Team size: Six and hiring number seven

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

As an organisation, we experienced successful growth in the last three years autonomously and through acquisitions. In this period, we have announced 23 acquisitions. As a global distributor in the chemical market for specialties and food ingredients, we work with suppliers to serve the market with the best solutions. For these purposes, we are constantly striving to expand our network and create availability when required.

By way of example in 2021, we announced three acquisitions in China, despite the complexity and specific challenge of working remotely during a pandemic. Sometimes, an acquisition occurs due to a regulatory reformation, as it happened with an acquisition this year in Indonesia when the pharmaceutical wholesale market opened for foreign distributors. By following recent developments there, the legal team collaborated with the commercial team to translate this into an opportunity.

Lastly, starting up our operations in the Middle East, a process we began in 2017, is an example of complex situations that require patience and good understanding from legal counsel.

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

Projects were performed at a faster pace, which resulted in a higher workload for the team. It was a matter of good organisation and managing expectations to get the work done on time, particularly when the M&A market picked up again. As general counsel, you are influential in the decision-making process to decide the best workable options and time frames.

We also experienced fast progress with digitalisation. The processing of information is key to understanding business opportunities. As counsel, you must understand this as well as identify and solve any legal challenges on the road to success.

Communication tools also became increasingly relevant to our team. My focus has always been on the harmonisation of our legal processes across the organisation, communication was extremely important at the start of the pandemic due to remote working and the associated challenges of working separately.

What do you feel are the pros and cons of an in-house legal role compared to a private practice one?

The in-house legal role can be likened to a spider spinning a web, i.e., the binding factor for every detail of an organisation’s existence. Alternatively, in private practice you are more likely to act on command when fed with information.

In an in-house role, you act as part of a wider team whether it be a legal or cross functional team.