to reconsider what firms you work with based on this?   

With unyielding integrity as our foundation, our Company and all its officers and employees are accountable to the following principles.  

A Passion for People: we are in the people business. It is our commitment to be crazy, so to speak, about our employees, customers, and shareholders.  

The Will to Wow: we create amazing stories. We aim to exceed expectations and constantly raise the bar.  

To thrive in teamwork: we believe in the power of together. We aim to vigorously act as one. Choosing external lawyers whose values are aligned with the Company’s values is extremely important.  

In any transaction, there could be alternative legal strategies that can be implemented, all of which may achieve the desired objectives, but not all would serve the interests that we aim to preserve and protect. External lawyers who share our organisation’s values are more likely to understand our priorities and intentions, and how we manage and categorise the risks that we face in our daily operations. This enhances communication, collaboration, and trust between the in-house legal team and the external lawyers. Ultimately, we will certainly reconsider what firms we work with based on the willingness and ability of external lawyers to render legal services that are aligned with the Company’s values. After all, the stakeholders, and even the general public, may perceive inconsistencies or contradictions in legal strategy or structuring of transactions as a symptom of internal conflicts, which will be antithetical to the intended outcome and may even lead to unintended consequences.  

Why are in-house lawyers well-placed to drive change in their organisations?   

Change is almost always intimidating and, to some, even disheartening. The process of change is usually faced with resistance and lack of support because transformation is often seen as disruptive, and the gaps between and among the stakeholders commonly widen post-transition. As part of the organisation, in-house lawyers possess a unique perspective that has its own advantages. First, in-house lawyers possess comprehensive knowledge of their organisation’s institutional history, business operations, strategies, and goals, enabling them to easily identify areas where their legal knowledge and skills may be applied to support operations and, where necessary and applicable, drive change. Second, in-house lawyers enjoy close proximity to the organisation’s senior management, officers, and employees, and are afforded a high level of trust and confidence that gives them the opportunity to closely follow the pulse and rhythm of the key stakeholders and positively influence decisions. Lastly, in-house lawyers, especially those who have grown with their organisations, are not just legal experts, but they are also businessmen who know their industry’s landscape as they also follow the trends and changes that affect the product or service which their organisation offers. In essence, in-house lawyers are in a remarkable position to drive change because of our critical capability to comprehend and balance the strategic intent of the Company with the needs, proficiencies, and even aspirations of the officers and employees. It is extremely crucial to bridge this gap for well-intended changes to succeed as the parties involved could straddle to opposing directions. Effective in-house lawyers, together with other key officers, could become the backbone of such transition and make the task of challenging the perceived norm more acceptable or, at the very least, more endurable, by providing proper guidance and legal advice relevant to the present and stark realities of the organisation as a whole.  

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most? Which have you found most useful in your legal team?  

As in other offices and industries, the technological advancement which I feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams is artificial intelligence. Although it is still in its early stages, I can see its potential, when used wisely and responsibly, in increasing our team members’ productivity and promoting their work-life balance. There can definitely be aspects of legal work and simple tasks which can be delegated to artificial intelligence (“AI”). When AI is properly and conscientiously trained, the in-house legal team’s time can be freed up to focus on more significant, strategic, and influential projects that will benefit the organisation and all its stakeholders. We are already seeing its effects on other fields of human endeavor, which are both exciting and daunting. For now, we are observing the trends in artificial intelligence and waiting for the right time to adapt in such a way that would not adversely disrupt the in-house legal team’s dynamics and interfere with the quality of legal services that we render.