Team size: 54

Key team members: Peter Ring (senior vice president and general counsel), the legal leadership team: Louise Unmack, Jeppe Jensen, Daniel Røjtburg and Matthew Scott·

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

Pandora Legal has played a key role in the following significant matters and large business initiatives:

Provided legal support to Pandora’s forward integration journey from being primarily a wholesaler into retail, through multiple acquisitions of exclusive distributors and franchisees, negotiations of a large portfolio of new lease agreements and adjustments to the retail network.

Public corporate offering of senior unsecured notes and bonds. The program is tied to Pandora’s sustainability and climate performance, and it allows Pandora to further diversify its funding structure.

Expansion of our production footprint in relation to the setup of Pandora’s new manufacturing facilities in Vietnam and the collaborations with OEM and ODM suppliers in various countries.

Major ERP Transformation Project – Compas Program – where Pandora contracted with SAP, a market-leading ERP software provider, and Accenture as the partner to drive the implementation.

Running a highly effective brand protection end-to-end enforcement program, online and offline, including protection of Pandora’s trademarks for virtual goods and services – which has already been successfully enforced in the Metaverse.

Three regional license and partnership agreements to make Disney and Marvel inspired jewellery lines available in all Pandora markets.

Global partnership agreement with UNICEF to support the world’s most vulnerable children and lead them healthier and safer lives and fulfil their potential.

Litigation docket that includes defending a biometric privacy suit in the US, breach of contract cases with distributors and franchisees in several jurisdictions, and IP infringement cases.

Continued optimisation to review all new designs and innovations to ensure freedom to operate and protect our intellectual property rights.

Implementation of a new loyalty program (My Pandora).

How has your legal team progressed on issues of diversity and inclusion (D&I), and what are the main benefits or challenges of working in a diverse environment?

D&I is at the top of the agenda in legal, risk and compliance. Our team comprises 54 employees worldwide, including 35 employees in the global legal and IP team. Our gender difference is 20 Males and 34 Females. Pandora has also been one of the only C25 companies who had a woman chair for our annual general meetings last year, and we will do so this year.

We are 16 different nationalities, spread across the world; from Denmark to the UK, Italy, France, Spain, The US, Panama, Brazil, Australia, China, and Thailand. We are also diverse regarding age and functions. Apart from lawyers, our team also consists of engineers, communicators, auditor, and project managers.

The main benefit of working in a diverse environment is the access to truly international perspectives.

How do you suggest in-house departments build strong relationships with business partners?

In-house departments should be credible, reliable, and trusted partners who proactively drive results across the organisation to achieve strategic objectives, by providing timely, straightforward, and actionable insights to stakeholders. In-house legal employees should see themselves as part of the business by acting as a key voice in the decision-making process.

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

Be prepared for the next “crisis” and unforeseen event. We have over the last 3-4 years seen more extraordinary events created by the pandemic, Ukraine crisis, inflation, and recession. It is only a question of time before the next unforeseen event will take place.

The unusual business environment created by the pandemic has been swiftly followed by the Ukraine crisis, and attendant supply chain costs rising and rising inflation. Are you now putting more emphasis on preparing for the unforeseen and, if so, what does this entail?

Pandora’s legal, risk and compliance team has employees dedicated to risks and business continuity, and future crises, issues and unforeseen challenges are focus areas of the team. We systematically revisit and review all our contract templates to ensure that we are contractually prepared for the next crisis or unforeseen event.