Legal Counsel (Pakistan and New Markets, MENAP) – Mondelez International, Pakistan
1. How has the Covid-19 crisis affected the way you work as a lawyer? What are the key positives and negatives that have emerged out of lockdown?
Covid has made lawyers, particularly inhouse counsel, become better at finding solutions and stretching themselves to adapt with digital transformation.
Key positive: Faster turnaround time
Key negative: Disruption in litigation.
2. Will you and your company continue to use flexible and agile working in future? Will you reduce the size of your physical office space?
Yes we will be continuing with a revised flexi-working approach. Reduction of physical office space may not be on the books for us as we have own our office space. But we surely aren’t going to be expanding in the near future.
3. How have you employed legal tech during the crisis? What has been successful and what has been lacking?
Yes we have. We have successfully deployed eSignatures in a country like Pakistan where there is heavy reliance upon wet signatures. Lacking: the requirement of certain documentation to be on judicial/stamp paper for legal purposes which does impact adoption of digital/tech.
4. How do you see the advancement of legal tech affecting the legal industry in the next 10 years?
Legal tech will grow. It will challenge lawyers who are fundamentally risk averse but it is a reality we cannot escape. Legal tech will save on time and simplify how we approach work. We can rely upon standard templates for low risk areas and focus on high import topics.
5. Has your company changed its remuneration structure during the crisis? Will the firm consider using a “Keystone” or hybrid remuneration model in future?
Not as of yet!! 🙂
6. Name one key thing that will be different in the legal profession in 10 years’ time.
I believe that the older generation of lawyers will either evolve to appreciate legal tech or make way for younger/more current lawyers.