Tech giant’s new head of EMEA employment law talks about her career in-house, the draw of transactional support work, and why law firms should not backtrack on advice

In-house life came calling for Suraya Mailvaganam quicker than most. Following a secondment at Unilever covering cross-border EMEA issues, Mailvaganam found she enjoyed influencing how larger organisations tackle thorny employment issues and realised she wanted to become embedded in what drives a business forward.