Team size: 16

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?

Earlier on, every member of the team was involved in everything, and this caused a lot of confusion because when everyone assumes that a task has been handled – when in fact it has not – it creates a gap in the process flow and delivery. To address this gap and drive efficiency, we divided the legal department into various smaller teams with specific KPIs and accountabilities. The teams we created are:

IP and technology law unit – managing and protecting the company’s already huge and growing IP portfolio and all technology related issues and advising and guiding the applicable business units in the authorised use of third-party IP Rights and assets to proactively mitigate third party IP infringement claims.

Litigation and dispute resolution unit – this team manages the litigation portfolio of the Company across the country, handles all disputes involving MTN and closely works with external counsel to strategise on the most effective ways to defend the company in court or before an arbitral panel.

Claims and ADR unit – because we believe that companies have no business in court but should rather strive to create value for its multiple stakeholders, we set up this team to be the first line of defence for the company when there is a dispute or claim from the government, vendors, customers, and other business partners. Since setting up this team, the company’s litigation exposures have significantly reduced. This is majorly because potential disputes are resolved at this stage using any of the applicable alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and thus nipping things in the bud.

Contracts unit – this team is directly responsible for negotiating, structuring, and drafting the Contractual agreements that the company requires to execute its operations. All of this is done in house without the use of external counsel. The team produces over a thousand contracts in any given financial year.

Legal business partnering and operations unit – this team handles our legal business partnering model which operates by embedding themselves within all the business units in the company to get to know what they are doing and what they plan to achieve and then supporting, brainstorming and hand holding them to achieve the desired objectives with minimal or no risk exposures to the business. This team proactively works to prevent or mitigate legal risks from crystalising.

Since we set up these teams, there has been better synergy and efficiency in the delivery of legal services cross the organisation. We also create opportunities for job rotation and have monthly knowledge share sessions so that everyone knows what everyone else is doing. All this was achieved at a very minimal cost to the business.

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

We have worked hard to ensure that our business colleagues see the legal department as a business enabler and not the police. Our role is not to prevent them from achieving their KPIs and revenue projections because their proposed plan is illegal, rather we find a legal way to get it done and that’s how we enable them to achieve results. We work closely with the business teams and the relationship is now more of a partnership. We often leverage on the legal business partnering platform that we have set up to achieve this. Presently, every unit within the legal department also engages in legal business partnering to protect and enable the organisation to thrive and succeed.

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

The legal team is directly responsible for the management of all disputes involving the company and periodically gives account of this to the board of directors. Although the in-house counsel engages an external counsel to represent the company in handling disputes in court, the choice of counsel to handle a case to the strategy to be adopted in each case is done by our in-house team. Every dispute is different; therefore, we try to match the right external counsel to the appropriate case based on the counsel’s experience, understanding of the issues at play as well as their understanding of the nuances of litigation and dispute resolution. I can confidently say that my team and I are at the front and centre of all our dispute resolution matters involving MTN.