When Zaid Gardner set out to build the legal function at Property Finder, he intuitively understood that team dynamics would be important, but he didn’t foresee just how critical getting this part right would be to its future success. Now, with the help of legal ops pioneer Charmaine Shyu, he leads a formidable tech-enabled team – and they’re just getting started!

A democratized approach to in-house legal

By his own admission, Zaid Gardner is a sports nut. And, interestingly for a South African, he is happy to heap praise on the skills and versatility of All Black Beauden Barrett, a player equally adept at either first-half (fly-half) or fullback. He talks too of Japanese baseball star Shohei Ohtani, who is renowned as both pitcher and batter. At the end of last season, Ohtani signed a US $700 million ten-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers – the largest contract in professional sports history. Recognition, says Zaid, of the player’s unique skill set which the Dodgers are confident will benefit the team in the years to come.

Zaid’s appreciation for sports’ top echelon makes sense. Based at the company’s UAE headquarters in Dubai, the GC and member of the executive leadership team at Property Finder is all about team mentality. Over the past three years, he has built, led and nurtured his in-house legal team from the ground up into a cohesive and well-functioning unit – one that is able to operate in the fast-paced pressure-cooker environment that is the Middle East ecosystem.

“I try to democratize the team as much as possible – a great idea, an opinion, or a perspective can come from anyone.”

“There is an energy here that pushes and encourages you to create opportunities; it’s a dynamism that we’re trying to replicate within our own team,” he says. “As GC, I play my part in that, because my responsibility is to look after the legal team and service the business – but it’s not a top-down system. I try to democratize the team as much as possible – a great idea, an opinion, or a perspective can come from anyone. There is space here for people to express themselves without hesitation or judgment.”

Three years ago, when Zaid joined Property Finder, he was the sole in-house lawyer, a one-person legal function responsible for offering legal and strategic advice as well as doing routine work such as contract reviews and NDAs. When it came to building a team, he knew a targeted approach was required. Attitude was important, as was the desire of the people he hired to continuously learn and extend themselves in an environment which would test their versatility and commitment.

“I searched for people who were perhaps more junior in terms of experience, but they were also hungry and enthusiastic, and have brought a lot of energy to the team,” he says.

Today the legal team at Property Finder consists of a small handful of lawyers, a collections division which reports to Zaid, and Charmaine Shyu, the contracts and legal operations manager. Because the work environment is intense, the team’s active adoption of legal technology is playing a vital and increasing role in their success, allowing them to fulfil their broad ranging obligations to the business.

“The goal is for legal to be recognized as far more than a support function – it’s a legitimate and value-additive partner to the business.”

While this approach provides much needed structure when it comes to internal relationships, ensuring that the business knows how to engage with legal, it also allows for flexibility and versatility – both in the way things are done and the team’s own ability to focus on more high-level strategic work. The goal is for legal to be recognized as far more than a support function – they’re a legitimate and value-additive partner to the business.

As the Property Finder legal team leans more and more into technology as a tool to increase efficiency and optimize its value, the role of legal operations has become less of a “nice to have” for Zaid, and more of a necessity.

“Because we’re a small team in a growing and fast-paced industry, creating a designated legal ops function whilst investing in technology is really allowing us to accelerate towards creating a mutually beneficial symbiosis between our team and the wider business.”

While Charmaine was initially employed as contracts manager, her role has evolved to encompass legal ops, which she now champions for the whole team. Although she is still at an early stage of her career, Charmaine has proven to be a major asset and Zaid emphasizes his complete trust in her to handle this side of the function: “She is very detail oriented and has a great skill set,” he says, describing her as the fuel that enables his team to ultimately achieve more with less, opening up the doors for “infinite possibilities”.

Zaid is excited by the speed with which his team’s legal ops function is developing and is especially interested in exploring concepts like legal design, the process of rethinking legal workflows to make them more human and user friendly. “How can we present our legal work in a way that is less dry, less functional, and more engaging and interactive?” he muses. “How do we communicate in a way that non-legal colleagues will find interesting, which triggers them to engage so that we can have a more meaningful conversation with them?”

One of the biggest advantages of having the operations side of the legal function handled by Charmaine is that it allows the lawyers in Zaid’s team to operate as a team of specialists. “We’ve got the business effectively divided up into parts which various team members look after respectively – this has given them each the chance to better understand that particular part of the business – its work, its history, its road map. And they’ve started to build trusted relationships with the people who work in those departments.”

For Zaid, it’s important, however, to also retain a generalist overview within the legal function so that team members can cover for each other if someone is absent or on leave. A holistic approach, as he terms it. “We have structure, we have discipline, we have a format that works for us, but we also have the flexibility and versatility that allows us to interchange.”

Watching his team adapt and develop gives Zaid a lot of satisfaction. Helping others to achieve their own ambitions is a key part of how he sees his future legacy at Property Finder, something which includes creating a succession plan for his own role.

Unsurprisingly, Zaid returns to his love of sport to explain his philosophy. “One of the All Blacks once talked about only ‘holding’ his jersey for only a short time; it didn’t belong to him, it was only his until it was time to pass it along to his successor. So, while your team is evolving, it’s worth keeping in mind that your role in it ultimately has an end date. Make the most of it – but remember that at some stage you will pass it on to another person. When that time comes, hopefully the work you’ve done will endure – creating a self-sustaining legacy which puts them in a better position than you were in when you first took on the role.”