22 ASIAN LEGAL BUSINESS – MAY 2024 WWW.LEGALBUSINESSONLINE.COM Traditionally, corporate legal departments have been asked to do much but given little. But, the era of heightened productivity has arrived with technology transforming how legal work gets done. We examine how today’s best in-house legal teams can act as valuable strategic partners to the business while successfully navigating Asia’s complicated commercial landscape, and doing so with the help of generative AI. RANKING BY ASIAN LEGAL BUSINESS, TEXT BY SARAH WONG ASIA TOP 15 IN-HOUSE TEAMS 2024 law to become strategic partners, guiding companies to achieve their overall business goals. And AI technology is set to play a quintessential role during this transformative journey. FUTURE PROOF All these changes have prompted Samuel Huen, global head of legal and regulatory compliance at the Bank of Singapore, to believe that the future will be an even more exciting time to be an in-house lawyer. “The run-of-the-mill work would be provided via self-service platforms, and work currently performed by junior lawyers would be replaced by technological solutions,” says Huen. “Lawyers must keep pace and adapt or run the risk of being outdated or replaced.” The legal team at Korean pharmaceutical company Dong-A ST, led by General Counsel Gyeong Pyo Hong, envision that the future of corporate legal departments demands a dynamic transition towards workflow optimisation SUBMISSION BREAKDOWN Jurisdiction Submissions Winners Multiple 9 4 Hong Kong 3 2 India 3 2 Japan 2 2 Malaysia 1 1 Philippines 2 1 Singapore 2 1 South Korea 2 2 Total 24 15 ASIA TOP 15 IN-HOUSE TEAMS 2024 Corporate legal departments are tasked with pulling off the seemingly impossible. General counsel – often running a lean operation – need to protect their organisations from a full spectrum of legal and regulatory risks, weather market turbulence, enable growth and drive the businesses forward. And they have to do all that on a strictly controlled budget. The arrival of emerging technologies, best exemplified by generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI), not only promised to disrupt the prevailing legal services models but transform the ways in-house legal work gets done. But that also means expectations ratchet up even higher for in-house teams today to optimise legal spend, safeguard the enterprise interests against evolving risks, and demonstrate the effectiveness and commercial function of legal departments in the organisations. The most successful in-house legal teams have risen above pure advisers of
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjA0NzE4Mw==