General counsel | Yunex
Florian Engel
General counsel | Yunex
How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?
In my view, particularly during challenging times, it is essential for the legal department to establish itself as a source of calm, in contrast to the often frantic pace of business units. The legal team should always take the time and have the freedom to conduct thorough analyses from multiple perspectives. By doing so, we can introduce a sense of order and composure into crisis situations, simply by fulfilling our daily legal responsibilities. Communicating this behind-the-scenes message, alongside sophisticated legal expertise, is arguably the most significant contribution the legal department can make to enhance an organisation’s resilience.
When focusing on specific legal measures the department can provide during periods of instability and crisis, I emphasise the importance of excellence in claim management and contract management, as these areas can significantly impact the organisation’s economic standing.
Surprisingly, it often happens that project managers and sales personnel overlook the secondary contractual benefits that have been negotiated in their day-to-day operations. This is particularly true in cases where contract negotiations have emphasised unique benefits that deviate from standard terms. These scenarios present opportunities to realise value, whether through enforceable penalties for failing to meet service levels, special payment terms, or price adjustment mechanisms. Effectively managing these claims against contractual partners can yield swift results and instil considerable confidence within the organisation.
Given this context, such unfortunate situations can also serve as a catalyst for highlighting the importance of contract management excellence and fostering a connection to other ongoing business strategies.
What are the main cases or transactions that you have been involved in recently?
After leading the legal department at Reverse Logistics Group for five years and facilitating the company’s integration into the Reconomy Group, I joined Yunex Traffic as Group General Counsel in July 2024. The opportunity to join Yunex Traffic during its transformative phase, following its separation from Siemens, was a compelling motivation for this transition. I am eager to leverage my legal management experience to support Yunex Traffic in its challenging transformation into a successful standalone entity within the new ownership structure in the years to come.
Currently, Yunex Traffic is still navigating the complexities of the carve-out, and we have been actively working to establish our independent legal and compliance organisation globally, alongside our network of external legal counsels. In addition, the legal department is deeply involved in implementing the new truck tolling system in the Netherlands and ensuring a robust legal framework for the AI features being integrated into our globally utilised traffic management solutions, aimed at making road traffic smarter and safer.
How have you integrated technology into your legal processes, and what impact has this had on efficiency and compliance?
Being part of a company that offers technology and process solutions provides a significant advantage, making the case for legal tech particularly compelling when it comes to procurement decisions. Whenever there is an opportunity for legal tech tools to enhance our processes and improve the company’s efficiency, I am fortunate to find a receptive audience. This foundation enables us to leverage technology for contract drafting, clause intelligence, and a digital playbook for commonly used contract types, benefiting both legal and non-legal colleagues.
Ultimately, this setup supports contract drafting tasks and fosters motivation. For example, procurement teams can operate independently within established guidelines for most contracts, while commercial lawyers are relieved of repetitive legal tasks, allowing them to focus on more complex issues that require tailored legal support. With this legal tech infrastructure in place, we achieve higher quality standards in our contracts, and contract monitoring becomes significantly streamlined, as contracts are automatically created, classified, and stored within our contract management tool.
What role does the legal department play in promoting and ensuring corporate social responsibility in your organisation?
While the legal department at Yunex Traffic may not be the primary driver for ESG initiatives and operates within a distinct reporting structure, I believe it plays a crucial role in upholding corporate social responsibility, both within the company and in its external dealings. This is achieved by ensuring compliance with relevant legal frameworks, providing strategic guidance on ethical issues, and embedding standards and rules within company policies.
These responsibilities align closely with the professional competencies of the legal department at Yunex Traffic and are already well-established within individual disciplines, particularly as the legal and compliance teams collaborate within my office. Compliance with environmental laws, employee rights, anti-corruption regulations, competition laws, supply chain legislation, and data privacy acts is not a recent development framed as corporate social responsibility. Rather, these efforts have long been integral to the operations of the legal and compliance departments, albeit under different terminology and levels of visibility.
When considering the promotion of corporate social responsibility, I find myself questioning how far the legal department intends to extend its role in this area and what level of commitment is desired by upper management. On one hand, corporate social responsibility, as part of broader ESG initiatives, should ideally have its own dedicated channels and reporting lines, fostering awareness from a fresh perspective. On the other hand, the legal department already naturally assumes significant responsibility for implementing corporate social responsibility initiatives, and it is essential that this role is not easily relinquished. Therefore, I believe that, similar to other aspects of corporate responsibility, the legal department should not merely function as a supporting back-office entity but should actively position itself as a reliable advocate for the company’s broader strategic objectives, both internally and externally.
General counsel an chief compliance officer | Reverse Logistics
General counsel and chief compliance officer | Reverse Logistics Group
In place as general counsel and authorised representative of Telefónica Global Services from 2014, during which time he enjoyed an enviable record of success at the telecoms giant, Florian Engel...
