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? 

To ensure compliance with global sanctions regulations, I designed a comprehensive yet simple to use checklist to assist our commercial team. This checklist explained the relevance and applicability of sanctions and improved efficiencies by quickly enabling the team to identify viable prospects and eliminating the risk of inadvertent contravention in often opaque business structures. 

How do you balance your responsibilities as a general counsel with your involvement in dispute resolution and M&A matters? 

Balancing dispute resolution and M&A, among many other responsibilities, is an essential requirement in my position. If given a choice, I would prefer to spend more time on M&A as I find it a more positive enterprise that is focused on improving and strengthening the business. Dispute resolution, in contrast, tends to drain company resources but successful outcomes are no less rewarding. Both areas are integral and dedicating sufficient attention to both is essential. 

What emerging technologies do you see as having the most significant impact on the legal profession in the near future, and how do you stay updated on these developments? 

Without doubt, artificial intelligence will have a profound impact on the legal profession and successfully leveraging its capability is likely to provide significant advantages, but I do not believe that it is going to replace lawyers in the near term. I am exploring the use of AI to accelerate resource intensive tasks, particularly in the area of contract review and legal research, with the hope that it frees up my team to focus on improving other legal functions. I am at the very earliest stages of learning how I can integrate AI into my department and with every new podcast I hear or article I read, I learn about additional capability and possibilities for its use, however, from a practical perspective and in the near to medium term, my hope is that AI will serve as a tireless assistant that the team can leverage to provide fast, high-quality legal advice to the business. There will always be a need for face-to-face discussions in order to build relationships with clients and partners and where new opportunities are explored. Thankfully, I do not see this human element being replaced by AI. 

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? 

Our business is truly global, and I have made a concerted effort to focus on building my team to best meet the needs of the business. This has meant hiring the most capable and qualified person for the position and diversity has been a natural consequence. There are seven people in my team with five women, two men, five nationalities and six languages spoken. I am very proud of how seamlessly we function as a cohesive unit and the credit for that goes to the team. As a leader, one of my obligations (and indeed desires) is to provide an environment where each individual can improve their capability and effectiveness. I do this by assigning full responsibility for outcomes to the team member who has the capacity and relevant expertise, whilst ensuring they know I am a resource they can use to help them achieve their objective. I believe this approach results in generally equitable workloads within the team and provides accelerated individual experience and skill development resulting in higher levels of engagement and improved job satisfaction.