Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most? Which have you found most useful in your legal team?  

While AI may be viewed with scepticism, trepidation or even fear of rendering our profession irrelevant, I am excited to see how we can harness it to further improve the delivery of legal services to our organisation and clients. Since we typically deal with confidential matters, however, we would be more comfortable using a sandbox or a controlled AI environment that can ensure proper vetting of its sources of knowledge and preserve the confidentiality of the information we provide. Knowledge management tools, primarily developed in-house, have been most useful for our team. I realise, though, that using AI can offer exponential benefits.

Why are in-house lawyers well-placed to drive change in their organisations?    

In-house lawyers are natural problem-solvers, collaborators and mediators. By embracing our primary role as a support team, we align, rather than compete, with the goals of the business units we serve. By being reliable, responsive, and competent counsel, we earn the trust and gain the ear of our internal clients, from the C-suite to the front-liners, thereby placing us in a position to break silos and build bridges across units in an organisation and quietly but surely drive change.

As we live in a fast-paced world today, what skills will a corporate legal team need to succeed in the modern in-house industry?  

Technical competence is a given, and digital aptitude is likewise becoming necessary. As I learned from my shift from external counsel to in-house, and more so as I dealt with senior leaders with less or no time, my ABCs of in-house counselling are: Accountability, Brevity and Clarity. Accountability — to give a recommendation (not merely the options) and to take responsibility for it; Brevity — to summarise the critical points and present them plainly and logically. Clarity— to simplify the complex and be direct to the end.

Above any skill, which may be learned or acquired, must be the virtue of humility to fuel the desire to keep learning, improving, and striving for excellence. And for any team to succeed as a team, in whatever pace the world may find itself, it is important to be each other’s ‘chief cheerleader’ in good and bad times, to be each other’s caring critic whenever needed, and to be each other’s conscience at all times.