Team size: Two

Key team members: Michael Heiny

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?

Last year, we initiated the introduction of a portal for receiving legal queries and matter management, as we realised that processing queries by email or Microsoft Teams was difficult to organise and structure.

Through this tool, colleagues can submit their requests for our legal support and assessments. This allows us to easily keep track of matters – from opening to completion, workflows, and reports – as well as work allocation and statistical analysis. We are currently finalising this project, and the testing phase has already proven that the tool makes our way of working clearer and therefore, easier.

We can also easily keep track of the review and cycle of documents for review by other functions. A dynamic folder structure allows for easy access and storage of all relevant documents, with a powerful search function.

Apart from legal matters, has the team worked on other company initiatives?

As a legal team, we see our main mission to be enabling our colleagues perform their tasks in the best possible way. This means that we are consulted on all business matters and are therefore an essential part of all projects and business initiatives.

For example, as the legal department, we supported the audit by PwC for the award of the EQUAL-SALARY certificate and contributed to the preparation of the sustainability report. The EQUAL-SALARY certification verifies that organisations have sustainable policies and practices to ensure that their male and female employees are paid equally for equal work.

Can you sum up the team culture/ethos in one sentence? 

We act as a bridge builder – besides legal issues we also focus on understanding the teams’ processes in detail. This enables us to be a partner for success and not only advisors for legal issues.