Team size: 47 

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?  

I am very proud of conceiving and launching Legal Practice Groups, a platform for what I call “crowdlawyering”. Because we have diverse lawyers, whether generalists or specialists, I wanted to avoid a silos mentality and enhance radical collaboration across teams. 

The Practice Groups are voluntary teams dedicated to a specific topic, such digital law or energy transition, with two co-leaders and other participants who choose to get involved. The goal is for the Practice Groups to create a platform for collaboration and rely on this collaborative effort to produce new templates, tools, standards, and training.  

In just 18 months, the Practice Groups have created over 12 new legal templates; launched a new commercial legal website; and delivered over 70 hours of training, including on complex topics relating to energy transition and public funding. The participants love the experience and have established much stronger ties with their colleagues, while learning and contributing to shaping the future of the company.  

The entire project costs essentially nothing, because it does not require any organisational change or other investments; we simply collaborate! We also partner with our long-term external providers to receive free or affordable trainings on key new topics of the law.  

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

Artificial intelligence will obviously change the way we work, and the type of risks general counsel will have to manage. Far from eliminating lawyers, I believe artificial intelligence will allow them to be more productive by focusing on high-impact and high-risk tasks.  

Furthermore, more – not less – lawyers will be needed to address the numerous concerns raised by Artificial Intelligence on matters like ethics, diversity, equity and inclusion, copyright, privacy, discrimination, defamation, and cybersecurity, among others. 

Artificial intelligence will, however, inevitably make the world of legal services more competitive, sophisticated, and innovative. Visionary lawyers will emerge and lawyers who focus on more routine and reactive tasks are at risk of being left behind.  

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

I am very passionate about the energy transition. The company I lead is a leader in energy transition and is developing innovative technologies to help address the existential challenge of global warming. Given the role that energy plays in enabling growth and progress, and its impact on the environment, it is an amazing industry to be in to make a real difference.   

I am also passionate about the opportunities and risks that come with digital technologies, including artificial intelligence. Digital technology will continue to disrupt the world and the legal profession, but lawyers will play a vital role in helping ensure that these technologies are used as a force for good, rather than evil.   

What steps do you take to ensure effective communication and collaboration with external counsel and other stakeholders during the dispute resolution process?   

We take a very proactive approach; litigation fees are generally capped and one of our internal counsel closely oversees every stage of the matter, including every submission, selection, and deposition. Our external providers understand how we work and advise and support us in close partnership, while realising that we expect to lead the matter from a strategic point of view, given our unique understanding of the business needs and goals.