About

A multinational company headquartered in the United States, Itron came to prominence through the manufacture and selling of meters for water, electricity and gas. However, it has broadened its portfolio over recent years to be a services company dedicated to the resourceful use of energy and water through gathering information on water, electricity and other energy consumption data via technologically advanced means, including through smart grid and meter services and “internet of things” (IOT) interconnectivity between devices. As such, Itron is required to maintain a dynamic and forward-thinking workforce, with the legal team being no exception to this. As associate general counsel EMEA, and the most senior lawyer based in Europe, Johan Huizing explains: ‘The commitment of the company and of our team is to hire a portion of individuals early into their legal careers, in order to stay young as a company and stay close to the latest developments’. The team does, however, retain experienced senior lawyers alongside this new talent. In particular, Huizing points out ‘Jean-Christophe Bernard, Frédéric Blas and Melinda Cser who are all senior attorneys and have a broad regional responsibility in EMEA’. Huizing also emphasises that the international variety of the team, with members having qualified across Europe and further afield, has been a huge benefit given the cross-border nature of much of their work. Huizing describes how the legal function at Itron has a crucial role to play in shaping the company’s guidelines: ‘The legal department is very much involved in structuring business processes, and contributes to create a seamless compliance model worldwide, which prevents legal risk before it comes into play. We have a sophisticated way to flag risk in contracts that are proposed by our customers, linked to a system for delegation of authority, whereby we describe very clearly where the risk is and then identify who in the organisation is the best person to deal with whatever arises’. The team’s innovative solutions to minimising legal risk place them at the cutting edge of in-house legal teams within France.