Team size: Three

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

The legal team has been tracking and managing the new and changing data protection laws in the region. This year has been particularly busy with proposed and recently enacted changes in the data protection laws in many Southeast Asian countries, and countries more broadly in the Asia Pacific region. We are reviewing these and updating our processes, policies, and documentation as needed for our various business lines.

In addition, Terry has been working with a global cross functional team to develop and implement a global Know Your Client process reviewing legal and reputational risks. The team has developed a process that is efficient and consistently utilising a newly developed internal KYC risk framework to review potential reputational risk. The initial results have been successful as the business partners have been very receptive to the additional level of diligence allowing the firm to make more informed client selection decisions.

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

In addition to the current skills needed to succeed as an in-house lawyer (for example, client management, communication, customer service, advocacy, negotiation), over the next decade corporate legal teams will need to drive agility within their organisation. Legal teams will need to help their organisations develop processes, systems, services, and products that are able to quickly adapt as the velocity of new global regulations and laws increases and their coverage also expands.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners?

First and foremost, we need to understand our business and the perspective of our business partners. The best approach to working with one part of the business may not work in another. Second, in-house lawyers need to bring a curious, open-minded, and problem-solving attitude to interactions with business partners. If we understand the business and ask the right questions to draw out each business partner’s underlying needs, many times we can develop creative and novel solutions that solve their problem and reduce legal risk at the same time. Finally, communication is vital to successful partnership for in-house lawyers. It is important to be responsive, clear, and concise in our communication style tailoring each communication to the specific issue and business partner.