In what ways do you see the in-house legal role evolving in your region over the next few years?

The in-house legal role is becoming more integral, covering areas beyond providing legal support such as regulatory matters and corporate affairs, risk and crisis management, addressing sustainability and defending the brand’s reputation. This will require the legal team member to be more generalist with soft skills and abilities to integrate all aspects of the business.

To succeed, leaders of the legal teams should consolidate themselves as engaged business leaders, ensuring that the legal area’s goals and key performance indicators are fully aligned with the company’s business plan. They should adopt a strategic approach when providing legal advice, allowing flexibility in decision-making. Leaders must identify potential in their team to implement specific strategies aimed at enhancing the skills of key employees.

Investing in technology is essential in order to respond to the new fast-paced work environment that requires a rapid and accurate response from legal teams.

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

Covid-19 has brought the opportunity for in-house counsel to become more open-minded and less reluctant when it comes to technological tools. Automatisation of processes should be considered, and some of these activities could be monitored and completed by personnel with a non-legal background. For instance, artificial intelligence is a powerful tool when it comes to reviewing and due diligence of land titles or corporate transactions.

If you had to give advice to an aspiring in-house lawyer or general counsel, what would it be and why?

I would tell them to look at the role as something that goes beyond just providing legal advice. They must consider themselves as business partners, able to understand the goals and objectives of the company to integrate these into their day-to-day role, providing more strategic support to their organisations.