The General Counsel behind the audiobooks rocket

Bolagsjuristbloggen met with Amanda Spaner Åkerman, General Counsel of groundbreaking and fast growing company Storytel, which was just listed as the coolest tech company to work for, by Silicon Canals. We wanted to find out more about Amandas personal goals and team priorities for 2019.

Amanda, you have the classic lawyer background, with everything from a Harvard degree and law firm background before going in-house. What has been the drivers bringing you to where you are today? 

People inspire me, curiosity drives me. I think I always wanted to learn new things, see new places and meet new inspiring people. I guess I somehow figured out a way to use business and the law as stepping stones to make this happen. In fact, people and curiosity are still my key drivers, just look at what I do today and whom I am doing it with, a modern company with a startup mentality, management that inspires me and which operates in more than 15 markets globally… 

What are your personal goals for 2019? 

As GC my three personal goals are 1) to lead the team towards being an even better, more innovative business partner to our commercial teams, 2) to better understand and cater to the many local needs in the different markets and 3) to be the best team leader I can be for the lawyers in my department. 

What are your teams priorities for 2019?  

In everything we do we strive to be an innovative, proactive and forward leaning business partner for the Storytel group. Other than making it an everyday goal to live up to this motto, one of our top priorities on a team level is to grow the legal team by adding new talent to the group of lawyers and onboarding them in the best possible way, and by making room for personal development and specialization within the already existing team. Another top priority 2019 is to customize, populate and launch our new digital tools (such as our new contract management software) on a global level to all companies in the group thus saving time and increasing both transparency and efficiency.

We are always looking to learn more about the dynamics of the legal market and the people who work in it in order to serve it best. Do you need help building your legal team or a gig-lawyer? Get in touch here: [email protected]