For the AIA Australia GC, his biggest lessons have been learned from his mistakes
Grant Jones was first drawn to in-house law because of his father, and the financial services lawyer has since excelled in this area of the law, logging a successful stint as GC at MLC Life Insurance before he made the jump to AIA Australia earlier this year.
Jones has always learned much from his mistakes, and in this interview with Australasian Lawyer, he shares his experience navigating the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry and why it's important that lawyers learn to harness tools like AI.
What made you choose a career as an in-house lawyer, and what's your favourite part of the job?
My father was an in-house lawyer for a long time and so because I looked up to him so much, I always had some level of unconscious bias towards in-house practice which would have been partly responsible for my initial jump from private practice to in-house.
What I have come to realise after making that change, however, is that whilst I have always enjoyed the technical aspects of law, what I really enjoy is its practical application to solve nuanced and complex problems. I love this aspect of my role and my favourite part is seeing the real business outcomes to which I have contributed along with others.
What in your opinion has been the most memorable event of your career to date?
Helping steer the life insurer I worked within at the time and its new board through the period in 2018 when the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry was in full flight. In many respects, this was a transformative moment in the history of financial services in Australia. There was no playbook that could be pulled off the shelf to help deal with it and there was a myriad of challenges that arose, in many cases unexpectedly, that needed to be dealt with thoughtfully and fulsomely, but very quickly. It was a period that really emphasised to me the importance of maintaining composure in all circumstances, and the value of decisiveness.
What’s the biggest lesson you learned in your career and what advice can you give fellow lawyers about it?
The biggest lessons I have learned in my career have been from my mistakes and not my successes and to be frank, the lessons have never been about a particular technical issue, but more about what it feels like to stand in the vulnerability of realising a mistake and needing to admit it, and what it feels like to be supported by leaders in that moment. These moments teach you a lot about yourself and also reveal a lot about the people around you.
What should the profession focus more on?
Relatability. Not just in the sense of being empathetic to your clients and what they want to achieve, but being able to relate your content to the decisions they need to make. Part of this is commercial acumen and understanding the business context. Another part is communicating simply and plainly. These are both fundamental to being an influential adviser.
What challenges are particularly pressing in the country’s legal industry?
Not dissimilar to other knowledge workers, an ongoing challenge is to maintain clarity of thought and insight quality notwithstanding conditions of constant urgency and an almost limitless universe of information sources.
What are your thoughts on new technology and its impact on the legal profession?
Perhaps unsurprisingly given my answer to the previous question, my view is that new technologies such as generative AI and other tools that can help filter and organise information, will be not only be immensely helpful to lawyers and other knowledge professionals, but indispensable. I don’t subscribe to the idea that AI will replace lawyers, but I do believe that lawyers who can skilfully use AI and other tools to support their practice will replace lawyers who cannot.
What are you looking forward to the most in the coming year?
Getting to know my new team better and experiencing the culture of a new organisation.
