Team size: >10  

What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?  

The Covid-19 period was our most significant challenge, because we all had to work from home which, makes it more difficult to manage a team of lawyers. We established a Covid-19 Task Force, which I was part of, and we were offering information and support on many different levels: we shared specific legal information (e.g. related to force majeure or price revisions), we provided HR-related information, we developed tips and tricks to support people from a psychological point of view, and each week we had one person sharing how he/she was living the situation. Furthermore, within my team, I had regular, one-to-one conversations with each individual team member to listen and to support. We also added informal gatherings on a Friday afternoon, not to discuss work, but to check in how people are feeling.   

In the beginning of last year, I have taken over a new team. Before, I was the head of Europe for legal, and then I was asked if I wanted to take on more responsibilities. And so last year, on the first of January, I started with that. It was a bittersweet moment because I really loved working with the European team. But on the other hand, it was of course, also a nice opportunity to take on new responsibilities. And so, the big challenge was there really to connect with a new team and get to know the people in the first instance. And since the beginning of this year, my team has even further expanded. So that is again, a new challenge, bringing new and additional people on board and making sure that they are fully integrated in the team and that they are feeding good within the team. My mantra being “having a happy and high-performing team” (in that order) with a specific focus on development, health and well-being. 

Do you have an example of a time when you have come up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works that did not result in a large expense?  

With my team, we have been working on improvement initiatives, which is about finding solutions to even better collaborate with our business stakeholders. And further to that we have defined an action plan, with different things that we would be doing, and with specific timelines. 

In particular we have been putting together several contract templates. But we are also going further in the sense that it is not just a contract template, but we also issued guidance notes that we give to our business stakeholders so that they know how they can work with the templates and what they need to focus on. And now we are going into a third phase where we are also producing fallback positions. So, if they get pushback in the negotiations from the other party, they immediately have fallback options. This resulted in a win-win situation: our business colleagues are happy to be more autonomous and we can focus on matters where we create high value. 

This whole exercise was done completely internally as a result of which there were no external expenses. But of course, it took time for people to work on those things. So, it also comes at an internal cost.   

What would you say are the unique qualities required to be successful as an in-house lawyer in your industry?       

Obviously technical expertise is required but it goes far beyond that. For me, it really starts with having a holistic view. It is important that you know your organisation, its strategy and the people very well, and that you know the different pockets of the organisation so that you can connect the dots and bring additional value. I’d like to emphasize that connecting with people and really getting to know them, also on a personal level, is an absolute advantage and a pleasure (it’s all about the people).  

Furthermore, it also very important to know your industry, in my case the pharmaceutical industry sector, and its challenges and how it evolves. You really need to be forward-looking if you want to counsel in a good way. 

Another thing that I think is important is that you can make decisions without having all the elements, which is sometimes a bit scary but needed. In such cases you need to make a risk assessment. And that is clearly one of the major qualities that in-house counsel should have. I would even add that an in-house should in my view go beyond the purely legal questions and also contribute to the overall project and decision-making.