Anom Sedayu is Vice President Legal of PT ASDP Indonesia Ferry (Persero), which was recently named the In-house Transportation and Logistics Team of the Year at the ALB SE Asia Law Awards 2024. In his role, he is responsible for overseeing corporate legal matters and providing essential legal advice to ensure that the company’s business operations comply with Indonesian laws and regulations. He is also involved in drafting, reviewing and negotiating a wide range of contracts. Sedayu joined ASDP Indonesia Ferry in 2017 and assumed his current role in October last year. He previously held an in-house role at PT Angkasa Pura Properti.
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ALB: Can you describe your typical day or week as a general counsel? What are the main responsibilities and challenges you face?
Sedayu: As Legal Director of PT ASDP Indonesia Ferry (Persero), the world’s largest roll-on/roll-off ferry operator with 226 vessels operating on 307 routes across the Indonesian archipelago, we are responsible for protecting profitability and sustainability of the company’s activities and operations ensuring that all legal requirements of the company are met. With our status as a public company, the challenge is not only to maintain a high level of regulatory obligations, but also to remain agile in the ever-changing landscape of the nature of business.
ALB: How do you balance legal risk management with business growth and innovation within your organization?
Sedayu: The art is to be fully aware of risks, not just legal, but also to anticipate other risks such as financial, reputational and operational. These risks, if not properly managed, will reflect growing legal risks. Thus, considering any transaction from a holistic perspective, not only on the legal aspect, but also considering and involving other stakeholders and aspects, is the key to balancing the need for business growth and reduce legal risk.
ALB: How do you approach risk assessment and mitigation in your role, particularly when it comes to high-stakes or precedent-setting legal issues?
Sedayu: We always prioritize mitigating the handling of potential legal issues by socializing and ensuring that all legal policies are fully aware of our stakeholders. In addition to this, providing routine legal information on new updates to the legal policy and regulations not only to the entire legal team through sharing sessions, so our team has the same way of handling all legal issues, but also to all stakeholders, so everyone in the company has the same vision of preventing legal action.
ALB: How do you stay up to date with emerging legal trends, technologies and best practices in your field?
Sedayu: Law is a dynamic field that continues to develop as regulations, cases, and precedents evolve over time. Additionally, with the rapid development of technology that allows access to real-time information at any time, it is now easier than ever to stay abreast of legal and industry developments. Additionally, the use of technology in the legal team’s service process is crucial to making the process more efficient.
ALB: What advice would you give to future lawyers or law students interested in a career as in-house counsel?
Sedayu: The most important thing is to maintain a spirit of continuous learning, because every business has its own nature of operation and characteristics that need to be adapted by future lawyers or law students. As a legal advisor, we need to be more sensitive to the day-to-day operations of the business, because we will be dealing directly with any related legal issues. We are also responsible for managing this legal risk, because this issue will not impact any other related issue or constitute a legal problem.
ALB: Looking ahead, what are the biggest legal challenges or opportunities your industry will face over the next 5-10 years?
Sedayu: Automation of the legal sector is becoming a reality. With endless innovation, it is no longer an option, but an obligation for our legal team to increase their skills and knowledge and continue to innovate to improve the flow of our legal services and us allow us to improve day by day and continue to consider any potential risks linked to its implementation. Backed by the power of sensitivity to deal with any legal issue, the role of technology automation will not change the role of general counsel, but will make our role more effective than before.
