The 2degrees legal team brings together experience, humour, and a genuine sense of connection to support a company at the centre of Aotearoa’s fast-changing digital and communications landscape. Winners of the 2025 ILANZ People and Culture Excellence Award, they’ve built a reputation for being pragmatic, people-centred, and unafraid to experiment, whether that’s rethinking how AI can support their work or shaping the company’s broader approach to risk.
We had the joy of chatting with Louise Henderson, General Counsel & Head of Risk at 2degrees, about the legal team. Here’s how she describes their work, what defines them as a team, and what’s shaping their focus right now.
Can you give us an overview of the 2degrees legal team and how you support the business?
The 2degrees legal team is made up of 7 lawyers* with an impressive 48 years of combined tenure (at last count)! Which is useful given the time it takes to learn all the 3-letter acronyms they use in the telco sector. And like most in-house legal teams, we have adopted a business partnering model, where we have dedicated team members supporting specific segments of our business; such as our Technology teams, Marketing & Product teams, and our Sales teams.
What’s distinctive about the way your team works together or partners with the wider business?
It’s hard to know just how "distinctive" your approach might be, especially when we are all striving for best practice, but we get a lot of great feedback from our stakeholders that they appreciate our ability to quickly get to the root cause of the issue and proactively offer solutions rather than just advising why something won't work. And I know our colleagues enjoy the way we bring our authentic selves to the conversation and sometimes even a bit of humour.
What’s a recent win or achievement you’re especially proud of?
We were enormously proud to win the ILANZ People and Culture Excellence Award - particularly as that award wasn't about any individual achievement or significant legal deal or transaction (of which there are always many) but it was about us, how we work together, how we draw inspiration from our interns (read: keeps us young), and how we celebrate and support each other - our culture.
“The brilliant thing about being an in-house lawyer is that your role will evolve as the business evolves, and working in telco, we are anything but stagnant.” | ||||
But as a company, we have just completed a mammoth 3-year integration project that has successfully brought together the Vocus NZ and 2degrees businesses. This has been an epic achievement by the entire business that was not just a technology project but a true business transformation, and it wouldn't have been achievable without bold vision, exceptional execution, great culture but above all a common and galvanising purpose; fighting for fair.
What challenges is the team navigating right now, and how have you approached them?
Legally, we are grappling with the right guardrails for AI usage (as I imagine most in-house teams are), but we are seeing this as a massive opportunity for us- both as a team and business - rather than a scary legal risk that must be avoided. The team have Copilot licenses and are encouraged to test, augment their day-to-day tasks, and experiment. I'm currently trying to build an agent that will mark up contracts using our templates as a basis... it's exciting but still very much in beta stage. We recently completed AI month that included prompt-a-thons, hack-a-tons, a number of excellent talks on the ethics of AI, sustainability impacts of AI and there were vendor presentations, training sessions, drop-in sessions. No shortage of legal risks to navigate but lots of exciting opportunities ahead.
How do you see the legal team's role evolving as 2degrees continues to grow and change?
I see the legal team's role as developing into broader aspects of risk management by continuing to educate and guide the evolution of our risk appetite and tolerance limits. The brilliant thing about being an in-house lawyer is that your role will evolve as the business evolves, and working in telco, we are anything but stagnant. Whether it's advocating for greater competition and fairer regulatory settings in the energy sector, adopting new AI policies, or working on satellite to mobile technology projects, we are always growing and learning.
*Since writing this article, sadly, one member of the team has taken up a great new role at another company.
Ngā mihi nui to the 2degrees legal team for taking the time to share about your mahi and fighting for fair. It’s encouraging to see how openness, learning, and a bit of humour can keep a team connected and effective.
Congratulations on the ILANZ People and Culture Excellence Award—well deserved. Thanks for sharing with the in-house legal community.