What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

The global expansion of our business, while extremely exciting, has been a significant challenge for both the legal function and the business over the last year. Two of our manufacturing businesses expanded into The US and The UK respectively. It has been difficult navigating multiple jurisdictions, having limited ability to travel and establish relationships with the international staff, key suppliers, customers and professional services providers. I have taken great pride in being a key member of the executive team, leading the expansion to achieve key strategic objectives. while ensuring this is done according to all regulatory requirements – both Australian and international.

Concurrently, we have a busy domestic operation that also continues to expand in terms of size, product and service offering, while entering new markets and geographic locations. Resourcing the legal function – both internally and to external services providers – has also been difficult due to the current employee labour market. Having the right resourcing is fundamental to the success of our business operations, particularly when undertaking an international expansion, which as the general counsel, I need to dedicate time to. It is crucial to have dependable hands to constantly support domestic operations.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future most?

As the demand to increase deliverables and take on larger workloads rises, teams that fail to introduce or advance legal technologies will be doing a disservice to their business. In-house teams need to continuously find ways to efficiently provide services and businesses need to innovatively and efficiently offer products and services to their customers and other stakeholders. This will ultimately drive improved profitability across businesses.

The adoption of legal technology in in-house legal teams will have a significantly positive impact. Artificial intelligence and other automation that quickly deliver solutions especially on repetitive tasks make resources available to focus on the more technical and difficult legal issues faced by businesses. It involves optimization of legal teams, allowing lawyers attend to the most important matters. The adoption and advancement of technology should also reduce costs through leaner in-house teams and less external briefing of tasks that can be automatically completed.

What would you say are the unique qualities required to be successful as an in-house lawyer in your industry?

I believe any good lawyer can be a good in-house lawyer. Being a successful lawyer that is extremely valued by the business is somewhat of a rare art. It requires awareness of all legal issues and regulatory requirements affecting your business and industry alongside a thorough understanding and genuine passion for that business and the industry in which it operates. I truly believe there are so many unique qualities that are genuinely crucial to being a successful in-house lawyer, such as:

Excellent commercial acumen and good business skills.

Excellent communication skills.

Strategic thinker and decision maker

Confidence with humility

Innovativeness and adaptability. Businesses constantly strive to increase revenue and profitability, improve manufacturing efficiencies and capacity and deliver a return to all shareholders and stakeholders. An in-house lawyer needs to quickly adapt to the changing business needs and find ways to provide the best possible advice for the business in the most economical and useable way.