Team size: Two

What are the most significant cases or transactions you and your team have been involved in?

Accor legal has been involved in the following transactions: (i) drafting franchise and management contracts for our hotels, adapting to the local legislation of the hotel and the language of our partners; (ii) creating legal team HUB southern Europe, sharing know-how and knowledge beyond our borders; (iii) supporting our lifeStyle division, as well as luxury and economy brands, through the operation department; (iv) negotiating all contracts for the provision of services with suppliers that serve our hotels. Overall, we support every single department of the company by providing advice to different issues including compliance and data protection.

Even in the best-case scenario, Covid is likely to have far-reaching ramifications. How are you safeguarding the long-term health of the business?

Covid has had tremendous impacts on the hospitality industry. However, it has helped us to re-think ourselves on many different levels. We took advantage of the situation and improved our services by enhancing our ability to combat against unparalleled crisis.

How do you suggest in-house counsel form relationships with business partners?

Our work as in-house lawyers is extremely delicate; the solutions that we propose on security and risks can directly impact our business partners. The company is aware that we cannot fix every single problem but expect us to reduce them by all means. The best advice I can give as a general counsel is to have legal support from the beginning of projects. It helps the company to move forward with more confidence while avoiding unnecessary risks and problems.