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

Our legal team has been involved in a diverse array of legal matters and a few recent examples include:

Facilitating huge transaction: We played a crucial role in facilitating a transaction valued at RM200m with our business partner. Throughout the process, we ensured that all legal aspects of the transaction were properly addressed to safeguard our company’s interests.

Digital signature and contract management technology: We provided legal support to our company’s plan in implementing digital signature and contract management technology, aiming to enhance the efficiency of our business operations. This involved ensuring compliance with relevant laws and regulations as well as advising on data privacy and security matters.

Successful litigation in court: We have been working closely with our external lawyers to ensure our company receives excellent legal representation in court. Through meticulous preparation and strategic planning, we consistently achieve victory in court. In a recent triumph, we successfully defended against a contract action brought against our company. These examples illustrate the breadth of our legal team’s capability in handling diverse legal matters. From facilitating huge transactions to supporting technology implementation and excelling in courtroom litigation, we are committed to providing comprehensive legal support to our company and ensuring its continued success.

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values? Are you likely to reconsider what firms you work with based on this?

We view our company’s external lawyers as an extension of our legal team, entrusted with the pivotal role of representing our interests in the matters they handle. Recognising that they carry our company’s image when dealings with third parties, we attach great importance to their alignment with our values in determining the best fit for our external lawyers. We believe that when our external lawyers share our values, this fosters a sense of cohesion where they can provide legal representation that is exquisitely tailored to reflect our vision. By upholding our values in their professional endeavors, our external lawyers will be able to effectively safeguard our company’s reputation throughout all their engagements.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most? Which have you found most useful in your legal team?

Gartner predicted that legal departments are expected to increase their technology spending to approximately 12% of their budget by 2025, a threefold increase from the levels observed in 2020. This indicates that in-house lawyers recognise the potential of technological advancements in reducing administrative burdens and enhancing overall efficiency. The technological advancements which can contribute to this include cloud technology, virtual meeting technology, contract management technology, online research databases and artificial intelligence. Among these, AI stands out as holding the most promise for transforming the way in-house lawyers operate, both positively and negatively. AI has the ability to automate tasks and alleviate repetitive work such as drafting low risk contracts. This frees up valuable time for in-house lawyers, enabling them to focus on higher-value work. However, the use of AI may also lead to a reduction in the number of in-house lawyers as many of their responsibilities are taken over by AI. For instance, instead of drafting contracts, in-house lawyers now review the contracts drafted by AI. Nevertheless, the use of AI does not imply a complete replacement of in-house lawyers. Human oversight remains indispensable to ensure the accuracy of the works produced by AI. Recently, a New York lawyer faced sanctions for relying on ChatGPT to write his brief which was found to contain fake citations and this incident serves as a cautionary tale. It emphasises the importance of human oversight in maintaining the integrity and ethical standards of the legal profession. Simply put, the use of AI can be likened to a double-edged sword, carrying the potential for both advantageous and challenging implications to in-house lawyers.