GC Spotlight: Corinne Katz discusses the benefits of LegalTech.

Featured in our GC Spotlight Series this month is Corinne Katz. As Senior Director – Group Legal Affairs, Corinne heads up the legal function for CLP Group and leads the team that provides strategic legal support to the business. Corinne and her team get to work across a wide variety of transformative matters supporting the Group in building a Utility of the Future to meet the evolving energy needs of its customers.  Corinne has been working with the CLP Group since 2010. Before taking up her current role she was the Group Counsel – Retail & IS at EnergyAustralia. Corinne started her career in South Africa, where she was a partner at a national law firm, she then moved to Australia to work at the firm now known as King & Wood Mallesons. Corinne holds an MBA from the University of Melbourne and an LLB and BCom from the University of the Witwatersrand.

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

I have the privilege of leading the legal team at CLP Group. With the Group’s business operations spanning across Hong Kong, Mainland China, India, Australia, Taiwan region and Thailand, I and my team get to work across the full scope of the business from project development and building new lines of business to executing a varied assortment of transactions, while also helping deal with various issues across the business. I started my legal journey in South Africa and moved to Australia to work for the firm now called King and Wood Mallesons. From there I decided I wanted to get a broader business understanding and did my MBA, after which I ended up joining the CLP Group in Australia at EnergyAustralia, before moving to my current role in Hong Kong. Outside of work, I like to do things that calm my mind and rejuvenate my body. This covers a wide range from pilates and yoga, getting stuck into a good book, spending time with friends and travelling whenever the opportunity arises.

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

It’s a very exciting time to be in the energy industry, with the energy transition in motion. Keeping across energy transformation and ESG developments more broadly is a constant challenge. Other challenges which I think most of us are facing are around geopolitics and cybercrime, how these impact the business and what we can do to safeguard against them. 

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

I think LegalTech offers huge potential benefit. Like most inhouse teams, we are being asked to do more with less and are constantly looking for ways to optimise processes and increase our efficiency, enabling the team to be more effective. I am not a fan of tech for the sake of tech but think tech can often be a good solution once a problem is identified. We have found that in some cases LegalTech solutions developed with our inhouse IT team using existing products offer a lower cost alternative to acquiring a third party solution. Data analytics is key to helping to measure performance and show the value add provided by the team. This year we introduced some data analytics into our compliance reporting which helps give a clear snapshot of compliance performance across the group. For other legal work finding the right KPIs to measure is critical, what we do as a legal team has a large qualitative element and this needs to be reflected in the KPIs.

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

A key trend is increased digitalisation and use of AI tools in the work we do. The tools are developing rapidly, and we are currently exploring the use of a generative AI tool (as part of a broader business pilot) to see how our team can benefit from the use of generative AI. As this trend develops, I am hopeful that more tools will be available to enable an even greater focus on the more strategic work.

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

We have found NewLaw offerings beneficial in adding resources to the team as the need arises. Everyone is watching costs closely and we need solutions to help add resources on a temporary basis either to fill gaps (like when a team member takes parental leave) or where we have a major project that requires a dedicated resource for a period to work closely with the business.

5. Your favourite tune? And why? 

Bona Sera by Louis Prima! It’s such an upbeat happy song, it always puts me in a good mood.