Team size: 22

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

The cyber-attacks that have exponentially increased in the past years pose a great challenge to business and create privacy risks.

Alongside the increase in privacy concerns, we are evidence of a privacy trend across the globe. Privacy is my main area of focus these days. While we see privacy being established in Europe, the rest of the world follows. In many countries (Israel, Russia, China, Australia, Argentina) there was relevant legislation already, but now we observe it being enforced, and legislation amended to enable substantial enforcement. This trend creates a great challenge for global companies that have to align with local regulations. For example, the data breach reporting obligation in EU is within 72 hours, while in other countries is immediate (Japan), within 2 days (Brazil), without undue delay (Chile) and so on. The matter gets even more complicated when transferring personal data from one country to the other, and in global companies this is done on a daily basis. Some countries allow the transfer on a basis of adequacy decision (EU, Thailand for example), other require a consent (Argentina), some require a double consent (China- for the transfer and for the processing, separately), and some require the consent to state that the privacy laws governing the transfer might not provide as strong protection as the local ones (Australia). Moreover, the legal basis for processing personal data might be different, while in the EU a company may base processing on legitimate interest of the company, this is not a valid legal basis for processing personal data in others (Israel, Japan, China, Australia).

The planned country-based privacy legislation across the US adds to this complexity, we have California’s legislation of 2022(amended in 2023), Virginia in 2023, and others follow in 2024 and onwards.

Therefore, I foresee that the expertise in privacy per country must significantly be developed in every global company in-house department.

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

For an in-house lawyer to be successful in the pharmaceutical industry, one must have broad understanding of all pharmaceutical markets aspects, from R&D, PHV, and regulatory filings, to medical, marketing and commercialisation. As well as this, they must have a deep understanding in different aspects of law: IP, privacy, commercial, anti-trust, labour, litigation, contracts, and compliance. For us at Teva, in addition to this broad view, one would need a global understanding of the laws and nuances, as well as deep business orientation. It is significantly helpful to have a scientific background to be able to “speak the same language” as the scientists in the company.

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

Global companies require solutions, even when the legal framework is local. We expect the external law firm to assist in setting global standards that will allow us to set global standards that would suit all countries’ legislation, and to simplify the global policies. In addition, the in-house position needs prompt and “to the point” advice. Law firms would need to be supported with accurate and on-time advice that relates to a specific legal question.