About

Headed by Andreas Bohrer, group general counsel and company secretary, the legal team at Lonza consists of more than 45 legal, compliance and intellectual property professionals globally, of which around 20 are based in Basel. The rest of the team is spread between the US, UK and China in order to support the operations of the Swiss multinational, chemicals and biotechnology company. The collaboration across teams and geographies has meant allocation of work can occur in the most efficient manner, as well as taking advantage of time zones to provide around-the-clock coverage and leveraging individual lawyers’ specialist know-how on regulatory and competition matters. With the guidance of Bohrer, the team has influenced many significant strategic growth projects without adding resources, but by increasing efficiencies. Many changes have been needed to keep up with Lonza’s growth, such as the re-alignment of the Basel legal team to allocate resources to strategic growth projects, and the strengthening of the UK legal team to ensure sufficient manpower to support the pharmaceutical and biotechnology segments of the company. ‘Through the coaching of the new members in the US legal team to develop them into effective business partners, the definition of legal entry points for the Lonza business units, and the building of global practice teams and centers of excellence to ensure best practice alignment and consistency in approach, the department has been able to increase efficiency and to cope with substantially increased workload at the same headcount levels’. A culture of empowerment, integrity and trust in the legal function has promoted collaboration and allowed the legal professionals to step-up and take the lead in many projects. Bohrer explains that the formula is to fully support his team members on an individual and personal level: ‘I have become convinced that getting the best out of people is the number one key to success – success for the team, for the individual members of the team, for the head of the team, and for the company and its shareholders. Supporting the team to learn by doing and to grow on the job is very efficient and effective. It is remarkable to see what individuals and entire teams are able to accomplish if a supportive environment permits them to do so’.