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The 28-strong legal team at Egypt’s major mobile phone operator Orange Egypt (formerly known as Mobinil) has produced legal opinions and vital advice that have shaped the strategic direction of the company in the region. In particular, a legal dashboard concept that was introduced by the team and includes all major legal issues of the previous month has reshaped the level of appreciation of legal risk at each executive level in the company. ‘The legal dashboard is a monthly report that is sent to the CEO and the three key executives, and is done in graphics to show that impact of such new legal issues on the company for each department’, Ayman Essam says. ‘This dashboard aims to increase the legal awareness at the executive level and show the areas of high risk in addition to increasing the appreciation of the legal team in the organisation’.

Led by legal director Ayman Essam, the team has introduced several innovative legal products over the last two years designed to empower their business peers and to allow them to further understand the needs of the legal department’s involvement. “Legal Hints and Tips” is an animated newsflash sent to all employees of the company four times a year focusing on different legal topics that employees can face in their daily work/personal life. The team has also set up a “legal hotline”, which is a 24/7 service that offers legal ‘life saving’ advice to non-legal personnel and serves as a referral service to law firms based on nature of issue for emergency situations. As industry experts, the legal team has rolled out several products that are specific to the telecom industry, including a district attorney follow up short code number, which enables calls to check on the status of their requests for lawful interception and call details release requests. Apart from these key innovations, the team has also made its mark with its involvement in important case for Orange, including a significant arbitration, valued at $1.5bn, and another smaller but strategically important arbitration involving contract enforcement of damages of $55m.