First, can you please give us an idea of the sort of work your team has done recently? 

The work of our team Geographic Compliance & Corporate within the Legal Department is very versatile. We provide legal advice to the leadership, internal corporate functions and other internal stakeholders in Austria, Switzerland and Germany (ASG) on a broad range of regulatory, compliance and business ethics matters, e.g. data privacy, competition law and anti-corruption. We also handle corporate governance and corporate housekeeping matters for all group entities in ASG. This includes restructuring and integration of enterprises acquired by Accenture on a global or local level.

An example of a major, cross-border project we have been working on recently, was the implementation of an EU Directive covering various areas of law for the many countries Accenture is operating within the European Union. Based on a previously existing approach we shaped and defined the future process to ensure compliance with the Directive. A challenge was to align the requirements of all the implementing laws of the different countries into one suitable approach applicable for our enterprise. But it also allowed me to collaborate with many legal colleagues from other jurisdictions and different areas of law, other departments and key stakeholders, all working in a joint effort.

As another example of many, a German Act recently required the review of various processes of Accenture as a globally operating enterprise. Implementing new local laws is particularly challenging as there is of course no jurisprudence available yet.

As these examples show, working in a multinational company today requires more than just legal expertise: Thinking outside the box, soft skills such as excellent communication, project and timeline management, problem-solving skills and teamwork are equally imperative. As the legal landscape has become increasingly complex and interdisciplinary, the legal advisor is in fact a business advisor.

How does your legal strategy change during periods of instability or uncertainty?   

I would not say that my legal strategy changes. A significant part of my daily work consists of identifying, assessing and mitigating legal risks in whatever situation. Stay focused and help navigate smoothly through periods of instability or uncertainty. As a legal advisor, I would continue to be a reliable sparring partner and offer our organisation clear and practical solutions.

Do you make use of any ‘legal tech’ products, and if so, for which areas of your job do you find it most useful?    

I am quite used to an increasing number of tools in my daily work, all with the goal to facilitate the many work-related processes of a large enterprise. The Legal Department is equally and continuously looking into ways of using tools to streamline standard processes, work more efficiently and administrate easier tasks so that we as legal counsels may focus on complex matters. Examples are corporate databases and repositories, tool-based management of requests to the Legal Department, automated processes providing a risk-based legal pre-review (which I find quite useful), legal research, document translation, repositories, invoice review, electronic signatures, etc. It is therefore important to keep an eye on these developments and adapt quickly to new digital platforms. Certainly, Artificial Intelligence will become more relevant for legal departments in the future.