About

Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to March 2020.

What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years?

The divestment of Shell Canada’s interest in Albian Sands joint venture to Canadian Natural Resources for US$7.25bn.

In terms of a dispute, the Enbridge Mainline tolls open season, where Shell is challenging Enbridge’s proposal to transition the 2.85 million barrel per day Mainline from common carrier to long term contract service.

How do you feel in-house legal leaders can successfully introduce and implement a culture within a legal department?

In-house legal leaders can definitely successfully introduce a culture to their legal department. However, introducing a culture is one thing, but implementing it is an entirely different one. During my career at Shell I have seen a number of different “culture initiatives” that have been introduced. The ones that have taken root and flourished beyond the introduction phase, are the ones that leaders from the top down have been able to consistently and convincingly demonstrate and model for the organisation. When your teams see that you actually mean what you say in – for example – the “care for people” programme, that you really are concerned about them personally, that is when an organisation-wide culture of truly caring for people is embedded. In my view, cultures aren’t implemented, they are developed over time through consistent application of the principles underlaying that culture, and then reinforced with visible action in support.

If you had to give advice to an aspiring in-house lawyer or general counsel what would it be and why?

Embrace change and innovation, and look for the value that it can provide both personally and organisationally. Technology is changing the way in-house legal departments operate, and making them more efficient. Change often results in a feeling that you are outside of your comfort zone, and that can lead to a feeling of needing to resist the change and maintain the comfort of the status quo. My greatest periods of professional growth have come when I have been faced with significant changes to the status quo, and have made the conscious decision to embrace and run with the change.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners within their company?

In my experience at Shell, our business colleagues are eager to take as much time as needed to explain their business to their legal team. They appreciate a lawyer who takes that time to understand how the business operates, and where the drivers and challenges are that either make or break profitability for the business. We also encourage our lawyers to get involved with the business teams they are supporting, attending their regular team meetings so that they are immersed in both the financial and operational issues and challenges that the business faces. In return, the businesses look to their legal team not merely as lawyers, but as members of the team that can provide insights and add value in areas that fall well outside of the role of a traditional legal specialist.

What techniques do you use to provide commercially-focused advice to your company, and how do you communicate these to more junior lawyers in the team?

We encourage our lawyers to really get to know the businesses they support – understand their goals, their optimal outcomes, their risk appetite, and then to tailor the legal support to meet those needs.

FOCUS ON: LOOKING FORWARD

At Shell there is a team of economists and strategists that make up the “Scenarios” team. The Scenarios team has been developing possible visions of the future since the 1970s, thereby helping Shell leaders explore ways forward and make better decisions. They are a team that specialises in looking for the bigger picture.

A couple of years ago, when I was part of Shell’s global litigation leadership team, we had just delivered on a couple of structural change projects that had proven successful in significantly improving the way Shell managed its litigation exposure, both in terms of understanding its global exposure and the cost of managing it. Instead of just patting ourselves on the back for a job well done, our then general counsel, Richard Hill, announced that now that our house was in order it was time to do some “horizon scanning” to identify the legal issues and risks of tomorrow, and to determine if we can take steps today to mitigate them. That was the start of a journey for Shell’s legal team around the world.

Instead of the traditional approach, where a legal team uses the lessons of yesterday to guide the actions of today, we started to ask our lawyers to scan the horizon to identify the potential issues and risks of the future. As we work through the matters that hit our inboxes and desks on a day to day basis, it is easy to forget or simply not have or make the time to stop and think about the bigger picture context of the kinds of questions we are getting from the businesses we support. This is as well as the types of issues that are being raised by regulators, and the nature of the disputes we are engaging in with competitors and others. Considering what the legal landscape will look like in the future is an important focus, and it merits time and attention. This means understanding trends that will impact the business, as well as more general legal risks. For lawyers at Shell, this means taking a step back from the questions, challenges and issues of the moment, and applying their considerable experience and expertise to what they see as potentially arising in the future. This has meant encouraging our teams, from the leadership level to the junior lawyer, to take the time and to take a step back from the day to day work, and ask the “what if?” questions, to look for patterns and trends and stretch our thinking.

When thinking about future legal risks, some of the issues we look at include cyber security, rule of law issues and the rise in parent company claims. Understanding these future risks is critical if we are to support the business in navigating new opportunities successfully.