EY-Legal 2.0: Compliance challenges and the transformation of legal departments in the digital age

Event titled, “Legal 2.0: Addressing the Challenges & Opportunities of the Legal Function in the Digital Age”on the subject of compliance challenges and the opportunities to transform legal departments in the digital agerecently organized by EY Greece partner, Platis – Anastasiadis & Associates Law Firm, member of the EY Law network. The event is part of the two companies’ joint commitment to support businesses in their transformation and compliance with the resulting technology legal obligations.

During the event, an overview of recent and upcoming legal and regulatory developments in areas of law related to technology was attempted, while a number of examples of good practices that businesses could adopt were analyzed. On behalf of Plati – Anastasiadis & Associates, eight executives participated as speakers, led by Mr. Peaceful BackManaging Partner of Plati – Anastasiadis & Associates, Mrs Julia PournaraPartner, and Mr. Anthony BrumaDigital Law Lead.

The speakers presented the critical areas where the most important compliance issues are observed today, analyzing the relevant legislation and the requirements arising for businesses. In particular, the speakers referred to corporate governance issues and ESG issues, in the light of the CSRD Directive, the SFDR Regulation and the Regulation for the European Taxonomy, as well as the National Climate Law.

The challenges associated with emerging technologies, and artificial intelligence in particular, were also developed in the environment created by Law 4961/2022 on Emerging Technologies and the EU Artificial Intelligence Act. (EU AI Act). Finally, they analyzed the legislation on whistleblowing (Law 4990/2022 on the protection of public interest witnesses who report violations of EU law) and on workplace harassment issues (Law 4808/2021).

Then, the speakers referred to the critical role of the legal departments of companies, in dealing with a series of big, interconnected challenges, created by the rapid adoption and utilization of digital technology.

In this context, among other things, the following were discussed:

• The exploitation and strengthening of the value of the intellectual property of the business.
• Accelerating innovation from the enterprise.
• Dealing with the legal aspects of the operation of the business on the internet, in the context of the European Directives for the protection of consumers and the regulation of the operation of online markets and platforms.
• The legal exploitation of data, in the context of European legislation to promote the free flow of data, while protecting the fundamental rights of natural persons.
• Addressing the challenges of complying with information security legislation.

In the context of the event, Mr. Irinikos Platis pointed out: “In matters of technology, Greek and European legislation are trying to create a framework that will effectively regulate the market, protect consumers and citizens, while, at the same time, it will strengthen innovation and economic development. In this environment, corporate legal functions are challenged to address a range of compliance challenges associated with the use of the internet, artificial intelligence, data mining and information security, and contribute to the value creation of their businesses. . Platis – Anastasiadis & Associates Law Firm, in cooperation with EY Hellas, supports Greek businesses so that they can decode this environment and transform their legal departments, upgrading them from a traditional legal function (Legal 1.0) to a co- creator of long-term value in the new digital age (Legal 2.0)”.