Team size: 18

Can you give an idea of the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

European energy market:

Our playground is the energy sector. We are trading power, gas, certificates and related products and services. The past years have been hectic, with what has been named an ‘energy crisis’ in Europe. The energy markets and related risks, as we used to know have changed. Volatility and price levels reached extreme levels during 2022, and the EU enforced emergency intervention regulation. Danske Commodities is active in 40 countries in Europe and the countries are at different stages in the implementation of the EU regulation. Hence, there is still uncertainty of the impact in several jurisdictions. Further, some states have implemented extensive local regulation on top of the EU regulation, which makes the legislative environment opaque. Our Legal & Compliance team has focused on advising our business in navigating in this as good as possible. It has been challenging but also very exciting.

Danske Commodities global journey:

In the last few years, Danske Commodities has focused on our global journey establishing trading desks in US, Singapore and Brazil. Our playground has, up until then, been Europe. Our expansion outside Europe has been supported by our Legal & Compliance team. Where we have been used to focus on the EU, we now must have legal and compliance setup for US, Singapore and Brazil and we are starting to have team members sitting remote together with our trading teams. Our focus has been on, beside getting in depth knowledge about local legislation and requirements, building both network and local knowledge.

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

AI and robotics; if we utilise the speed and accuracy of artificial intelligence in standardised tasks, our legal counsel will be able to focus on the more complex legal affairs. This will not only free up a lot of time, but also ensure that our legal counsel stay challenged and motivated.

What can law firms do to improve their service to the legal department?

Be closer to their clients and its business. Understand our business and the commercial risks. Often, we could refrain from contacting an external advisor because it becomes too complex to explain our business and the background for the advice we are seeking.

How has your legal team progressed on issues of diversity and inclusion (D&I), and what are the main benefits or challenges of working in a diverse environment?

D&I is a focus area for our company. Firstly, it allows us to attract talent from a broad range of backgrounds, which only enhanced team performance. Of course, it is also a challenge to have all employees successfully onboarded and obtaining a team culture that works.