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?

I always try to work proactively with a view to the current business situation and new and upcoming legislation to prepare the company for future success. I always build the legal strategy on the business strategy to ensure success. The legal department is supporting the business in all projects and daily business therefore strategies have to be aligned.

What do you see as the major legal challenges for businesses in Germany over the next five years, and how are you preparing to address them?

Companies have to deal with many new laws like returnable cups, CSRD, CSDDD, EU Deforestation Regulation etc. which all must be implemented to be compliant. As a legal department it’s necessary to be always aware of new law and familiar with it as soon as possible in addition to the daily business. Many of these new laws frequently require a lot of resources from other departments and cannot be easily implemented. It impacts workload and costs, and a reasonable implementation must take place. The legal department needs to make sure to be prepared in time and in the interest of the business. The economic environment has changed and an adaptation to the new challenges is required.