Earlier this year, in the face of weak commodity prices and a slowdown in China, mining giant Anglo American announced that it would undergo a radical restructuring, cutting more than half its staff and disposing of a large number of assets. In the context of a substantial reduction in headcount across the board and a severe pressure on departmental budgets, the legal team has become something of a laboratory for devising innovative working methods. As a result, the 20 lawyer Anglo American Group Legal South Africa (GLSA) team, led by head of legal Kevin Lester, has been the ‘vanguard of shifting billing practices [and] negotiating alternative fee arrangements’ in the local market. In particular, the team’s use of legal project management and legal process outsourcers (LPOs) to improve efficiency, predictability and cost-effectiveness – something new to the South African legal market – has helped it continue to provide standout service in the face of shrinking budgets. According to Lester, ‘GLSA has spent considerable time and effort developing processes and identifying external resources to support it in building a [suitable] model. The basis of this model is adaptable across the spectrum of work that GLSA attends to. Over six years, we have reduced external spend by in excess of 50% (without adjustment from inflation), at least a third of which has been realised in the past two years’. So far, Lester and his team have used LPOs to handle GLSA-created template commercial agreements, run selected due diligence, support litigations, and assist in the project management of complex, multi-disciplinary matters. In the face of cost pressures, the legal team has also made strategic contributions to a number of extremely important matters. It helped initiate a public interest litigation on behalf of Anglo American and Anglo American Platinum, seeking to clarify the position of employees with respect to administrators, and was at the forefront of an initiative seeking fair and sustainable compensation for mineworkers who suffer from occupational lung diseases. It has also handled employee-facing dimensions of the corporate restructuring without any strikes or labour court referrals. The team has been active in overseeing many of the company’s disposals as part of its global restructuring; legal were involved in the sale of its Rustenburg mines, De Beers’ Namaqualand and Kimberley assets, as well as the ongoing disposals of coal and iron ore assets. In spite of the cost pressures it is under, the legal team has also found time to contribute to worthy social projects, with 40% of its external spend directed toward lawyers from historically disadvantaged backgrounds, helping to promote the increased involvement of black South African lawyers in complex legal matters. The team has also created a number of bursaries and internships for disadvantaged students who wish to study law, one of the only legal departments in the country to offer such a program.