How do you feel the pandemic has changed the world of work for in-house counsel and the function of the general counsel?

The pandemic has dramatically changed the work environment for in-house counsel and working from home has become the new normal. Family and household obligations converge with the workload, and our living room has become our workplace instead. Video conferences have replaced face-to-face connections. HPE’s very advanced technology and tools allowed a quick switch to remote working guaranteeing the full effectiveness and productivity of the team, keeping the team members’ wellbeing and inclusion as a top priority. There is no single blueprint for remote working given people’s different habits, preferences and family situations that are unique to every team member. The secret for a legal department to remain successful during these disruptive times consists of maintaining a balance between work and personal life as well as fostering an inclusive and collaborative work environment. We have implemented a set of virtual collaborations – best practices in the legal department to provide guidance on how to keep connecting with team members and raising awareness around unconscious bias to create a fully inclusive workplace.

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Numerous deals and transactions have been closed over the past year – one of the greatest achievements of the department has been the legal and contractual implementation of the HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud solution. The platform enables customers to convert their workload into a cloud operating model, built to manage multiple data types and formats and supporting the applications across all sectors. Through this innovative solution the infrastructure capacity is delivered ‘as-a-service’ on premises, fully managed in a pay-per-use model at the edge, in co-location and in the customer data centre.

What do you feel are the pros and cons of an in-house legal role compared to a private practice one?

Nowadays, an in-house counsel must bring more to the table than just legal expertise. As is often said, we must be more than just lawyers. It is increasingly demanded that in-house legal teams act as strategic business partners to their businesses. They must be able to solve problems and make critical decisions usually in a very short time frame, sharing power and responsibilities with their business colleagues to achieve the success of the company. Compared to their colleagues in private practice, it is key for in-house counsel to have not only excellent legal skills, but also an in-depth understanding of the company’s business targets, main challenges and key drivers for success.