Legal Consultant Profiles: Looking back with Verena Della Vedova.

1. Hi Verena! It’s been a while since we last did your Q&A in 2018. Can you tell us about what you have been up to since we last spoke?

As KorumLegal has grown by opening offices in Singapore and London, my family has also grown. While KorumLegal will certainly grow more, my family is complete now and I will continue to focus on growing myself via my experience in NewLaw and KorumLegal.

2. What kind of assignments have you been involved in lately?

Lately, I worked in a very nice team of a fast-growing global blockchain technology developer. Moreover, I conducted a marketing review in 18 jurisdictions, focusing on the EMEA and APAC region for a payment services provider.

3. What skills does a legal consultant need to effectively add value to the customer?

Through my assignments, I have learned two skills that are necessary to be a good legal consultant: focus and adaptability. Working from home means there will always be distractions. The ability to focus around these distractions is an invaluable skill. Remote jobs offer a lot of flexibility, but that flexibility goes beyond simply being able to choose my working hours and work location. It means that I have to be prepared to adapt to new ways of working, sporadic changes, and unexpected situations. For instances,  I might be working with colleagues who are in a different time zone which impacts when meetings can be scheduled and when I can get in touch with those colleagues, which consequently affect deadlines. If I’m assigned to work with a new team, I have to adapt to the way that team works. Unexpected challenges also arise like internet or wifi issues, server problems, and logins not working. It is necessary to be prepared for these situations, know whom to contact to resolve them, and have a backup plan.

4. In your Q&A back in 2018, you said “NewLaw attracts me because I am exposed to a wider range of sectors and industries, which means that I can always learn something new.” What are some of the things that you’ve learnt through your assignments?

While working for KorumLegal I have become a commercial lawyer with a focus on Fintech and Regtech companies. It has given me exposure to emerging industries like the digital currency industry. Since then I have started to become very interested in this industry and follow very closely the development of jurisdictions like the European Union and China, which consider introducing a digital currency.

5. Under Covid, the legal industry has changed immensely and the NewLaw model is now becoming the norm. What do you think the next stage is for the NewLaw/legal market?

The next stage for NewLaw is the integration of artificial intelligence into legal departments. Most in-house teams are besieged by the operational activities that come with being part of a corporation, and it’s generating a backlash against time-consuming administrative work. NewLaw will be able to support here by providing legal department operations to concentrate on business operations. There will be a high demand for identifying and deploying new technologies across the legal department. Legal departments are prioritizing electronic document storage and management, alongside knowledge management, to achieve greater efficiencies. In the future, artificial intelligence will undoubtedly be among the technologies that help legal departments realize greater efficiencies.