How has the increasing consciousness of climate change and sustainability affected your company and the team’s priorities?

I am proud to say that Storyful’s carbon footprint is relatively small, as we are a social media news and intelligence agency. That said, wherever we see an opportunity to make a change, we do, be it through moving exclusively to electronic signatures or providing re-useable travel mugs for those morning coffees. We’ve also declined to take car parking spaces with our offices across the globe, to encourage more environmentally friendly commutes. And as we look to return to offices in a hybrid nature in 2022, the environmental impact will be a factor in determining strategy.

More broadly, News Corp, who owns Storyful, published its first-ever Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report this year. The report chronicles the policies and day-to-day practices we employ to contribute to a strong governance culture, including in the areas of climate change and sustainability.

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

In-house counsel will continue to be primarily tasked with providing legal advice and overseeing governance and compliance. Additionally, the role will expand to include other areas where a lawyer’s skillset is probably uniquely fine-tuned to assist. These areas of expansion include regulatory and government affairs, employee relations, cyber security, brand reputation, enterprise risk and crisis management, among others. When you look at the list, you will see that it is quite a diverse and expansive range of areas, so lawyers need to be adaptable, strategic, and excellent time managers.

I can see a trend towards the role of general counsel being rebranded in many functions to being chief legal officer. This is an acknowledgement of the expanded function, and the C-suite status of the role.

As we enter the next decade, what skills will a corporate legal team need to succeed in the modern in-house industry?

I’ve seen some commentary about us operating in a VUCA environment, where VUCA stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous. I think that accurately depicts some of the challenges facing businesses and their legal teams. Adaptability is more important than ever in the in-house world. In-house counsel does not have that luxury of opting out of certain matters and will increasingly be expected to display a range of non-traditional skills to succeed, ranging from financial acumen to change management expertise. We will still be expected to bring legal excellence and executive presence, but the lines are becoming increasingly blurred. In fact, in many ways between the modern legal team and the business, they are no longer visible. That said, there will still be a role for the in-house legal team to take a step back from the business to provide an objective and neutral perspective on matters.