About

From being the sole in-house counsel to battling with potential bankruptcy, Christian Wang Schumacher has faced a range of challenges since he joined SAS Norge A/S in 2010. Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) was founded in 1946, originally divided into SAS Denmark, SAS Norge and SAS Sweden all owned in 50-50 partnership between private investors and their respective governments. As general counsel and the only lawyer for the company, Wang Schumacher is responsible for all legal aspects, including worldwide data security, privacy and anti-bribery. Since he arrived, all routine work that would have been handed over to external counsel is now done in-house. At the point of nearly being bankrupt in 2012, SAS was in need of major restructuring. ‘There are two major circumstances that has had a great significance and impact on my work as SAS Norge’s sole counsel. The restructuring of SAS involved divesting the SAS Group airline company Widerøe’s Flyveselskap A/S, sell or exit from all non-core airline business in SAS and liquidating companies in the SAS Group, managing and solving substantial M&A challenges’. As well as his sometimes intense role at SAS, Wang Schumacher also has a large amount of external responsibilities and activities. He has established a networking forum for sole counsel in Norway, using external law firms to facilitate. The forum consists of approximately 12 sole counsel, who meet quarterly to discuss the difficulties of being the only lawyer within their respective companies. Wang Schumacher’s dedication and hard work have allowed this group to create a best practice sharing forum, helping them all to learn from each other and ultimately improve their offerings to their companies. Wang Schumacher also holds a trustee position for the Disciplinary Committee of the Norwegian Bar Association. On this committee he takes on complaints about individual lawyers, their ethical behaviour and monitoring of their fees, having a genuine impact on the wider legal industry.