Team size: 13 

Major legal advisers: HSF, CMS, Bracewell, White & Case 

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? 

An automated system for drafting, reviewing, negotiating, signing, filing, and tracking the NDAs was one of the efficient in-house solutions that we implemented in 2021 which has significantly eased off the time and efforts of our in-house legal resources, speeded up the non-disclosure management processes and introduced better monitoring and tracking of all executed NDAs. 

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

As part of my general counsel role, I manage the legal side of negotiating, structuring, and executing accretive acquisitions identified by the management team and aim to do that as efficiently and protectively as possible to achieve the best deal value for Dragon Oil. The M&A work gives me and my in-house legal team the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with our management on important M&A matters. Whilst working on such M&A matters, we aim to identify the management’s top business objectives and how a particular deal or deals could help meet those objectives. Such identified objectives assist the legal division in delivering legal advice on how to structure and execute a transaction. 

Whilst working on a specific M&A transaction, and to balance my other responsibilities during any intense M&A transactional work, I always aim to field an experienced in-house lawyer within the Dragon team and, in parallel, utilise one of our panel law firms who are M&A experts in assessing the various legal and regulatory risks of each deal and who can help us to achieve reasonable allocation of risks between Dragon Oil as buyer and a seller through well-structured and well-drafted transaction documentation. 

Can you foresee any key developments to the way general counsel work over the next five years? 

The role of general counsel will continue evolving from being a mere legal adviser to being an adviser on corporate affairs, societal, reputational, and geopolitical aspects impacting the business. The general counsel will continue dealing more extensively with additional issues relating to trade compliance and sanctions and their business impact, ESG and HR-related matters touching on diversity and inclusion. Given the geopolitical events in Ukraine and Russia, ongoing sustainability efforts across the globe, and the need to meet the diversity and inclusion needs, general counsel will potentially evolve into a central function building on collaboration with people’s officers, risk managers, sustainability, and sanctions specialists. 

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? 

Dragon Oil is an international oil and gas company owned by ENOC (Emirates National Oil Company) which operates in frontier emerging markets that require incumbent in-house lawyers to possess upstream experience as well as language capabilities and understanding the nuances of host government practices in Turkmenistan, Iraq, and Egypt. Given the broad range of legal skills required of in-house counsel, I had recruited new lawyers to the team back in 2021 (with some additional recruitment expected this year) to establish a diverse blend of international and local expertise in the energy sector together with specialist disputes counsel. There is a strong emphasis on developing the young national workforce in the UAE, Turkmenistan and Egypt which places a requirement on more senior members of the legal department to train and develop such young legal talent. As part of the initiative to bring young national talent on board with the legal division, an intentional hiring plan was created, that puts emphasis on recruiting the nationals of the countries where Dragon Oil is present and operates. 

The ethos of the legal department is to be open-minded and curious of the diverse cultural background of our in-house team members, promote effective team communication that fosters diverse opinions and views that allow to make all-round recommendations to our business stakeholders reflecting the best commercial interests of Dragon Oil and to mix-up the inhouse teams in the aim to enhance cross-exchange of knowledge, diversity and inclusion.