About

One of the most prominent general counsel in the Asia Pacific region, Paul Fredrick has been a leading figure of the in-house legal community in the region for more than a decade. In his current role since 2015, Fredrick has received high praise for managing a team of nine lawyers in six countries responsible for US$1.8bn of commercial operations. He also advises the zone president, supervises litigation and disputes, leads the compliance council which handles ethics matters for 12,000 employees in the East Asia and Japan (EAJ) zone, and serves on the leadership team for the Asia Pacific region’s legal group. Fredrick views his role as a strategic partner to the business, although he ‘does not embed lawyers into the business units we support in order to maintain our independence’. Rather, Fredrick and his team have ‘developed quality relationships with commercial colleagues that enable thoughtful, proactive collaboration at every stage of a transaction or project’. In addition to publishing regular newsletters, Fredrick has developed numerous template agreements for use throughout the EAJ Zone, which allows his team to focus more on high-risk and high-value matters for Schneider Electric. Fredrick has a long list of successful transactions and projects in Asia, the US and elsewhere globally. During his tenure with Schneider Electric, he includes the following on that list: ‘the negotiations in 2017 of the long-term lease and all related construction contracts for our state-of-the-art regional headquarters, the first office building in Singapore to be certified with a Green Mark Platinum Award; and the favourable resolution in 2018 of a complex multi-million-dollar arbitration’. Fredrick previously served for as general counsel with Itochu Oil Exploration in Tokyo for seven years and as senior counsel with Chevron in Singapore and Houston for seven years. Fredrick has also practiced in major international law firms in the US and Japan handling cross-border projects, M&A transactions, federal and state court litigation, and corporate matters.