Team size: Four

Key team members: Nihal Caglar and Alexander Stolze Herzog

Can you give an idea of the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Generally speaking, we contribute to achieving the company’s strategic goals in our daily operations. This includes supporting our sales team in selling our products to important customers such as UNICEF and other charitable organisations and providing advice to the company’s business leads for product development. Besides the support to our sales team and product development, the most significant cases and transactions we have been involved in include The implementation of a contract management system in the entire business, the negotiation of an agreement regarding the outsourcing of AJ Vaccines’ IT infrastructure with significant cost cuttings; the negotiation of agreement regarding implementation of a laboratory information management system; and the liquidation of AJ Vaccines’ subsidiaries in Malaysia and Singapore and its branch offices in the UAE and Poland.

Furthermore, we support the business in HR legal matters and ensure that the company at any time follows the rules and the collective agreements in the area. Most recently, we have assisted with HR legal advice in the following significant cases: The implementation of collective agreement changes in the company; handling of the salary adjustment process for employees (collective agreement and non-collective agreement employed); the supporting of organisational changes in the company; and the management and negotiations in employee cases (terminations with and without notice).

Do you have an example of a time when you have come up with an innovation that improved how your legal team functions, while avoiding any large expense?

We have improved how the team, and the entire business, function by implementing a new contract management system.

Previously, the business used six different systems to store contracts and legal documents, none designed for contract management. During the performance of our tasks, we saw that this was an obstacle not just for us in the daily operation but for many other business units; unnecessary resources were used to locate and gain access to contracts and documents, and contracts and documents were not properly maintained. Going forward, the business will use only one system to manage contracts and legal documents.

This was also a good starting point in implementing a business partner-set up, as we had the opportunity to meet and create a relationship with all the business units that handle contracts and legal documents.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most?

We believe that AI (of course!) will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future — and we are already looking into how AI solutions can support us in performing our daily tasks, such as drafting and reviewing contracts and legal documents.

However, data security is a significant concern as part of a business that mainly builds on know-how. Therefore, we are only using such solutions with due cautiousness and are still trying to figure out to what extent such solutions may be used without damaging the business.

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

The most important thing you can do as an in-house legal advisor is evolve from being a case manager to a strategic sparring partner for the business. To do so, you must identify the company’s strategic goals and determine how to achieve them.

Moreover, in the process of going from case manager to strategic sparring partner to the business, it is important to show that you, as an in-house legal advisor, also understand the commercial matters of the company.

Finally, occasionally you should be willing to ‘put your hand on the stove’ and take responsibility for calculated risks for the business to move forward. This is contrary to always saying no or leaving the decision to the acceptance of risks to the business. This may be done, for example, by allowing or recommending a certain solution aware of the risk associated; in addition, make sure to mention the risk and that you take responsibility.