In your role, how do you balance the need to protect the organisation’s interests today while also considering legal implications and opportunities that may arise in the future? 

As a leader of a legal team of a dynamic international business, in a highly demanding global industry, the responsibility sits with me to partner with the business and lead my team in doing the same. Our business is a very active and agile one, responding to global trends in the face of local realities, on the go, while working to predict the future direction of our consumers, economies, and stakeholders. As such, with global and local objectives, plans, strategies, and viewpoints, in scaling this dynamism, we find it imperative to understand the objectives.

How have you attempted to bring the legal department closer to your business colleagues? 

From my days at the law firm as head of chambers and practice development and acting as company secretary for numerous boards in various industries, internally and externally, I have always understood the importance of stakeholder partnership and engagement. These dynamics have always been at the foreground, and nothing can be achieved in the absence of the interplay of a high-level skilled team, no matter how much knowledge the team possesses. Consequently, I have always built into our systems of engagement with the different business leaders and teams, processes and procedures that keep us in constant engagement and partnerships. This way, from routine meetings to whitepaper conversations, even being part of brainstorming sessions, whether or not there is a direct legal piece or ideas are just being thrown around, my team members and I always remain in the face of our business partners, regardless of the distance, size, or forum. From celebrations to strategic conversations, my team and I are with our business colleagues. This is true partnership.

How does the in-house legal function contribute to the overall dispute resolution strategy of the organisation? 

I oversee the management of the dispute resolution portfolio and strategies of the businesses we partner with. At the beginning of each year, I sit with my team to assess our open cases and other dispute resolution matters. We then decide what the goal for the year will be. From reducing litigations by a defined percentage, to maintaining no added litigation count, we decide the objective and define the strategy to achieve it. This has been very successful in litigation and dispute resolution management.