Team size: Four

What are the most significant cases and transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Our legal team handles a diverse range of transactions across the business. As a legal team, we have the benefit of working with and advising each department, providing us with a comprehensive view of all projects and work undertaken across the business. This allows us to connect with and provide insights to those with whom we work.

As a legal team, it is our responsibility to partner with key stakeholders to ensure that we enable KFC’s strategy and support the business as it grows and expands its footprint across Africa. In doing so, I have had the privilege of leading two legal teams—the legal team in Sub-Saharan Africa and the legal team for the MENAPAKT region – on a number of key business transactions.

These include a multi-billion-dollar IPO in which we facilitated the approval of the first ever dual-listing IPO in the UAE. We also managed multi-million-dollar business transactions, overseeing the acquisition and disposal of stores. We oversaw new market entries, with the KFC brand expanding into new countries across the Africa region, and we handled new franchisee approvals and onboarding, including private equity deals.

Furthermore, we spearheaded the expansion of technology-led initiatives across Africa, including delivery and kiosk rollout. Our efforts included brand-building initiatives, which included award-winning marketing campaigns, strategic collaborations, and aspirational experiences like the KFC Kentucky Town. Finally, we engaged in supply chain expansion and localisation into Africa, ensuring sustainable growth for the brand and enhancing the business case to facilitate investment and growth in the markets where KFC operates.

How do you see the general counsel role evolving in South Africa over the next five-ten years?

The world is ever evolving, and so are our businesses. The way in which we do business should be able to adapt and be agile to remain ahead of the curve. A legal department is no different; it is our responsibility to ensure that we remain agile and adaptive. We need to be progressive in the way in which we partner with the business. Technological advancements aside, legal counsel needs to evolve to become more strategic thought leaders for the business.

We need to enable business by finding viable solutions and providing holistic advice that facilitates and drives business strategy forward. To achieve this, legal counsel needs to have their fingers on the pulse of what is happening in the world around them and understand the dynamics of the industry and businesses in which they work. In an ever-changing environment, we need to keep growing and learning, to be able to thrive in our space and ensure that we can engage in a meaningful way with those around us.

To evolve, you need to continually embrace knowledge and learning. Read the news, attend webinars, build relationships with people across various business sectors (including your own), invest in yourself, get a coach or mentor, and, more importantly, pay it forward – teach and share with those around you. You too have a lot of value to add.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most?

Legal teams and businesses need to embrace technology and pivot the ways in which they work to benefit from developments in technology. I believe that the most significant technological advancement that we need to embrace, and that will impact the role of in-house legal teams, is the evolution of AI.

With AI, legal teams will need to adapt the way in which they work. AI will be able to draft legal documentation and compile opinions, but legal counsel will need to connect the dots, provide business context, be creative, and, most importantly, maintain human connection and relationships – the cornerstone of being a trusted legal advisor to the business.