GC Spotlight: How Stephanie uses LegalTech

For our recent GC Spotlight, we are in conversation with Stephanie, the Chief Legal Officer at a NASDAQ listed company. She shares how she uses LegalTech to keep her head above water and how the "locum" model used by doctors will become common for lawyers in the future!

1. Hi Stephanie, can you tell us a little about your current role and journey into law? What excites you outside of work?

I act as the Chief Legal Officer of Melco Resorts & Entertainment. My role covers legal as well as risk, compliance and other non-legal functions (insurance, cyber-risk etc). I started my career as a banking / finance (aircraft, project etc) lawyer and moved back to Hong Kong after having spent a long time in Toronto.

I like the outdoors a lot, so I spend my weekends mostly sailing, hiking, rock climbing, kayaking etc. Any excuse to get active puts a smile on my face. I just finished my Level 2 dinghy sailing training and hope to start learning how to sail bigger boats.

2. What do you think about the use of LegalTech, data analytics and process optimisation to improve your legal department's value?

I don’t know how any lawyer can keep her head above water without the help of legal technology:

• cloud-based document management system – restores a semblance of order in the navigation of a multitude of documents
• contract management system – not only a repository, it also imposes governance into the contracting process and regulates workflow
• to-do list app – simple yet effective to help one to multi-task and assign tasks to a group of users
• legal bills management system – this helps GCs to understand and monitor legal expenditures and can help to control cost more effectively

All we now need is some form of AI to read, digest, categorize and summarize emails. This will be a game changer!

3. What trends do you expect to see in the legal services industry in the next 5 years?

1. More “mid-market” work will be performed in-house rather than by external firms

2. With more practitioners interested in the “consultancy” model, more lawyers will be working for both law firms and companies on an independent contractor basis

3. Doctors have been using the locum model for a long time, this will get more common for lawyers going forward

4. Big law will get bigger on more headline grabbing deals while in parallel alternative legal services providers will develop their own niche

4. Where do you see NewLaw/ALSP fitting in the matrix of your legal department?

NewLaw / ALSP can be helpful for a lot of legal departments. In situations where there is a high volume of relatively routine type work, ALSP can be a cost competitive solution.

5. What change have you seen implemented in the workplace that fundamentally shifted your business & how?

The prevalence of remote working is an important development. On the one hand, it provides flexibility to employees, decreases commuting time, increases productivity in some cases and achieving better work life balance. On the other hand, it can possibly erode work culture and makes it difficult to supervise certain staff. I think the challenge is to find the right balance to make this trend beneficial for all.

6. Your favourite tune? And why?

I am a fan of Freddie Mercury, my favourite songs are Bohemian Rhapsody and Love of my Life. The former is a reflection of his unique talent and the latter is a deeply moving tale of his own unusual soul mate story.