Team size: Six

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

The team I oversee, the global commercial team, is responsible for contracts worth GBP £2.5bn per year.

I have personally recently negotiated several agreements, which resulted in successful outcomes. Worth mentioning is the framework agreement covering the entire business relationship with a major German Tech OEM and the new long-term supply contract with a major German Automotive OEM for a value over lifetime of GBP £1.2bn.

Furthermore, I have been successfully leading the negotiations of new long-term supply contracts with a major Swedish Automotive OEM (GBP £63m over lifetime) and three major German Automotive OEMs (GBP £70m, GBP £30m and GBP £44m over lifetime). I have also been driving the conclusion of a new framework supply agreement for JM’s battery systems business with a major DACH-region OEM for USD$ 60m.

Additionally, I have developed and implemented a major de-risking project which provides JM with an accurate assessment of the risk profile of all customers and contract risk mitigation strategies for each account.

How do you feel the pandemic has changed the world of work for in-house counsel and the function of the general counsel?

The pandemic has changed things a lot – mostly for the better. I am not going to repeat all the things that have been said about home office, remote working, collaboration via Teams and so on. My impression is that due to the change in our ways of working, collaboration on an international level has improved massively. Before Covid, there was always a bit of a rift between the members of the local teams and team members elsewhere. That has disappeared – we can now operate as one fully integrated global team. It has created an ‘us’ feeling on a global scale – something often overlooked.

How much influence do you, as a general counsel, have on the diversity and inclusion policies of your organisation?

As general counsel, I am contributing but have no direct control over making these policies. Most modern organisations now have dedicated specialist functions supporting us with the drafting and implementing of such policies. This underlines the importance of diversity and inclusion. That said, as general counsel, I lead by example when it comes to implementing and living the diversity and inclusion policies. Legal has an essential role to play, and general counsel set the tone from the top.