What are some of the legal challenges that IT companies face in the development and use of emerging technologies in their products?

The first–and perhaps most obvious – challenge is that laws and guidance inevitably struggle to keep up with emerging technologies, forcing companies to adopt positions and interpretations around how they believe a regulator or court will interpret out-dated rules. Second, online service providers often provide services on a regional or global basis, which requires us to try to adjust to jurisdictional differences and ensure we do the best by our customers. That certainly presents a challenge.

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

The role is likely to evolve in a few directions. Namely, there will be: greater use of vendors that provide automated technologies and thematic one stop shop platforms to support different legal/business projects and compliance programmes; more reliance on legal service contractors to support spikes in demand for legal services (for instance around contract negotiation); and further development of sophisticated legal operations teams within the in-house legal functioning that drive implementation of legal projects.

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

In our sector, a key skill will be having an openness to and engagement with new tools that help us do our job better.

We will also need to pre-empt approaches to innovation and an ability to respond to new developments in our business or sector and employ practices that drive cross-functional collaboration while embedding the in-house team in the business.