Team size: 15 

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? 

In my role in KDIPA, tasked with overseeing FDI projects, our legal vetting process was time-consuming. Time is money, even in government agencies. Our legal team spent hours vetting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects. Delays were holding up important investments, and nobody liked that. Traditional ways of doing things were not cutting it anymore.  

Before you can fix a problem, you need to know what it is. So, we sat down and figured out what was slowing us down. In government terms, we were trying to ‘optimise our workflows’. In real terms, we needed to speed things up without missing important legal issues.  

To address this, I initiated an ‘Innovative Legal Thinking’ session—pow-wow with the legal beagles and compliance hawks. We were not reinventing the wheel but looking for a faster way to roll it.  

We did not need expensive software or an army of consultants. We needed templates and checklists. These are your bread and butter in law. We got together with experts in international law and FDI. We made a killer set of templates for all the standard stuff and a checklist longer than your arm for the rest.  

It automated the easy decisions. We built a decision-tree model using Excel (yes, Excel!) to quickly assess whether an FDI project passes the smell test on legal and compliance fronts. If it does not, it is flagged for deeper review. Simple as that.  

We cut down the initial vetting time by 35%. Approvals got faster, and that’s good for everyone. We became the go-to agency for FDI because we were not bottlenecking the process.  

The Costs are essentially zero. We used in-house talent and existing software. Senior leadership loved it so much that it got a shout-out in our annual report.  

You do not need to break the bank to innovate. Look in-house first. Your team has the skills to make your workflow leaner and meaner. 

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

Being a general counsel in an FDI-focused agency is not about juggling tasks; it’s about hitting the bullseye where it matters most. We don’t do M&A, but we have full our hands with high-stakes, cross-border investments. A dispute can not only derail a project but can also have political and economic implications.  

Here’s my game plan: First, stop fires before they start. We have a risk framework like a smoke alarm; it warns us if something’s amiss. That way, I can focus on keeping our agency’s legal house in order without putting out fires left and right.  

Second, do not be a hero; be a coach. I have a team of legal MVPs, and we are in the game together. Regular huddles ensure we’re strategising like a well-oiled machine. So, if a dispute lands on my desk, I can handle it without dropping the ball on compliance or advisory work.  

Finally, it is about keeping an eye on the scoreboard. Regular catch-ups with leadership keep everyone on the same page. You can only balance responsibilities if aligned with what the top brass sees as a ‘win.’  

In short, preemptive risk management, teamwork, and alignment with leadership keep all the plates spinning. Disputes are inevitable, but derailing our main objectives is not. 

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? 

In terms of emerging technologies, a few game-changers are on the horizon that every legal professional should watch. First up is AI and machine learning. Imagine a computer that thinks like a lawyer but does not bill by the hour. That’s the dream, and we’re getting closer. AI can sift through data faster than you can say ‘objection!’. It is excellent for research, e-discovery, and predictive analytics. Get ready; this is where the money’s at.  

Next is Blockchain. It is still on the fringes, but imagine contracts that are not just smart but also secure and self-executing without needing a middleman. It is not mainstream yet, but it is on the horizon.