About

Florian Schaefer joined Leica Camera in 2008 acting as general counsel of the company’s headquarters and its subsidiaries across the globe in over 20 jurisdictions. He has a broad array of responsibilities including the overseeing of M&As, the company’s IP portfolio, research and development, compliance, and corporate governance among other important tasks. These years have led him to a full immersion into the business and allowed him to gain immense experience of the Leica legal function, positioning him as a pragmatic and commercially-minded solution provider that takes into account the demands and targets of the business units while incorporating these in the solutions presented. In particular, the comprehensive data base of templates available for other business units on the legal and compliance page in Leica’s intranet. Schaefer’s stewardship of the Leica legal team has been remarked upon, and he now oversees a six-member team covering different jurisdictions and specialising in all relevant legal areas, which also emphasises diversity and inclusion and empowerment of the different characters within the team. On legal tech he has also been recognised as one of the leaders of the revolution 4.0 within legal departments as he has been running a completely digital office since 2012; with the implementation of a comprehensive document management system, that enables an objective continuance of the workflow and increases the communication and transparency within the team. Hence, Schaefer is a reference within the in-house community when explaining the advantages that cutting edge technology can provide to multiply the ability of the legal team both collectively and individually.