About

‘When studying law’, Maike Weber recalls, ‘I was not aware in-house positions like the role I have at Native Instruments even existed’. These days are far behind her, and she now oversees the daily global operations as head of legal for a leading music soft- and hardware tech company. Extremely forward-thinking in line with the rest of the company, Weber regards ‘integrating digitalisation and realising how much easier all these great new tools can make a lawyer’s life – so that even the necessary administrative work can be fun’ – as among the most enjoyable aspects of her recent time at the company, and adds that the Native Instruments legal department is among the most satisfied of the whole company based on recent survey results. Going forward, Weber believes that most in-house counsel at large companies have stopped being the traditionally pejorative stereotype of business obstructers long ago. ‘The good analytical and organisational skills of in-house counsel can now be used much better. Thanks to their good overview, in-house counsel can provide support in linking resources within the company, and the broad general know-how many in-house counsel have due to the various topics they get in touch with during their work, could support projects better the earlier the in-house counsel get involved’, Weber says.