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

Over the past year, Philips has been undertaking a recall and remediation programme. Supporting this important matter has been a priority for the legal team. This matter has required careful project management attention and coordination with many stakeholders. The department has scaled up to support this programme. We have also continued to support other transactional sales needs. It has been important for the department to precisely and effectively manage a wide array of matters forming part of the portfolio. For sales matter management, a previously implemented programme has matured and has been particularly value-adding this year. Following the organic growth of our sales matter management process, my team and I ran a lean project on the process a few years back. The project’s key objective was to ensure our transactional sales lawyers were focusing their time on high-priority matters while ensuring other sales matters were managed promptly. Our internal stakeholders all had competing work turnaround time expectations and were engaging legal in silo. We found the key to better prioritisation was strategically identifying high-priority matters aligned with company goals and risk with the business-wide agreement. The changes to how legal accepted matters and prioritisation were implemented via change management and internal teams and continuously fine-tuned over the last few years between the department and our experienced contract management team. This work programme has allowed us to prioritise sales matters into categories, each with separate work turnaround times, methods of work acceptance (including via a portal) and resources. It has improved internal stakeholder expectation management with business agreements upfront on work prioritisation models. Regular internal stakeholder stand-ups and clear allocation of ownership of issues have upskilled business teams and provided an agile framework. Overall, this model has streamlined our way of working on sales matters and improved our alignment on end business goals.

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

Even with matter intake tools and templates, in-house legal teams will receive a high volume of low-value matters. Response times on minor issues can still lead to internal bottlenecks. I look forward to a secure in-house Smartbot to point the business in the right direction. Ability to be pre-programmed to provide answers to simple legal questions, with upgrades that include changes to laws and policies. Over time, this could become a valuable knowledge base and IP specific to the company’s needs. This technology can free up the legal team and empower the business to make decisions quickly.

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

A high standard of compliance requirements must be adhered to when interacting with healthcare professionals. Australia also has robust healthcare and consumer regulations. It is crucial to have a thorough understanding of these issues. Healthcare sales in Australia have a high volume of transactional work, with healthcare procurement responsibilities being State based and sometimes hospital specific. A good understanding of the State health procurement and tendering procedures and funding models is a key asset. Also, as healthcare services transition into digital platforms, remote monitoring and telehealth, lawyers must be willing to adapt to change and evolving technology and understand related risk issues.