About

Kjersti Bergsåker-Aspøy has been general counsel at GDF Suez E&P Norge A/S for four years. In that time she has focused on increasing the formal visibility of the legal department within the company. ‘I have initiated and carried out a process whereby legal has been implemented as a more visible and compulsory part of the business processes described in the management system of the company’. The main goal is to develop and strengthen the legal department’s knowledge of core business: ‘if we outsource entire cases related to our core business, a lot of knowledge development is lost. I believe that building knowledge in-house is key’. Bergsåker-Aspøy has put a lot of emphasis on developing the legal department as an educator within the company as well. ‘I believe that the educator role is important and should be part of the legal department in any company. The legal department should not only be seen as support, but fully integrated in all projects which involves legal aspects, and the lawyer should be involved from the start, side by side with the economist, the technical personnel and so forth’. Furthermore, she has introduced and conducted a legal training day, involving subjects of interest to the different departments (such as basic contract law for non-lawyers, the regulatory framework and the role of the operator of an oil field). ‘The training days have been very popular, and have increased the collaboration between legal and our other departments’.