Team size: 14 

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 way I work in times of crisis differs from the way I work in normal times in that we have to separate the important from the unimportant even more. In times of crisis, it is extremely important to set the right priorities and constantly readjust them. Cross-departmental action is also important in times of crisis. Although this is also essential in the normal course of business, it has a completely different significance in times of crisis. I try to get as much information as possible in order to get a holistic picture of the problems and thus be able to better analyse which problems arise where and how they can be solved. The (legal) problems we think of are not always the ones that really need to be solved first. The issues must be analysed holistically, especially in times of crisis. 

The strategy of the legal department is always closely aligned with the strategy of the company. We make sure that the legal department works as efficiently as possible and is part of the company as a whole. This is the fundamental difference between a legal department and external legal advisors who solve legal issues. 

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?  

Like many of my colleagues, I have been reading a lot about AI and its applications in the field of law recently. I have been attending seminars, reading articles and exchanging ideas with colleagues. It is fantastic what is possible and what will be possible in the near future. Legal training will change a lot. We will have to deal much more with new technologies and learn skills that we have not yet mastered or not yet mastered well enough. Searching for information (prompting) will become very important, and perhaps even rudimentary programming will become part of the standard repertoire. In the meantime, we have also realised that blind trust in these new possibilities is dangerous. In other words, critical questioning, source analysis and verification will be essential in the future when working with AI. 

How do you prioritise diversity and inclusion within your legal department, and what initiatives have you implemented to foster a more inclusive and equitable work environment?  

Diversity and inclusion have always been important to me. Long before these terms were widely discussed in public, I lived by them. This may also have something to do with my parental home. I come from a family of entrepreneurs who lived tolerance and openness. Both my father and my grandfather had people with disabilities in the company for as long as I can remember. Today, the term diversity is used very broadly, which I personally like. I strive to make my team as diverse as possible because I believe that different approaches lead to better solutions. I find it exciting to see how people with very different backgrounds approach problems differently and what solutions they propose. We can all benefit from a diverse and pluralistic society.