Team size: Eight

What are the most significant cases or transactions that you have recently been involved in?

The most significant transaction that the team and I have been involved in is the ongoing merger of Celcom and Digi. This is the largest ever telecoms merger in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, and is the first under the new mergers and acquisition rules issued by the telco regulator (MCMC). It involves significant competition law and securities laws issues.

We have also been involved in an arbitration dispute with a government under an investment treaty.

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?

The increased use of digital tools, such as document management systems, helps in the tracking of all activities that are being done in real time, and allowing work to be done remotely where productivity is not impacted. Also, the extensive use of video conferencing, even for negotiations, helps to save on time and turn around, because parties must be more efficient in negotiations online. The negotiations for the merger of Celcom and Digi was done virtually with parties in multiple jurisdictions (Hong Kong, Sydney, Oslo, Singapore, and Malaysia) and it made the parties more efficient in terms of what were the points of contention to be negotiated, as opposed to physical meetings where parties would negotiate the drafting of each clause, line by line.

As we enter the next decade, what skills will a corporate legal team need to succeed in the modern in-house industry?

The corporate legal team needs to focus on keeping up to date on the business strategy and the developments that could affect the industry, which could come from many directions such as customer behaviour, actions by regulators, shifts in technology, and helping the business team deal with these challenges.