Team size: Five

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most?

I think there has been great progress with respect to technological advancement in the legal operations area. As a regional general counsel, it is great to see the technological benefits through new automated systems, apps and artificial intelligence for contract management, case management, knowledge sharing and procurement.

With this technological progress, in-house lawyers will have the chance to free time to focus more on where they can make the biggest impact. This will also allow quicker services to the line of business.

What is a cause, business related or otherwise, that you care about, and why?

Working in the healthcare industry, I care a lot about how to serve the patients that rely on our products in the best way possible. Most of our products are “life-saving,” and we need to do our best to cooperate with health authorities and healthcare professionals to provide treatment access to patients. It makes a big difference to have patients at the centre of everything we do.

What would you say are the unique qualities required to be successful as an in-house lawyer in your industry?

In the healthcare industry, I would think of three qualities required to be successful as in-house lawyer:

Focus on what matters the most. As in-house lawyers, we are supporting the whole value chain from R&D to distribution, and there are many tasks to handle. We should be thinking about where our contribution can make the biggest impact and assess the criticality of the matters as well.

We can be more. We should not box ourselves as in-house lawyers and we should be courageous to go out to the field, understand the operations and work to add more value for the patients and business.

We need to build our network and ensure connection with colleagues and peers both in legal functions and other functions. Sometimes, the most valuable information comes from an unexpected source.

What can law firms do to improve their service to the legal department?

We are very lucky to have great law firms in the Middle East and here in the UAE. For the law firms to improve their service to in-house legal department, they should create more opportunities where best practices and learnings can be shared, for example, panels and seminars. It would also be interesting to have short and interesting podcasts on new legal developments.