Team size: Three

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

My team consists of one legal counsel responsible for corporate matters in EMEA, one legal counsel for commercial and compliance matters in EMEA, one PA, and myself (responsible for all 3 areas in EMEA). Given the small size of the team relative to the size of the company, we work hard to accommodate the needs of the business and at the same time aim to be at the forefront with new regulations, policy implementation, training to ensure the risk of the business is minimised. We have frequent M&A deals of varying sizes, larger confidential projects, many complex contract negotiations and we are building up a string compliance programme and carrying out training to all relevant employees in EMEA.

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

In-house lawyers need to be more and more business-minded, creative in their thinking and be able to provide more support in less time. With the help of different tools, we can achieve a lot more in-house and only use external counsel in certain specialised and high-risk matters. In our team we must be generalists, as we advise the business on all legal matters (except GDPR with is handled by a different team) and at the same time be specialised in many areas to support the business properly. With the help our preferred external lawyers, we ensure that we keep up to date with new laws and regulations and make the necessary changes in-house.

How have you fostered a closer collaboration between the legal department and your business counterparts?

I make a point of ensuring that we meet face-to-face with the business contact throughout larger projects. Advice is much better provided when we understand all aspects of the deal at hand, our pain points, risk appetite and must wins, from a business perspective. We aim to be facilitators whilst managing the risks of the business.

Do you have a cause, business-related or otherwise, that you are passionate about?

I care deeply about building a healthy workplace culture. Both in the way we balance work and life but also how employees must be empowered and trusted. Without an inspiring culture, employees will lack motivation over time.