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

Our biggest challenge in the last 12 months has been managing legal and compliance risk in an increasingly regulated sector while at the same time supporting our business teams as they target higher performance under difficult operating conditions. The increasingly challenging operating environments caused by a confluence of the pandemic, the war on Ukraine, rising energy prices and inflationary headwinds have required agility and resilience from all of us. The need for the legal team to provide considered legal guidance on increasingly complex problems has never been greater, and we are having to do so under increasing downward pressures. The good news is that lawyers are trained to look at complex problems from all angles and to find creative risk managed solutions. As a legal team, we are therefore well trained and well placed to provide our business with the meaningful support they need to navigate this challenging environment.

Do you have an example of a time when you have come up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works that did not result in a large expense?

Innovating our thinking beyond a compliant and preventative legal function and towards a value model comes with no financial expense and has materially improved how the legal team works. An in-house legal function that can point to tangible value creation in the balance sheet is sustainable and more likely to be viewed as a true partner to the business. Lawyers are trained to think critically, so we should, particularly when it comes to identifying unnecessary or repetitive legal spend. We ask ‘why’, we ask if it makes sense for the business and we dig deeper than the status quo even when it is not required of the immediate task at hand. For example, in a previous role, one of the company’s secondary listings resulted in high and repeated legal costs from increased regulatory oversight. After years of being overlooked, the listing was investigated by the legal team and found to be bringing little tangible or intangible value to the company. Eliminating unnecessary legal spend, both of time and money, enables you to allocate your resources more efficiently and effectively. This, in turn, allows you to focus on projects where legal can have a meaningful impact on the business and help the business grow in a managed risk environment (all while deriving meaning from your work).

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

In the life sciences sector, you need to be curious and have a willingness to learn. Get stuck in on the science with your research and development team, spend time understanding the products, and get excited about the pipeline. In any business, but particularly a global one, empathy, respect and cultural agility will take you far and help you build long term relationships across the organisation. These are critical to being able to provide effective and proactive legal counsel.