Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense? 

The most important and most cost-effective innovation we have implemented to improve the legal team has been tools for knowledge and information sharing. We implemented this through four methods. Firstly, DocuSign; secondly, internal knowledge creation and sharing; thirdly, document storage and sharing; and finally, the use of videoconferencing technologies.
 

Can you foresee any key developments to the way general counsel work over the next five years? 

I believe that emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, process automation and blockchain will continue to grow. General counsel will be able to use these technologies to improve operational efficiency, data management and legal information processing. Furthermore, with the increase in cyber threats and growing concerns about data privacy, general counsel will have to take an active role in protecting sensitive company information. They will be responsible for managing data breaches, security policies and compliance with privacy laws. In any case, general counsel must develop a new mindset and always be ready to learn in order to meet new challenges, including technological ones, by riding the wave of change and learning from their own and others’ experience, both successes and mistakes. 

Although we cannot predict where new technologies will take us, we need to start familiarising ourselves with them now by stepping out of our comfort zone. But beware of the rhetorical phrase ‘getting out of one’s comfort zone’. By nature, we are always looking for a comfort zone. Only a masochist would find pleasure in living perpetually in an uncomfortable condition. Stepping out of one’s comfort zone’ means challenging oneself in unfamiliar situations, pushing oneself outside one’s usual boundaries and enduring the resulting discomfort. All this is to enter the optimal learning zone. Once the improvement is achieved, anxiety and stress will disappear, and we will be comfortable again and have thus expanded our comfort zone. A solid background, learning from experience and having an open mind; only then will the general counsel be able to cope with the problems that will arise from new challenges.
 

What is a cause, business-related or otherwise, you are passionate about, and why? 

I am passionate about tackling and solving new problems. I believe that flexibility and creativity are specific characteristics of general counsel, as it is with these, we solve problems. We are like engineers. We solve problems by producing creative and visionary solutions. In our work we are always facing new problems that require new and often ‘tailor-made’ solutions. I work in an industry, like the energy sector, where each project has its own specific characteristics, not only operational but also legal. Each project is linked to an EPC contract. Therefore, each contract is different hence the need to find tailor-made solutions.