First, can you please give us an idea of the sort of work your team has done recently?  

We recently won a very complex and time-consuming court case. It required a lot of legal input and internal coordination with other departments. I supported my colleagues in the legal argumentation, pointed out some unfavourable facts and provided arguments to mitigate the unfavourable facts. We have spent many hours analysing and strategising and are proud of the result. We are also involved in a local merger process. This process requires legal advice for many different departments (purchasing, commercial) as well as corporate law issues in order to optimise the process as much as possible. I am responsible for the project on the buyer’s side. In particular, the process involves close coordination with other departments to ensure a simple and cost-effective merger process. In the age of digitalisation, we also implemented an ‘online process’. This required intensive legal advice, which was also very time-consuming, including defining the legal framework for the relevant departments. 

How does your legal strategy change during periods of instability or uncertainty?  

At the beginning of this period, the legal department scrutinised all draft contracts, introduced value protection clauses and stopped accepting ‘flexible payment terms’. We also had to coordinate the new legal strategy with internal departments. Our role was to explain the legal risks in an understandable way and to show what the negative consequences would be if the legal strategy was not changed in the future. The current legal strategy has evolved from flexibility to security. In these times, it is very important to have clarity and security (keyword: payment terms, supply chains). As already mentioned, this is reflected in the contracts we sign with our suppliers. These suppliers must have a certain robustness against external factors. 

Do you make use of any ‘legal tech’ products, and if so, for which areas of your job do you find it most useful?  

In my opinion, legal tech tools for creating and storing contracts make sense in every company. In the future, these tools will be more important than ever for the legal department to work efficiently and deliver on time. We use an internal group tool for customer and supplier management. We have recently implemented a complete ‘online journey’ for the customer, from selection to delivery. This tool helps us to complete standard processes very quickly and minimise the effort involved.