LMCP hosts 2024 Asia Pacific Corporate Counsel Alliance Conference

The Legal Management Council of the Philippines (LMCP) on Thursday hosted for the first time the 2024 Asia Pacific Corporate Counsel Alliance Conference (APCCAC).

Themed “Post-Pandemic Legal Landscape: Challenges and Trends in the In-House Counsel Community”, the regional conference brought together associations of corporate legal counsels from different countries in the ASEAN region to discuss shared challenges, and best practices in the industry following the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“During the pandemic, it’s now very important what the role of in-house counsel should play in a company or business,” Arlene Lapuz-Ureta, APCCA Secretary General and LMCP president, said in a panel discussion. 

LMCP is an association of corporate legal counsels of top domestic and multinational corporations and leading legal service providers in the country. 

“As we mentioned earlier, the primary obstacle was business continuity. All those default problems, all those failures in terms of complying with obligations — all of these are issues that the management takes. Therefore, it's very important for the in-house counsel not only to just give out legal opinions..but the important thing is to play that role of being a partner of the business, of your management,” she said. 

Lapuz-Ureta said the COVID-19 pandemic likewise showed various risks in digital space such as cybersecurity, data privacy, and transactional online activities. 

Representatives from the Singapore Corporate Counsel Association (SCCA), Thai CCA, and Indonesia CCA joined the two-day APCCAC held in Shangri-la The Fort in Taguig City from September 19 to September 20, 2024. 

Meanwhile, the panel agreed the pandemic brought about new opportunities for lawyers concerning new technologies such as the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the legal industry. 

They likewise shared new legislations emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic in their respective countries such as the amendments in the Telecommuting Act, which paved the way for work-from-home arrangements in the Philippines. 

“I think there are other related skills that lawyers need to learn more: how to use the latest technology and generative AI…If you’ll use generative AI, you’re gonna have to have a good prompt and instruction…so it could generate output in a good way. That’s prompt engineering,” said Thai CCA President Sahachai Wibuloutai. —Sundy Locus/LDF, GMA Integrated News