How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

The past few years have been anything but boring, and most likely, the future will continue to feature this characteristic for at least a while. Challenges, and legal challenges especially, can only be addressed by legal professionals with the acceptance of the fact that life and economic realities will always be ahead of legislation. As such, one can rarely be truly sure of something. Therefore, for any legal matter, a multi-disciplinary, open, and creative approach is necessary. What companies want and what legislators want may sometimes be, or seem, worlds apart. Striking the right balance between business objectives, staying within the boundaries of the law, and, not least, paying attention also to ethics (which is becoming ever more relevant) is not easy. But with knowledge, common sense (and I really cannot stress enough how important common sense is), and an open, problem-solving attitude, it can be done. Once legal becomes and is acknowledged as a trustworthy resource, things become easier.

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 my opinion, AI will have the most significant impact on the legal profession. There are already voices announcing the end of the legal profession in the not-so-distant future. And although the end of the legal profession may in fact not come so soon, a fundamental change in the way lawyers approach their work, and a change in the actual tasks of lawyers, can be foreseen. One can think about how the legal profession was when there was no software legislation tool, no internet. The journey from those times to today took a while, but in my view, the next wave of changes will come soon. AI brings challenges for the legal profession, in areas like data protection, data accuracy, cybersecurity, intellectual property, and not only, but all these can be addressed, and it is very likely that in the future, the work of legal professionals will be different. All one can do now is embrace the changes, look for the new regulations, but very importantly, start using the new technologies. And the sooner, the better.