
We spoke with Emily Reeve, General Counsel at Datagrid, a start-up developing a hyperscale datacentre in Southland. Like many in-house roles, Emily’s remit extends well beyond legal, and she shares how she’s adapted her approach in a fast-paced, high-opportunity environment, and why working at the frontier of AI means shifting from perfection to pace.
Can you give us an overview of your new role at Datagrid, what drew you to it, and what are you enjoying so far?
I’m General Counsel at Datagrid, a start-up developing a hyperscale datacentre in Southland. I’m the legal lead, but like in most start-ups I wear many hats, also steering strategy, policy, media, communications, project management, HR, and fundraising. I was drawn to Datagrid’s bold vision to put New Zealand on the global stage through this transformative AI infrastructure project. The fast-paced, solutions-focussed culture is refreshing, and it’s awesome to have the whole team working towards the goal of positioning Southland as a global AI hub.
“No one has time for anything other than clear and implementable solutions, so the days of long legal memos are over!” | ||
What is the most fulfilling aspect of your role?
My role has the same focus as the rest of the team - driving Datagrid’s mission to develop transformative infrastructure and amplify New Zealand’s AI presence. Crafting legal and strategic solutions to enable this goal is very rewarding. I’ve learned to think more like an entrepreneur, balancing risk with opportunity, and improved my ability to simplify advice in a very fast-paced environment. No one has time for anything other than clear and implementable solutions, so the days of long legal memos are over!
What trends or shifts are you seeing that could shape the future of in-house legal work?
In-house roles are operating in extremely fast-paced environments. This is even more so in the new AI world, and this requires a more pragmatic approach to legal work. We need to balance risk mitigation with the need to move quickly - delivering practical solutions over legal perfectionism. If the business is forced to wait for comprehensive, belts and braces legal advice or sign-off, the opportunity may be lost. This trend of in-house lawyers who are agile, solution-oriented, and are comfortable with managing ambiguity has been developing for some time now, it’s just reinforced further by the pace of AI related projects.
AI is also now a vital team member, particularly for sole-counsel roles. It’s a collaborator and virtual team member to help deliver smarter, faster outcomes. I see this human-AI partnership as a positive transformation of in-house work, making us more efficient, strategic and impactful.
If you could invent or improve one piece of tech to make your job easier, what would it be?
An accurate child sickness forecaster would be extremely helpful… I have two children at daycare and the constant cycle of daycare bugs really tests the limits of the working Mum. I read a great article recently about the challenges we face, which said we are not ‘doing it all’ - we’re doing two things, badly and brilliantly at the same time. Which really rang true to me as I try to juggle the chaos and I’m looking forward to the day that tech somehow helps with this balance!
Ngā mihi nui, Emily, for giving the in-house community a glimpse into your role and world at Datagrid. We appreciate hearing your reflections on risk, clarity, and the human-AI partnership, plenty for in-house lawyers to consider... And we’ll join you in holding out hope for that child sickness forecaster too!