Team size: Nine
Major legal advisers: Herbert Smith Freehills, Willkie Farr Gallagher
 

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? 

When I joined CEVA in 2019, I worked hard to create a legal team from scratch, focusing primarily on communication and interaction between the team, other departments, and external counsel.  

Sometimes the best innovation comes from simple tools, for example, shared folders and mailing lists. This allows my team to save time in sending different documents, now when we are involved in a project, we create shared folders where all people can exchange documents and information both internally and externally. This way we can keep track of the documentation and, if it is requested again, we have a common repository which we can access easily. This method of communication and interaction is also used for keeping the company’s books, enabling us to promptly meet the requests of our supervisory bodies, which have access to these files.  

In addition, we have started using Asana for the management of all legal team workflows as well as Doodle, an online calendar management tool, to schedule board and supervisory meetings.
 

How would you assess the impact of new technologies on the legal landscape in Italy, and what measures would you propose to leverage these technologies while ensuring compliance with relevant laws and regulations? 

The impact of new technologies is innovative but at the same time dangerous. It is important to create internal guidelines and policies to explain to all employees the seriousness of the consequences of technology and artificial intelligence. It is necessary to appoint a chief digital and innovation officer, and to put in place proper risk assessment, pointing out all the red flags and conduct to avoid, for example, downplaying the importance of data breaches.
 

How do you prioritise diversity and inclusion within your legal department, and what initiatives have you implemented to foster a more inclusive and equitable work environment? 

I am sensitive to the way my team feels at work. If they do not feel comfortable, they cannot perform at their best, and they may consider leaving the business, therefore you lose your resources and talent. It is important to invest in each of them, nurturing their skills and potential. 

Last year, we did a psychological activity with a life coach, in which we shared the positive and negative feelings we experienced during the work week and analysed the benefits of focusing on the positive feelings. After this reflection, we were able to define a more positive way of working. My team consists of people from different generations, and this is our strength, especially since the latest generation (Z) provides more creativity and open-mindedness than previous generations; on the other hand, our oldest generation (X) reminds us of the need to respect rules and the middle generation (Y) is the balance between them.
 

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

I am passionate about event management as I enjoy sharing thoughts and moments between people. Although I oversee the legal department, I care about organising events, not only with my legal team, but also with the board of directors of which I am a member. In line with this passion, I recently founded an association with other general counsels where we discuss hot topics, experiences and advice. Our association is actively organising events and workshops on different topics, such as artificial intelligence, M&A and more, with the common goal of supporting one another. 

Finally, I am organising legal training courses for non-legal colleagues in our academy to make them aware of legal issues and risks. To incentivise employees to study legal issues and participate actively, during the training we provide several tests, using the Slido tool, at the end of which the first four employees will win a sports-related prize. This ensures sustainability from a social point of view, as employees can relate to each other in a healthy sports context.