Industry Vs Occupation

Nowadays, whenever I am asked about my occupation and industry, be it by people or filling in application forms, things get a bit confusing because by profession, my name card reads "Legal Assistant, Group Legal", but my industry indicates "Tourism / Hospitality". Some, including the employees in my company, have asked me what exactly I am doing.

To start off, the company I am working for is in the hospitality and service industry. It owns and manages various resorts and spas overseas. There are three departments that require legal work. One is Group Legal, the other is Business Development, the third is Corporate Secretarial.

Our Head of Business Development is a lawyer by training. He is the one sourcing for all the various places to set up resorts and spas, and enter into Management Agreements with the various companies. There is a Legal Counsel for Business Development, where she helps in drafting and vetting the Management Agreements, and negotiating contracts for the resorts. She says that she no longer sees herself as a lawyer, but rather a glamourised sales person.

There are two Business Development Executives, one for Administration, where she will amend and execute the final documents, and the other focus more on marketing and negotiating the setting up of resorts and spas. The Head of Business Development has a Secretary / Personal Assistant to see to his daily work.

The Corporate Secreterial Department consists of the Group Company Secretary and her assistant, the Secretariat Executive. The Secretariat Executive prepares all the board meetings and resolutions, liaising with overseas lawyers for due diligence matters, incorporation and restructuring of the various subsidiaries, and preparing annual reports. The Company Secretary will be the one chairing and attending board meetings, drafting announcements and press releases. It is not easy, considering each time when a resort or spa is set up in whichever country, a new subsidiary has to be set up in that country to manage the new resort or spa.

The Business Development Executive for Adminstration and the Secretariat Executive will give fully executed document(s) to the Group Legal Department, which is where I come in. My two bosses are the Legal Counsel for Group Legal and Senior Manager for Group Legal. We deal with all the other legal matters, which include trademarks (local and overseas), in charge of all the various documents handed over to us by Business Development and other departments, Contracts, Loans, liaising with overseas lawyers and firms, Property, Finance, Taxes, Insurance and Litigation.

Each time someone uses a name or trademark that looks like ours, we have to negotiate and liaise with the other party to either change or proceed to take action. Each time a guest complained after staying in any of the resorts, we have to negotiate a settlement. If the resorts are damaged by any natural disasters, we have to negotiate with insurers to clean up the mess.

Sounds impressive right? Bear in mind that I am only the assistant, so it is my two bosses who deal with the various matters. I am only doing a fraction of what they are doing, ie the administration work, correspondence, proof-reading, negotiation, filing, sorting, database. No doubt they give me freedom and leeway to take charge of things, more so than other bosses in the past, but still, what I am doing is nothing to talk about, because it is not as if I am doing really challenging or intelligent work as compared to others.

Thus, I am in the legal profession, but in a company specialising in hospitality and service. Confusing? Well... figure it out yourself.