Lawyer Monthly - November 2021 Edition

39 NOV 2021 | WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM DELIVERING COUNSEL IN A MULTI-JURISDICTION GROUP trust based on personal connections and interactions is all-important, they initially posed real challenges – especially in new working relationships. For me, a key lesson from this was the importance of engaging with external legal advisors through more calls with greater frequency, compared with in- person meetings. Understanding and trust can be built through video calls but there is a definite need for substantial time investment, which is something we have all had to get used to. In my experience, the best law firms are the ones who are focussed on client service, and the pandemic reinforced that. The firms we have had the best relationships with were retained as we trusted them more. Establishing a coordinated global legal structure in a post- COVID world In a post-COVID world, establishing and maintaining a coordinated structure to control the legal affairs, priorities and policies of a multi-jurisdictional group in a cohesive fashion takes on even greater importance. As GC, it is my responsibility to deliver this, and I do so with the help of over 30 law firms globally. That means I have to manage relationships with these teams while leading various matters, projects and disputes. The group needs a unified centre to account for challenges arising from language, cultural and time differences between local legal teams. Having a unified centre also makes dealing with multiple legal systems, regulatory requirements, and business priorities more manageable. Adopting this approach will result in cohesion in the delivery and quality of legal services, reduced risk of inadequate legal support for specific areas of the law across geographical regions, and enhanced knowledge sharing across the entire legal team. To enhance knowledge sharing, teamwork and communication, we recently implemented a new system that is used across the Group to share templates, manage external counsel costs and share drafts. This has increased our efficiency and strengthened communications, both internally and with external stakeholders. The software is worth the investment, no matter how small our team. In my view, personal relationships are fundamental to establishing coordinated, global legal teams. The great majority of the appointments of law firms in our unified team came as a result of a personal recommendation, which developed into strong working relationships. Finding the right legal talent at a local level A high-performing, multi-jurisdictional legal team relies on good local counsel. Finding the right legal talent at a local level is one of the most important challenges a global GC will face. Sometimes you may encounter language barriers. Other times, the bigger challenge is finding counsel that have niche specialities and other times it is explaining internal strategy to external parties. Identifying and appointing the right local legal talent is made much easier if you have a referral from a trusted source. Personal referrals provide much better insights Personal relationships are fundamental to establishing coordinated, global legal teams.