A month ago I shared some views collected from global legal and compliance leaders on the new lessons they've been learning from the COVID-19 crisis. In alignment with their companies, general counsel are now gearing up for the remainder of 2020 as mid-year approaches. Executive leaders are expanding their thinking, beyond just response to how to best contain Pandemic fallout and find fruitful new opportunities.

For this Part 2, I asked global General Counsel what they think will be new expectations of them and their legal/compliance teams in the coming months. It's clear that handling the wants of customers in serious financial stress will surely involve in-house legal, with a demand for bright ideas, increased cycle times and workable solutions. And there's likely to also be demand for GCs to support businesses to move swiftly and boldly on new offerings, in hopes of coming out in better shape than the rest.

All this requires the General Counsel to practice good judgement, strategic thinking, creativity and high-quality legal advice tailored to the particular situation. How will you succeed in contributing value throughout 2020? Let these perspectives from seven global corporate leaders be a springboard for your thinking. Now is the time to prepare yourself and your team to respond to more new challenges.

Maintain employee engagement, respond to demands, prepare to advise on new solutions: Donatella Fiala, General Counsel Reinsurance EMEA, SwissRe:

We continually work to maintain employee engagement in a (more) virtual work environment. Since I expect travel restrictions/working from home to continue at least somewhat longer, we want our legal/compliance team to feel resilient and ready to address unexpected requests. We collaborate on how to respond in unchartered territories and we frequently have to re-prioritize our work.

In the aftermath of Covid-19, our Legal team envisions both very concrete tasks and also longer-term strategic advice. While we managed the move to working remotely quite seamlessly, we can continue to apply insights/lessons learned for our business continuity management (BCM) plans and crisis management process.

The fast-evolving regulatory, legislative and political developments on COVID-19 are challenging. We recognize the potential need to put more resource into the monitoring and coordination of actions.

Looking a bit further ahead in 2020, our company will expect us to support new strategies and positions on new (re/insurance) solutions, including ways to address the risks of future pandemics.

Practice new forms of leading: Jose Gonzalez, EVP & General Counsel, CNA Insurance:

This crisis reminds General Counsels and senior in-house lawyers of the importance of leadership in difficult times. Under normal circumstances, our organizations value what we do best; provide levelheaded, thoughtful analysis and creative solutions to problems.

But the magnitude and seriousness of this crisis requires we do more. In spite of the reality of working remotely, we must try to stay connected and communicate as much as possible with our team members. Each day we must provide our legal teams with a vision of how we are going approach this crisis as a whole and address the many problems that develop along the way. And we must also reassure and support our colleagues, motivating them to keep moving forward and inspire others along the way.

Contribute value to the business with fast response and good data: Jon Pedersen, Global Advisor to the Chairman, Digital Legal Exchange:

In struggling with the many un-answered questions of the COVID-19 crisis, in-house legal leaders are expert at spotting potential risks but can be less adept at responding. Given business volatility worldwide, the General Counsel's agility and resilience is as vital as his or her sound advice. Our business clients need us urgently, and what they want most from us is responses that support sound decision-making, grounded in data.

As global companies strive to maintain their customer relationships and support business continuity, data on customer contracts is a lifeline. Corporate legal teams that have adopted document and obligations management systems and other relevant tools globally are much better equipped to deliver information that helps the business interact with their many customers through this crisis.

This is where we see investments and training in digital tools paying off. It is fuelling the General Counsel's ability to deliver measurable value to high-stakes corporate risk management.

Support a new, broader focus of Supply Chain: Michael Hatfield, former Chief Counsel, Global Business Solutions, Mondelēz International

Driving value will remain the primary focus for supply chain organizations in global companies. SARS-CoV-2 has highlighted the importance for supply chain organizations to generate revenue, not focus solely on cost reduction. An emphasis on safety and resilience must extend through the entire chain.

Before the pandemic, revenue has more often been a focus for sales, marketing and R&D types of supply chain organizations. Now, ensuring that employees, products, and services are safe and resilient will be critical to reassuring customers and producing revenue.

To help unlock that value, corporate supply chain lawyers will need to move quickly to adopt new skills, try new things and collaborate with more partners than ever before. To maximize our success, we should build our understanding of relevant topics such as epidemiology, government affairs and technology, in ways that weren't in demand pre-Pandemic.

Acquiring and applying the knowledge to rapidly support our businesses compels us to reach out to exchange ideas and approaches with a broader network inside and outside our company.

Focus on customer requests on contracts: Alexia Maas, SVP & General Counsel, Volvo Financial Services:

In a financial institution we need to find practical, creative ways to help our colleagues deal with new government or regulatory requirements for payment relief and customers' own requests to modify their contract obligations. The flow of requests is steadily increasing, although markets are moving at varied paces.

Our aim in working with customers through any crisis is to be their business partners, not just third-party lenders. With COVID-19, breadth and speed are magnified. Se we are compelled to find new, more practical ways to handle the request volume. Time is critical for many of our customers, but the scale brings operational and risk management challenges. While the business uses data analytics to track flow of modification requests and mitigate portfolio risk, the legal team was able to help simplify the process and speed up processing time.

We gathered legal intelligence from all 45 countries in which we operate to quickly assess whether the law recognizes a contract amendment through less formal means. For example, could we document the modification by way of email exchange or e-signature, instead of formal amendment deeds with wet ink signatures? Though not applicable in all jurisdictions, most recognize options for evidencing agreement. We thus could provide "at a glance" guidance to the business to help them reduce time to process requests.

Our business also re-trained a remote team to assist with modifications. Working together, our organization has been able to manage response times by using practical measures such as adopting common approaches and delegating authority. This empowers local business colleagues to handle more requests themselves.

Communicate more and manage our team's workload shift: Mark Pasko, Chief Legal Officer, QBE North America:

To maintain connectivity, I check in with all of my direct reports every day as well as with members from the broader team on a rotating basis. We have department town halls bi-weekly and virtual happy hours, using MS Teams with video. On our town halls, I give a Pandemic-related company update, and discuss goals, progress and upcoming plans for our team. My direct reports share key wins, accomplishments, and recognition for individuals in their teams.

For my 1:1 outreach, the focus varies by day. My preference is a call or video chat that is intentionally not about work. I want to make sure they and their families are safe, hear how the family is managing work@home, fun things they're up to, etc. I share what I am doing too—as if we were catching up in the office. My emails to the whole team on staff updates, promotions, etc. have not changed, because I find it important to maintain continuity with some of our typical structure/approach.

In terms of workload, during COVID-19 we have had a remarkable shift from spending the vast majority of our time on transactional and advisory work for our businesses, with only about 10% focused on regulatory/legislative issues. These days, 70-80% of what our business clients need is that regulatory/legislative support. It's mostly on sector-related topics such as: retroactive business interruption coverage, mandated workers' compensation coverage, policyholder moratoriums, coverage for delivery drivers, coverage litigation, stay at home orders, plus federal/state stimulus actions.

Organize Return to Work Strategies and Logistics: Lucy Fato, EVP & General Counsel, AIG:

There are so many issues to work through. A significant amount of time will be spent on Return to Work strategies. It's going to be very hard, especially because we are in 80 countries with varying directives on what you can and can't do.

I think there will continue to be a lot of fear for a very long time. There are so many things to think through—who goes back, when, how do you stagger it, will schools open or childcare be available, what if people can't come back to work, what if public transportation is not available, can you require people to be tested?

The list goes on and on. My guess is it will be a while before we start inching our way towards a re-opening, but I know my team will be spending a lot of time on this, especially the employment lawyers and litigators as there could be exposure for companies depending on how they do it, and if you have a resurgence of the virus.

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Conclusions

The diverse expectations that these global in-house leaders describe above require every in-house leader to:

  • Draw from your vast experience and instincts,
  • Hone your skills in leadership, communications and strategic thinking,
  • Exchange ideas, approaches and questions with a wider peer group, and
  • Maintain focus on Legal operations, process and technology-driven advances.

It's a demanding time, and you will rise to the challenge. Remember to take good care of yourself and recognize you will need to take reasonable time out for breaks!

Leigh Dance advises global corporate legal leaders on strategy, change management and communications through her consultancy, ELD International. She also advises service providers on meeting global client needs. Leigh is grateful for the exceptional GCs that shared their views to make this article possible. Leigh divides her time between Europe and the US and is based in Brussels during COVID-19.