How do you feel the pandemic has changed the world of work for in-house counsel and the function of the general counsel?    

It is not about the forum you work in but how you commit to connecting with your team and ensuring teamwork. Regardless of if you work in the office or not, an effective communication commitment from each team member, being available to talk through challenges and problems, and bridging the gap between the legal and business departments by checking-in and showing interest in strategic projects, is important.

Moreover, the pandemic requires us to be more mindful towards our colleagues and customers to understand their professional and personal situations, to align the workload, common targets and priorities and reach business objectives in an effective and smooth way.

Furthermore, the remote working environment requires in-house counsel and general counsel to be constantly in touch with the key leadership stakeholders to understand the business priorities as well as to constantly observe and analyse the changing market environment, customer preferences, value creation to draw and update the legal strategy roadmap and deliver on the ground actions to minimise risks. The general counsel needs to provide long-term strategic direction for the legal department as well as ensuring customer centricity and fast solution-finding in short term actions.

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

Be one of the team: the better you integrate into business, the more understanding you have of the corporate objectives and visions, and thus can be a more useful legal partner and ensure you reduce the legal and compliance risk exposure as much as possible. The general counsel needs to balance short term crisis management and long-term strategy view for the legal function, based on the executive board strategic roadmap.

The general counsel and other senior legal professionals are required to practice agile, growth-oriented, and positive leadership to support the mental wellbeing of their employees and ensure professional delivery of services. The pandemic is an opportunity for the general counsel and the senior legal professionals to review existing legal practices, innovate and simplify them, follow the value system of the company (in our case, gaming, and the solid ethical rules of Entain) and further reduce corporate risks.

Since the pandemic will stay and the war for talents keeps intensifying, the general counsel needs to invest in talent and skill development of their team. This can be seen as an opportunity for the general counsel to foster a digital and innovative learning culture and develop e.g., legal tech solutions with the IT department or external partners, all required to be a success as an in-house lawyer.