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You load the picture from your recent gathering of friends on Facebook. Immediately, and by itself, the website defines all the persons who are in the photo: surnames, age, habits, personal life. Everything is in the social network.

As it is widely known, the General Data Protection Regulation (216/679 (EU)) (GDPR) was announced on April 27, 2016 and will be applicable as of May 25, 2018. Simultaneously the 95/46 EC directive (the “Directive”) will be set aside. Although the GDPR’s main concepts and principles are much the same as those of the Directive and thus the national data protection acts, the GDPR does prescribe certain new obligations (such as the DPO, the right to data portability, etc.) and a much higher limit of fines, suggesting that privacy will be taken more seriously in the future. 

As personal data privacy is increasingly considered an important human right deserving protection, and with the new EU Data Protection Regulation to become enforceable in Romania as of May 25, 2018, it is becoming more and more important for corporations not only to observe the general data protection rules on commercial transactions but also to ensure full internal legal and technical compliance for all employees having access to any personal data processed internally. 

In a world where technological innovation grows so fast, a need to transform banking services from the classic model in which the client’s presence is required in the bank’s premises leads us to the new form of selling of the classic bank’s products.

“Software is eating the world,” observed entrepreneur and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Board member Marc Anderssen in his influential Wall Street Journal essay half a decade ago. Software’s appetite still seems insatiable as it continues to digitize bigger and bigger chunks of our analogue world. Hybrid cloud and edge computing, photonics and persistent memory, virtual and augmented reality, and artificial intelligence (AI) are the innovations that will harness the digital imprint of our reality for our benefit.

The reasonable reduction of costs is deemed an obligatory tactic of doing business. In this paradigm, performance of legal work by program, instead of lawyers, is considered to be beneficial. Such an approach can be reasonable if the protection of the employer’s interests is guaranteed to stay at least at the same level. The methodology seems obvious: automation of legal work, use of online services and blockchain systems, and solutions based on artificial intellect.

EY is one of the four largest professional services networks in the world, together known as the “Big Four.” For a long time, the professional services industry was viewed as traditional and conservative, with the first professional services provided by legacy firms more than 110 years ago. However, it is undergoing fundamental changes today – the digital disruption poses challenges to all industries, and the professional services sector is no different. 

More than 20 years ago, I was introduced to the Sophists Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides, Plato, and Protagoras: The first lawyers of the world.

You’ll read in this issue stories from other colleagues’ experience - that is, stories from the past. I will try a different approach and will give you instead a story from the future. This will be about how technology helps with resource optimization – which is what those with a less rich vocabulary mean when they say “doing more with less.”

The rapid development of technology and its impact on our daily lives can be witnessed in everything we do. From e-commerce to remote control of the temperature at our homes, technology has changed the way that we manage our daily tasks. Similarly, in the legal industry, technological developments – from advancements in standard legal tasks to big data analytics – are all taking center stage in the work being done to improve the provision of legal services.

The accelerating shift from traditional on-premises information technology (IT) systems to cloud computing presents in-house counsel with a veritable obstacle course of compliance challenges and regulatory pitfalls. Virtually every industry today faces an expanding set of data security demands, while different countries often have their own unique privacy and data protection requirements.

I have been working for Tesco for almost eight years, and when I joined the company, “compliance” was absolutely not a focus. We certainly followed values like “no one tries harder for customers,” but we did not know too much about compliance and about how important it should be for a well-organized company in the 21st century. 

Compliance Matters

The role of the in-house legal counsel in recent years has become intensely intermingled with compliance matters, which are of huge importance for international corporations. For example, American companies place great importance on anti-corruption compliance, and the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is widely known and complied with in Europe due to its extraterritorial application. 

It is good to have at least general idea of the answer to the question of where the added value of the legal department lies, otherwise you might become a very expensive administrator whose contribution to a company success is questionable. 

The rapid transformation (one could almost say the revolution) of the world of legal services is a fact and has been taking place for some time now. In fact, I believe it is now gaining its full momentum. This transformation affects both law firms and in-house legal departments. It started several years ago with cost-cutting, as clients expected more and more for less and less: in-house legal departments from external law firms, and internal clients from in-house lawyers. More changes followed. 

The legal department is one of the support functions in an organization which is, or at least should be, constantly evolving together with the organization it supports. It cannot be too static or too inconsistent in its approach and way of handling the organization’s legal matters. 

The method of providing legal services has changed a great deal over recent decades. This is true both globally and in CEE, which has been integrating rapidly into the global economy. In this process, local subsidiaries in the region have absorbed key trends and practices from their Western headquarters, business processes have upgraded and developed, and business itself has become more cross-bordered and technologically advanced.

Years ago, when a group of in-house lawyers entered the elevator of a bank, someone would mock, “Wow, what a bunch of handbrakes!” While this did not personally happen to me, I am well aware that internal legal counsels are often referred to as “problem factories” or “speedbumps” – the couriers of bad news, best to be avoided. I must admit, this scorn was not without reason. But, should this necessarily still be the case? In my view, not any longer.

In the 18 plus years I have been an in-house counsel I have had the opportunity to observe the evolution of that role. These days, in-house legal counsel do more than simply review contracts and provide legal counseling. We are no longer transactional clerks who merely approve what has already been done. General Counsels have evolved from being purely legal advisors to being strategic advisors. It is not enough now merely to provide guidance and business solutions on specific issues or resolve disputes that may arise. We must be forward looking business partners, seated at the table at which strategic decisions are made. 

The phenomenon of globalization has impacted almost every field of personal and business life of this generation – and the position of Head of Legal is no exception. In order to understand the evolution of this role compare what football or basketball looked like 30 years ago to what they look like now: Almost like different games. 

On March 13, 2017, CEELM reported that Arcus Infrastructure Partners, an independent fund manager specializing in European infrastructure, had acquired an 85% stake in Gdansk Transport Company S.A., established to work on AmberOne A1 motorway concession in Poland. We invited Toby Smith, the General Counsel for Arcus Infrastructure Partners, to share his thoughts on the company’s first transaction in Poland.

On January 30, 2017, eight members of the In-House Advisory Panel for the 2017 GC Summit gathered at the offices of Squire Patton Boggs in Budapest for a Round Table conversation on the challenges they face and strategies they employ in dealing with external counsel. The event was moderated by Akos Mester, Partner at Squire Patton Boggs.

Martin Strnad has been the General Counsel of Y Soft – A Czech Software company headquartered in Brno, with offices in ten countries – since March 2016. He was previously an Attorney with Havel, Holasek & Partners and a Managing Associate with PwC Legal. Earlier still, he was a Clerk responsible for drafting bills of law and assisting in the preparation process with the Legislative Office of the Czech Ministry of Interior.

Wolf Theiss Budapest Partner Janos Toth Interviews Gabor Orosz, Associate General Counsel and Legal Director EMEIA of National Instruments Corporation.

On January 18, 2017, CEELM reported that CBRE Global Investors had sold its significant CEE retail portfolio to the CPI Property Group. On April 12th, we published an interview with the General Counsel at CPI, and now we present the perspective of Roland Bebcak, the Head of Divestments CEE at CBRE Global Investors.

Czech lawyer Radek Novotny has left LG Electronics to become the new Head of Legal at AERO Vodochody AEROSPACE a.s. in the Czech Republic.  

On February 16, 2017, CEELM reported that GTC Real Estate Development had sold the Sasad Resort, an almost-completed residential project in Budapest, to Futureal, the largest real estate developer in Hungary. We reached out to Viktoria Molnar, Legal Counsel at GTC Hungary, for information about the deal.

Tobiasz Adam Kowalczyk has joined Volkswagen as its new Head of Legal for Poland. 

On February 6th, 2017, CEELM reported that Ellex had advised AS Eesti Loto, the Estonian operator of the Bingo Loto, Keno Loto, Viking Loto, and Eurojackpot, on the recent completion of a procurement procedure in order to set up a new internal central information system designed to last for seven years. Heiki Kranich, the Chairman of the Management Board at AS Eesti Loto, agreed to explain how the procurement system was designed.

On January 13th, 2017, CEELM reported that Skanska had handed over its Nordic Light office complex in Budapest to Erste Alapkezelo Zrt. We invited Gabriella Delcsev, the Legal Manager at Skanska Hungary, to describe her team's work on the divestment.