GC Spotlight: Christian Greissinger discusses how LegalTech will have a significant impact on the way lawyers work.

Featured in our GC Spotlight Series this month is Christian Greissinger who is the General Counsel ASEAN Australia for Siemens. 

Christian started his career at the international law firm Lovells (now Hogan Lovells) in Munich specialising in IT, data protection, sports law, and outsourcing projects. Christian joined the legal department of Siemens AG in Munich (2007) and since then has worked for Siemens in different functions and countries: General Counsel North-West Central Africa (Morocco); General Counsel Division Smart Grid (Nuremberg); General Counsel Lead Country Singapore and Australia and Regional Legal Manager Asia Australia for the Smart Infrastructure business (Singapore since 2017).

Christian has studied in Wuerzburg (Germany) and London, holds a doctorate degree in law and was admitted to the bar in Germany (2002). Christian is married and has 3 children, is a passionate skier, tennis player and soccer fan.

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

I started working at an international law firm in Munich, where I focused on IT and Media Law before joining Siemens as an in-house counsel. For the past 17 years, I had interesting opportunities to work for different businesses (IT-Solutions, Smart Grid, Large Drives) and in different countries/ continents (Germany, Africa, and Asia) in a truly international environment. Currently and for 7 years, I am based in Singapore overseeing the company's business in South East Asia and Australia.  I am married, have 2 boys and 1 daughter. My boys have finished school and returned to study in Germany. Outside of work, I enjoy staying active by taking boxing classes and playing tennis. I also recently started taking drum lessons – quite a challenge. I am a passionate skier and love nothing more than skiing on fresh powder snow.

2. As a GC, what are some of the challenges that keep you up at night? How are you addressing them? 

Doing more with less. Our company is transforming from a global conglomerate implementing large infrastructure projects to a focused technology company. The legal team plays an important role in implementing new business models, such as software-as-a-service models. In addition, it is more and more difficult to keep up with the constantly changing and increasing global regulatory framework. Geopolitical tensions have led to an increased complexity and challenging questions regarding Export Control Laws. However, the budgets and headcount for the legal teams do not increase, accordingly. To address this challenge, we have set up a legal hub in the Philippines to help us with the commercial review of contracts and to increase the bandwidth of our team. This gives the legal team in the other countries more time to focus on local law questions and topics.

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

LegalTech will have a significant impact on the way lawyers work. It can significantly help to increase our efficiency, improve the quality of our work and standardise our legal advice. In Siemens, we have implemented an AI-based contract analytics tool to streamline the contract review process for NDAs and Sales agreements, which has been a great success. We have used this tool for more than one year. It does not replace the work of a lawyer but helps us to become much faster. In addition, AI technology can help to prepare and draft emails, summarise meetings, and prepare legal memos. However, the work results still have to be reviewed and corrected, if necessary. The efficiency gains are tremendous.

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

All routine tasks will be handled by AI solutions. To stay relevant, lawyers have to master - at least - the application of LegalTech  software, contract analytics and AI applications, legal process tools, etc. The focus of lawyers will be on more complex legal questions and to be the trusted partner of your business partner. Flexibility, openness to try out new ways of working and being a fast adopter of good legal tech applications will be key in becoming and remaining a successful lawyer.

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

NewLaw/ALSP providers play an important role in the matrix of our legal department. They help us as a backup solution in case of resource shortages and are one pillar of our resource strategy. In the past, we had very good experiences with NewLaw/ALSPs supporting us on short notice (e.g. when a colleague is ill, on paternity/ maternity leave, military service or when the team has to master a big project).

6. Your favourite tune? And why? 

My favourite tune "For You" by The Disco Boys. Great memories to listen to this song very loud with my boys in the car.