Team size: Eight

Key team members: Maniko Lim, David Lim, Jillian Lee, Michelle Armand, Seth Ngoh, Ruby Loh, Tan Qiao Ning, Phil Rothenburg

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

Univers’ legal and compliance team has been instrumental in establishing Univers as a key player in the global decarbonisation ecosystem. Working alongside our energy optimisation and carbon management teams’ efforts in assisting businesses to reduce carbon footprint and operational costs, we adopt a business-centric approach to rendering legal advice, while navigating the regulatory environment in the field of decarbonisation and sustainability. We remain integral in Univers’s mission to achieve ‘Net Zero’ with its partners.

In line with Univers’ commitment towards aggressive climate action and sustainability, we provide invaluable legal and contractual support to bolster our international commercial teams’ success in on-boarding major renewables (solar and wind) and other players on our AIoT platform and smart energy applications.

Other notable contributions include the management of Univers’s vast portfolio of patents, trademarks, and other intellectual property for products across different fields; legal support on multiple series funding rounds; and strategic acquisitions such as QOS Energy.

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?

Univers Legal and Compliance Team was challenged to effectively track and manage ongoing matters without any reliance on any complex or costly solutions. To address this, we improvised by leveraging resources available via Microsoft Office 365 to implement a cost-efficient “matter tracker”. This provided us with an intuitive tracker completed via multi-user collaboration and real-time updates based on data validation and drop-down lists, which enabled us to analyse data on legal matter intake and gain real-time visibility over their statuses, while ensuring consistency, error reduction, and fostering of team collaboration and efficiency. Most importantly, this system provides a comprehensive overview of the legal workflow and facilitates any subsequent management approval for additional legal resources.

We established an internal governance and approval process for the review and approval of all contracts, supported by the automation features of e-signature solution. The above solutions reflect prime examples of how practical, budget-friendly tools can become an indispensable part of our operations.

Apart from legal matters, has the team worked on other company initiatives?

We developed a ‘conflict of interest’ management program unique to our organisation and tailored towards Univers’s ethos of working as one to achieve our corporate goals. The program involves the collaborative effort of each declarant, their manager, Univers legal, and the HR department in the decision-making process.

Each party, including the declarant, addresses and proposes measures (within defined parameters), to manage or remove actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest before a final decision is made by the relevant department. Ongoing ‘conflict of interest’ management is similarly collaborative. This approach promotes transparency and open dialogue, fosters cross-departmental communication and accountability, with the ultimate aim of minimising conflicts of interest within our organisation.

In addition, Univers Legal and Compliance Team has been actively involved in the organisation’s ongoing rebranding initiative. This involves navigating the intricacies requiring legal support, including but not limited to name changes for all our entities, the registration of our re-designed brand logo, product catalogue updates, and the review or update of contracts and communications.